Arun Gandhi - Asshole Anti-Semite
The Jewish identity in the future appears bleak. Any nation that remains anchored to the past is unable to move ahead and, especially a nation that believes its survival can only be ensured by weapons and bombs. In Tel Aviv in 2004 I had the opportunity to speak to some Members of Parliament and Peace activists all of whom argued that the wall and the military build-up was necessary to protect the nation and the people. In other words, I asked, you believe that you can create a snake pit -- with many deadly snakes in it -- and expect to live in the pit secure and alive? What do you mean? they countered. Well, with your superior weapons and armaments and your attitude towards your neighbors would it not be right to say that you are creating a snake pit? How can anyone live peacefully in such an atmosphere? Would it not be better to befriend those who hate you? Can you not reach out and share your technological advancement with your neighbors and build a relationship?
Apparently, in the modern world, so determined to live by the bomb, this is an alien concept. You don't befriend anyone, you dominate them. We have created a culture of violence (Israel and the Jews are the biggest players) and that Culture of Violence is eventually going to destroy humanity.
Arun Gandhi, "On Faith" blog
Actually, having read some of his other posts, I think this guy is just a pompous, moralizing idiot!
posted by e-kvetcher at 9:59 AM
8 Comments:
it amazes me how many people commentate with such authority on a situation without having done any research at all. people make such a big deal about hearing "both sides of the story," when what they really mean is "the side of the story which they happen to sympathize with."
Befriending someone who hates you?
I have several enemies whom I would liefer whack with a two-by-four than trust with my any part of my friendship. Repeatedly whack.
Arun Gandhi is a putz. And obviously an un-astute student of history. Even his own. The independence struggle of India was lead by his grandfather, non-violently and with love towards all - excepting, of course, the Muslim separatists, who correctly saw that the non-violent Hindus were not prepared to leave a place in the bright new world for them.
Indian independence was marked by mass slaughter on a scale dwarfed only by the recent World War. Arun Gandhi would do well, very well indeed, to preach his message of love, huggies, and fluffy butterflies to his own people - the Pakistanis and Indians who still hate each other passionately, remembering family members slaughtered on refugee trains and hacked down on the road during Partition. They speak the same language(s), they eat the same food - if anybody can "befriend those who hate" them, surely the Indians and Pakistanis (both nations being the heirs to Mahatma Gandhi!), above all people, should be able to demonstrate how it is done.
tboth is exactly right, but there's more to it. It's not just ignorance, but willful ignorance in pursuit of a false set of ideals.
If there's anyone who's been peaceful it's the Jews who of the three major religions to spring from the middle east alone have not gone conquering and empire building unlike the Christians and Muslims despite having had insane provocations over and over again.
Actually, the Jews were pretty into the whole empire-building thing in the times of the Navi; particularly Dovid and Shaul.
Not to mention the whole conquering of the Holy Land under Yehoshua thing....
well then, miri, I accept that the amorites, moabites, cenobites, et al, have a valid reason to hate us :) The arabs don't have a leg to stand on though!
Though if you're willing to entertain heretical thoughts, there's a huge amount of archaeological evidence missing for said ancient conquests and more that it was a cultural conquest and expansion more than anything else.
Say rather "we defeated them utterly", instead of "man those shiksas our granddaddies married were hot!".
I'm assuming that the frequent over-the-top screaming about avodah zara in Nach has more to do with the absorption of the others than their eradication.
Same way that all Arabs, no matter how Turkish, Kurdish, Berber, or whatever they actually are, proudly tell of an ancestor who fought with the prophet.
In every Dutchman, besides Frank and Frisian, there's a Kanienefaat and a Roman. But we shall not speak of them.
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