D7_bohs said:There's so much wrong with that, from the grammar upwards
On the substantive issue; i spent the weekend reading Daniel Deronda, George Eliot's weird book about the position of Jews in 19th c. England; as I heard about the bombing of Lebanon, I was reading the section where Mordecai, a visionary proto- Zionist talks about how a jewish state in Palastine will be a beacon in the region, how the jews will bring the values of the enlightenment, absorbed through their long exile, to flower in the desert. It brings home with a shock - because it is expressed in a language jarring to a modern ear - the colonialism at the heart of the Zionist project, the noble undertaking of a civilising mission, echoes of which can still be heard when Israel is held up as being worthy of support as the only democracy in the area. The arrogant assumption that such an influence would improve the area, and the even bigger assumption at the heart of western liberalism, the believe that it alone can explain and assimilate other discourses - such as Islam - once exposed to the clear light of reason
...And another, maybe U2 should head east, at least the hot weather there stops you reading books all day. Lets not forget the Ottoman Empire if we wanna get all colonialistic on our asses,, it's not my fault, nor the Israelis it fell apart. Ho hum, I didn't realise you could could 'hear' books either, though I don't mind the odd Chomsky podcast maesel'.
You know I really enjoy reading all these 'facts' you guys dredge up off the Internet, some have been quite enlightening, and others hideoulsy biased. I reckon it's terrible what Israel is doing to those poor innocent Lebanese and Palestinians, but if they all spent as much time improving their own lot than blaming and harassing the Jews for all their fucking woes, well, they might just just be as well off as the Jews, wouldn't they? I rest my case.