Sandman's Journal

I've been in a debate with one of my readers who feels that I unfairly blame white, gentile (i.e., non-Jewish) people in regards to the Middle East conflicts. He himself is not white. Here's a slightly edited version of how I responded:

Dear, E------,

I hold my ground that the USA is the biggest imperialist force in the world and we fight dirty to keep it that way. England also has this attitude (and in fact they may have taught it to us). America a vested interest in gaining control of the Middle East, like everywhere else that has something to offer us. Without U.S. money I think Israel would not play the role it has in Palestine. It seems naive to think that we keep Israel in power as a purely good-will gesture to Jews. I think having Israel where it's at acts as a lightening rod for Arabic anger and, until Bin Laden, has kept that particular war off our North American doorsteps. I also think that Americans and Brits have a lot of guilt about our imperialism and thus the press downplays it. One way I've noticed how the newspapers do this is by often showing pictures of young Palestinian boys throwing rocks at big Israeli tanks and such. This helps us temporarily alleviate our guilty-feelings. We transfer our self-loathing onto Israel, (i.e. "they're inhuman", "look at the poor, helpless child-- David vs. Goliath" etc.). But I rarely, if ever, see pictures of young Iraqi boys throwing rocks at big U.S. tanks. Instead the newspapers show pictures of U.S. soldiers carrying babies to safety, and whatnot.

It seems to me that the last fifty years are the first time where Jews have had to act as the oppressor. They've been so freaked out by centuries of pogroms (mostly by European Christian nations), and of course the holocaust, that they are done with being attacked and are also sick of being the "immigrants" living in cramped ghettoes. They'll take whatever they can get to survive. They are in a bind and have been for centuries but this is as good as they've had it for a while and so they aren't quite ready to relinquish their pseudo-safety.

I think white gentiles do have a responsibility to acknowledge our historical role as the predominant oppressor and attempt to make amends. We can withdraw from Iraq. We can stop feeding the fires between Israel and Palestine by quit giving Israel money and weapons. We can give Afghanistan financial restitution for the damage we've caused there. We can quit biasing the media.

The Arab countries, Britain, and Israel all need to take responsibility for their own mistakes and ill logic. I'm American and my skin is white so I choose to start with myself and others whose privilege have allowed us to hide behind gates and desks and decoys for so long.

Sincerely, Chris
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Question to selves: Does that sound too self-righteous or half-baked? I'm no historian, just a social observer and anarcho-mathematician and wonder if anyone out there agrees with my krunky, funky analysis.