The Sheila Variations

I remember reading after the Omagh bombing that A woman, her daughter and her 18 MONTH OLD granddaughter had all been killed in the explosion. I still can't wrap my mind around what the father of that child has suffered. My lord, how on EARTH do you break news like that to a person?

It's just horrific to think about.

It is difficult enough to imagine individuals whose approach to their lives includes coldly gunning down a woman and her four daughters. It is impossible to imagine what the husband/father of these victims is feeling or thinking. How do people recover from such things? How do they function after an act of such barbaric evil wreaks havoc on their lives? How does any culture degenerate to the point that such acts are commonplace--even encouraged? I guess it is left for us to recognize and accept that this kind of evil exists--often fueled by false religious zeal. It will not be appeased, it will not be lessened by coddling, and it will not be ended by efforts to understand its motivations.

I just cannot comprehend that level of suffering. Like anyone else, I have empty places in my heart that will never be filled, but I cannot imagine a void of that size.

"How does any culture degenerate to the point that such acts are commonplace--even encouraged?"

DBW,

Your statement is worded in a somewhat vague manner and I am not completely certain what your meaning is. Are you implying that Palestinian culture (or perhaps Arab civilization as a whole) has "degenerated" and that the entire culture is wholly dedicated to acts of terrorism? If that is indeed your meaning, than your comment is disturbingly biased. I completely understand your anger and grief in response to the latest tragedy in Israel and Palestine, since I feel it as well (in response to both Israeli and Palestinian deaths), but I think it would be completely unfair and very hypocritical to imply that an entire people (an entire society) have "degenerated" because of the actions of a few--mainly because of the fascist connotations that the word "degenerate" carries. In my mind, when applied to a social class or ethnic group or nation state, it means that a people are somehow less than human, less than "the rest of us"(if you don't agree, look up the word "degenerate" in the dictionary...it means "having sunk to a lower level").

If that was not your meaning, than please explain what you did mean and ignore the rest of this message. However, if you indeed intended to label the Palestinians as barbarians, I must point out that, if the Palestinians are "degenerate" because of the actions of a few terrorists living among them, than Israeli society is "degenerate" as well--since the Israeli government constantly violates the human rights of Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories and denies them basic human liberties recognized by the United Nations (such as the right to return of refugees, which is enshrined in modern international law and was even mentioned in a 2000 year old cuneiform "charter" created in ancient Mesopotamia).

Furthermore, a BBC reporter who recently interviewed Iraqis living in Falluja noted that 36 people (the members of one extended family) were all killed when two rockets hit their house. That means that, in the case of at least one Iraqi family, there is probably no one left to bury the dead and mourn for those who have been lost.

What does this say about American society? Are we "degenerate" as well? Do the crimes of a few crazed Iraqi murderers justify the elimination of an entire family--blankets, cooking pots, children, and all? Was it an accident and thus justifiable? I don't mean to deny the tragedy that has been inflicted upon David Hatuel. But to lump all Palestinians together with the terrorists is highly offensive and very irresponsible.

Sina Yousefi

Sina,

I do believe that certain societies go off the rails. Fanatics come to the forefront, and it is as though the entire culture has lost its mind. I do believe that Palestinian culture is at that point right now. The culture as a WHOLE - how it is expressing itself as a collective. Wherever the moderate Palestinians are, their voices are completely drowned out in this insanity.

And I myself tend to be a bit biased against people who want to kill innocents and then swarm over the car pulling out body parts and glorifying in the suffering of others.

There is also an enormous difference (in my dumb-fuck American mind) between casualties of war, and people killing 4 little girls and a pregnant woman - and then running up to the car - to shoot them again, to make sure they are dead.

To me, these cannot compare.

And please, I am sick of the apples to apples comparisons. I realize that no culture is blameless, I realize that every country has blood on its hands. But I think that there is a level of psychosis in the Palestinian culture right now which cannot be denied. And cannot be excused.

I know you addressed your comment to DBW, Sina, but I thought I'd throw my two cents in.

One last thing:

If everyone is so hell-bent on looking at American CULTURE and American SOCIETY - and looking at the worst members of our society as indicative of all of us - and having long conversations about America's violent tv programs, the breakdown of the family, how freakin' ignorant we all are, blah blah blah - If they can psychoanalyze us to death, and hold us responsible for everything in the world that pisses them off - then I think the Palestinians can take a little bit of heat, too, for the sins of their culture.

