The legacy of 1989 is a blank slate of sorts, but rather than engage in hagiography of the past I am more interested in applying the lessons of 1989 to the future – specifically, the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Defending the liberal tradition in history, science, and philosophy.
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To draw a line connecting the Berlin Wall and the wall in Israel means you must engage in revisionist history. Something you seem to want to avoid.
The Berlin Wall was constructed to keep East Germans from escaping the prison of East Germany. The Gaza Strip barrier was built to keep Palestinians from firing rockets and sending suicide bombers into Israel.
There is absolutely no comparison between the two!
The only way your analogy works is if Israel is the USSR. If this is so then the question needs to be asked: Why are Palestinians trying to get into Israel? Correct me if I’m wrong but people sneaking into East Germany wasn’t really happening.
The wall is for protection and protection alone. You paint it as something else at the expense of fact and history.
Aziz, really. Come on, man.
My question is: when are the Chinese going to “tear down” the Great Wall and learn to live in peace with the Xiongnu?
Mike,
You saw that South Park episode, right? With the Great Wall? The Mongolian hordes are still a threat. Even in Colorado.
Kevin,
No. I rarely catch South Park anymore. Good show but I have little time.
And here I though I was being original…
Ah, I see.
The wall that the East Germans built to keep people from leaving is kinda like the wall the Israelis built to stop Palestinians from detonating themselves at Israeli social events.
Ron/Mike/Snippet: For some reason you are all asumig I am referring to the separation fence between the west bank and israel proper. Not so, the walls I am referring to are teh ones that wall off Gaza, and which enervate the West Bank. The purpose of these walls are indeed to keep Palestinians from leaving, traveling freely, and building economies and pursuing livelihoods and trade.
You seem to think I am a critic of teh Green Line wall, but actually,
http://cityofbrass.blogspot.com/2005/02/krauthammer-fence-to-enforce-peace.html
Aziz,
It looks like you didn’t read my comment because I specifically mentioned the Gaza Strip barrier. The argument is still the same. It was built to save Israeli lives.
It’s all pretty elliptical around here.
It always surprises me that Palestinian apologists always go after the walls Israel built to protect their civilians from terror, murder and Mayhem and completely forget about the walls others have built, for example Egypt, to keep the Palestinians holed up, impoverished, and angry next to the Israelis. Used as pawns in a racist war.
Why aren’t you calling on Egypt to “Tear down its wall”? Or calling on Egypt and Jordan to accept their Muslim Brothers?
The purpose of these walls are indeed to keep Palestinians from leaving, traveling freely, and building economies and pursuing livelihoods and trade.
No, their purpose is to keep Palestinians from killing Israelis, which they seem to regard as a sort of ethnic sport. If Palestinians want to move out of the Stone Age, they need to stop indoctrinating their population in hatred.
I think Israel and the Arabs will be the main topic of one of my upcoming posts on DW. Aziz: Note that I did not say “Israel and Islam”. The religion as a whole ought not always to take heat because of the culture of the idiotic modern descendants of the men who brought it to the world.
Stay tuned.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
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