The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an issue that seems to generate an unusually high level of controversy compared to many others. I’m not particularly interested in why this is, but I thought a look at the various stances would be interesting. This comes in part from the observation that so many of my friends and family have passionate and vastly differing views about it. For the sake of this article I’m going to make distinction between stances and views. Stances I will take to mean that extent of support that an individual gives towards one side or the other, whilst the view is the side that they support. So for example the first stance that one side is always right and the other always wrong. So this stance can have either a pro Israel view or a pro Palestinian view. For the sake of convenience I will use (I) for Israeli and (P) for Palestinian to refer to these respective views.
I suspect and hope that few people actually hold the first stance. At least in principle it should be obviously wrong to anyone who is capable of rational thought; why? Because both sides are human and will therefore make mistakes, act out of spite rather than a sense of justice and so on. For those who do hold such a stance it seems that a debate is unlikely to be productive because they have already decided the answer. There is a slightly more rational way that this stance may be articulated, which is to say that the respective cause is such that any action is justified in furthering the cause.
The second and more interesting stance would be that one side’s cause is right and the other side’s is wrong. Those who hold this stance acknowledge the possibility that their side might perform actions that are wrong, even if they deny the actuality of it. So for example (I) might think that the Israeli cause is correct but that the Blockade of Gaza is wrong. This stance could be held in a variety of different strengths so for example (P) at its strongest in this stance would say that every action taken so far to advance the Palestinian cause is justified but would accept that there would be some possible actions that shouldn’t be taken. In contrast (P) at its weakest would hold that whilst the cause is justified nearly all the actions so far undertaken have been wrong.
The third stance is the ‘plague on both your houses’ stance it quite simply states that both sides are as bad as each other. I have a strong suspicion that many who adopt this stance do so to avoid actually having to argue about the issue; an understandable motivation given the passion with which it is usually debated. At this point I would need to point out that an error I have deliberately been making. I have talked about the Israeli and Palestinian cause as if each one was a single unified thing. This simply isn’t true. There are a variety of Israeli and Palestinian causes with different objectives and motivations. The reason I have allowed this to slip by is because its a blog post not an academic essay!
But I need to remind you of this for the final stance I shall outline. This stance is that neither side is simply right or wrong but rather that there are several causes and some causes are justified and some aren’t. So for example someone with this stance might hold that Israel is right in aiming to provide a homeland for the Jewish people whilst at the same time Palestinians are right in feeling that their land has been stolen. Now I feel that this is probably the write stance to adopt for a couple of reasons. First I suspect it is the closest to reflecting the actual situation. To dismiss Palestinian grievances or Israeli worries about security would be foolish and fail to appreciate both current issues and historical grievances. The second reason is that it seems like those who hold this stance will have the best chance of reaching agreement and proposing a compromise. So this is rather long but here is a simplified version of my thoughts on a situation that I’m totally unqualified to talk about. Lets see how many people I’ve offended ;-).
Thursday, 22 July 2010
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
Up again
I know no one is reading this yet, but I thought I'd restart this blog as a current affairs-philosophy style thing. So hopefully I'll get some readers at some point.
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
Going Home.
Hi all
Well its our last day in the US. We are packed and waiting to go, and can't wait to land in London. The trip has been great fun and well worth it.
And we will see you all tommorow.
Dan.
Well its our last day in the US. We are packed and waiting to go, and can't wait to land in London. The trip has been great fun and well worth it.
And we will see you all tommorow.
Dan.
Thursday, 30 August 2007
New York, New York
Hi All.
We have now arrived in New York. The last week in Boston was fun, as we got to see the Aquarium, The Boston Science Museum and Harvard (or Hahvad) as the locals spell it. We also got to go shopping in an "outlet village". Heaven for wannabe Paris Hiltons, depressing for me. Freya loved it however and Chris shrugged his shoulders and got on with it.