Sheila,

You once criticized me for making a carelessly worded statement that suggested that all politicians and businessmen were greedy and evil. I admitted I was wrong. Now, you condemn an ENTIRE society and classify millions of people (WHO YOU HAVE NEVER MET) to the status of terrorist, murderer, and crazed fanatic. How can you make such a hypocritical, admittedly biased generalization?

You once wrote that you are not someone who simply believes what you are told and makes an effort to pursue different sources of information. Well, your response has completely discredited that statement. Did you even bother to read any of the articles that I've mentioned in my posts? (either the ones I actually provided links for or the ones that I referred to) Have you read the actual "New Yorker" article by Seymour M. Hersh that got this entire "humiliation in Iraqi prisons" debate started? Have you heard of the Israeli soldier who killed a Palestinian teen and was given six months in jail as a punishment (with four months as community service!). An Israeli court judged that the Palestinian posed him no threat and yet gave the soldier only six months.

As an Iranian American, who is JUST as American as you are, I have every right to criticize my government and my society when I feel that its policies are misguided and unfair. That is the entire point of America! It is my right to question the right of the U.S. military to remain in Iraq. But rather than address the issues I mentioned or try to answer the questions that I asked Mr./Ms. DBW, you simply responded by pointing the finger at the Palestinians in a truly shameful display of arrogance. Why don't you lay the blame where it really belongs? With the Palestinian and Israeli leaders, who continue to take advantage of tragedies on both sides for short-term political gains. The Palestinians have suffered just as much as the Israelis!

That isn't "an apple for an apple" comparison. That is the REAL WORLD, where there is NEVER only one side to any debate. It is a painful fact of life, which you too would be aware of if you didn't hold such a skewed, admittedly biased conception of what constitutes a "human rights violation". Israelis, Palestinians, Iraqis, Americans--they are all human beings and a crime against any civilian of any group (especially children in my mind) should be viewed with equal outrage. To justify violence against one group while excusing it at another is completely ANTI-AMERICAN (meaning it is in violation of the noble principles that this country was founded on).

Sina, with all due respect, please do not shout at me about the REAL WORLD. That is obnoxious and condescending and makes me see red.

Yes, I read Seymour Hersh. I read all of his columns in the New Yorker, without you having to remind me. I couldn't make it through his Kennedy book, but I like his stuff in The New Yorker.

I do not know every Palestinian who has ever lived. I am not judging them as individuals. I am judging their culture, as it is expressing itself now, which seems to be to be taking on the character of a death cult.

Also - you write:

Israelis, Palestinians, Iraqis, Americans--they are all human beings and a crime against any civilian of any group (especially children in my mind) should be viewed with equal outrage.

I do not know where you get that I am not upset about other deaths, and I don't feel for other groups.

Secondly, I do NOT advocate violence against the Palestinians. I don't say, "KILL EM ALL" like a lot of people do. Frankly, I'm uncomfortable with blood-lust of that kind, and I do not say that. That's not my thing.

I am also outraged at violence against other people. Just because I don't post about it, doesn't mean that I don't feel it and feel horrible about it.

This is just my blog. I am not a major newspaper, beholden to report on everything. I saw the picture in the paper of the 5 coffins and felt overwhelming sadness for the father. And so I posted my sadness about it.

That's it.

I am late returning to these comments. I apologize to Sina if my comments seemed vague. By 'culture,' I mean certain patterns of behavior or expressions of belief/thought/dogma that characterize a community or population. In my comment, I meant certain behaviors manifesting themselves in the Middle East. I did not mean to exclude Israelis, or blame all Palestinians. While I sympathize with, and feel for, all those suffering in that tortured environment, I should state that my own sensibilities lie predominantly with the Israelis. I hasten to add that while I support Israel, that doesn't prevent me from recognizing their many contributions to the problem. In your comment, Sina, you seem to equate the Israelis' denial of a right to return for the refugees and the unfortunate, unintentional deaths of Iraqi citizens by American weapons with the calculated, orchestrated slaughter of a woman and her four children. I confess, I do not see them as equal. That you do, seems willful to me, and I sense a certain anti-Semitism lurking beneath the veneer of your comments. If that is incorrect, or a misreading of your stance, I apologize. Too often, I read comments like yours seeking to equate systematic murder of innocent citizens with "denial of rights," "cultural humiliation," "military response," and the like. As I said in my original comment, that such things are encouraged and embraced is a cultural catastrophe, and indicative of human beings who have, indeed, "sunk to a lower level."