Although the Aquarium was smaller than the one in Atlanta, it was far better designed and included a massive tank holding a miniature coral reef. The original intention as far as the Aquarium went was to go whale watching, however we arrived to late to catch the boat, so we went to the Aquarium instead.
The Boston Science Museum however was massive, think INTECH and then quadruple it, and then make it grow up, and you have the science museum. I could happily have spent a couple of days exploring it and going to the various lectures they held. Unfortunately we only had a few hours and only saw a fraction of the exhibits.
Harvard was interesting. The campus was beautiful, and there where some very nice museums, however due to poor planning we failed to find the constiution and Bunker Hill, which we where told where in the area.
Our journey to New York was uneventful, despite the promises of some Bostonians that the Fung Wah bus would either crash, or be attacked by gangsters, and now hear we are in the Big Apple deciding what to do for the next few days before we get home.
See you all soon. Dan
We have now arrived in New York. The last week in Boston was fun, as we got to see the Aquarium, The Boston Science Museum and Harvard (or Hahvad) as the locals spell it. We also got to go shopping in an "outlet village". Heaven for wannabe Paris Hiltons, depressing for me. Freya loved it however and Chris shrugged his shoulders and got on with it.
Although the Aquarium was smaller than the one in Atlanta, it was far better designed and included a massive tank holding a miniature coral reef. The original intention as far as the Aquarium went was to go whale watching, however we arrived to late to catch the boat, so we went to the Aquarium instead.
The Boston Science Museum however was massive, think INTECH and then quadruple it, and then make it grow up, and you have the science museum. I could happily have spent a couple of days exploring it and going to the various lectures they held. Unfortunately we only had a few hours and only saw a fraction of the exhibits.
Harvard was interesting. The campus was beautiful, and there where some very nice museums, however due to poor planning we failed to find the constiution and Bunker Hill, which we where told where in the area.
Our journey to New York was uneventful, despite the promises of some Bostonians that the Fung Wah bus would either crash, or be attacked by gangsters, and now hear we are in the Big Apple deciding what to do for the next few days before we get home.
See you all soon. Dan
Thursday, 23 August 2007
sorry in Boston now
Sorry everyone who has been following us for the lack of posting it's been completely my fault, either been to tired or forgetful to do it.
Well Boston, its a beautiful city that is for sure wv're been wondering aimlessly round it for the past few days just getting a feel for the city but I feel its been worth it. we did a walking tour of the city today, was about two and a half hours but the tour guide was really good and we got to know loads about the history of the city.
We have been staying with the Waldinger's for the past six days but we are being forced to move on, but we shall not go far, we are going to stay with James and Frayer until the 30th, at least
dan thiniks that is when he booked the hostel in NY but he keeps forgeting to check so I may have to beat him until he does it tonight, but dont worry, I wont do it hard.
You will all be pleased to know, well we are anyway, tat we are done with Greyhound buses. We are going to take a bus called the Fung Wah buss to NY. Its the longest running bus in the USA started by a Korean family to transport the oriental families to NY so they could work. They just take anybody now but it only cost $10 so we dont care and its only a four hour trip. Greyhound however gave us a good send off, a perfect 12 hour trip from Niagara. They got us there dead on time and we were never waiting arround, just getting off one bus and on to the next on the 2 transfers we had to make. unfortionatly that gave us no time to eat for that time and as we hadnt had breakfast either...well you can imagine.
Well must go my stomach is telling my food is ready and Jenifer's cooking is not to be missed.
See you all soon, 13 days beth tells me, and just over 1million seconds, well it was about 10 hours ago, i'll let you wrk out how many left now.
Chris and Dan
Well Boston, its a beautiful city that is for sure wv're been wondering aimlessly round it for the past few days just getting a feel for the city but I feel its been worth it. we did a walking tour of the city today, was about two and a half hours but the tour guide was really good and we got to know loads about the history of the city.
We have been staying with the Waldinger's for the past six days but we are being forced to move on, but we shall not go far, we are going to stay with James and Frayer until the 30th, at least
dan thiniks that is when he booked the hostel in NY but he keeps forgeting to check so I may have to beat him until he does it tonight, but dont worry, I wont do it hard.
You will all be pleased to know, well we are anyway, tat we are done with Greyhound buses. We are going to take a bus called the Fung Wah buss to NY. Its the longest running bus in the USA started by a Korean family to transport the oriental families to NY so they could work. They just take anybody now but it only cost $10 so we dont care and its only a four hour trip. Greyhound however gave us a good send off, a perfect 12 hour trip from Niagara. They got us there dead on time and we were never waiting arround, just getting off one bus and on to the next on the 2 transfers we had to make. unfortionatly that gave us no time to eat for that time and as we hadnt had breakfast either...well you can imagine.
Well must go my stomach is telling my food is ready and Jenifer's cooking is not to be missed.
See you all soon, 13 days beth tells me, and just over 1million seconds, well it was about 10 hours ago, i'll let you wrk out how many left now.
Chris and Dan
Monday, 13 August 2007
Leaving Springreen.
Hi All.
Well we're leaving Springreen today, and are heading out to the Canadian Niagara Falls.
The stay in Springreen has proved to be a much needed rest, as well as chance to catch up on family and watch four very different, but very high quality plays. I believe Chris has already covered Much Ado, and The Merchant of Venice. However we have also been to see Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams and a much cut version of Timon of Athens. Both of these where incredibly powerful productions, and very well performed.
We also played with some of the local football, sorry soccer, players. Chris and I found ourselves playing comfortably within our ability range, but we certainly didn't outclass the others. Aside from this the last couple of weeks has been largely uneventful, but that is pretty much what we needed at this point. Niagara, Boston and New York should prove to be far more eventful.
Dan.
Well we're leaving Springreen today, and are heading out to the Canadian Niagara Falls.
The stay in Springreen has proved to be a much needed rest, as well as chance to catch up on family and watch four very different, but very high quality plays. I believe Chris has already covered Much Ado, and The Merchant of Venice. However we have also been to see Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams and a much cut version of Timon of Athens. Both of these where incredibly powerful productions, and very well performed.
We also played with some of the local football, sorry soccer, players. Chris and I found ourselves playing comfortably within our ability range, but we certainly didn't outclass the others. Aside from this the last couple of weeks has been largely uneventful, but that is pretty much what we needed at this point. Niagara, Boston and New York should prove to be far more eventful.
Dan.
Monday, 6 August 2007
Hello all, still typing from here in Spring Green, we're here 'till Monday as they say. Spring Green is great, if a little small and quiet. We cant say that there hast been lots to do though, lots of walking around exploring the shops and the town. David (who we're staying with) is the Producing Artistic Director of the American Players Theater. This means that we have been given free tickets to as many shows as we want to see. So far we've seen Much Ado About Nothing and Merchant of Venice, its a Shakespearian theater by the way. Much Ado was amazing , very funny and generally great, we both loved it. Merchant was still just as good, cant be the easyest of plays to act in but they seemed to to a generally good job. First have was good but a bit lackluster but the second half was great. May still go see Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams apparently he is the American answer to Shakespeare.
going to show the Americans some real sport tomorrow, theres two English guys who come over here once a year to teach football to the kids, or something similar so we shall go watch the game and possibly play. other than that its just lots more walking around planned I believe.
Weather here has turned humid again but its bearable so far I here the weather has quietened down back home, but only to be replaced with the new foot and mouth problem hope that it doesn't spread.
Hope all is well with everyone, we're both good here.
Chris and Dan
going to show the Americans some real sport tomorrow, theres two English guys who come over here once a year to teach football to the kids, or something similar so we shall go watch the game and possibly play. other than that its just lots more walking around planned I believe.
Weather here has turned humid again but its bearable so far I here the weather has quietened down back home, but only to be replaced with the new foot and mouth problem hope that it doesn't spread.
Hope all is well with everyone, we're both good here.
Chris and Dan
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