@tranglos:If history started on 9-11, then the footage of "dancing Palestinians" only serves to prove Palestinians are wicked people with an unexplained hatred for the US and the rest of the Western world. That, of course, is a horrible lie - exactly the kind of lie that gets whole nations cheering for murderous wars. ("Iraqi troops taking Kuwaiti babies out of incubators and dropping them on the hospital floor to die" was another, you probably remember that one.)
You won't see these lies unmasked on CNN or Fox (or even on BBC these days), but there's still that Internet thing. Not to justify or to sugarcoat, but to understand why: Palestinians celebrating 9/11 - a reply from The Electronic Intifada
-tranglos
Regardless of whether "history started on 9-11", it would be irrational (a
non sequitur) to assert that:
...the footage of "dancing Palestinians" only serves to prove Palestinians are wicked people with an unexplained hatred for the US and the rest of the Western world.
Are you able to say exactly where such an assertion has been made? I don't think I saw it on any CNN/Fox videos, but I could have missed it, I suppose.
As far as I could see the news channels just played the thing without much comment. The dancing itself was verified/corroborated by other Western news media people on the ground (and one of whom happened to be a personal friend of mine - a photographer/cameraman), who confirmed that it was
adults dancing for joy, not just children/youths (which seems clear in the video anyway).
So the link that you provide (which I found interesting) would seem to have been a reasonable if belated try at ameliorating the "911 dancing Palestinians" video, but apparently somewhat ambiguous/disingenuous.
The most that I could probably infer from that video is that the dancing Palestinians probably felt that at last Muslims (represented by Al Queda) had finally scored a serious "return blow" on the US - and on home ground too, in the heart of the US capitalist centre. That is, a "return blow" as payback for all the invasions, indignities, machinations, crimes and oppression that they might have perceived the US to have been responsible for in the Middle East.
If that was how they felt, then I would not be qualified to even attempt to dispute such a perception on their part - how could I know what it feels like to be them?
So, I wasn't terribly surprised by the "911 dancing Palestinians" video, for that reason.
I was rather saddened by it though.
So, I wasn't terribly surprised at videos and news reports of when people in the US seemed to be similarly cheered by news of the final killing of Al Queda's leader (Bin Laden) together with some of his henchmen.
I was rather saddened by it though.
Regardless of whose side you are on, it seems as though it is human nature to revel in an injury caused to, or the killing of, a perceived enemy.
Who are we to criticise other people for being "only human"?
But for a chance at birth, we might equally (say) have been born as Palestinians, or as Americans.
Wikipedia on Israel:Spoiler
Following the 1947 United Nations decision to partition Palestine, on 14 May 1948 David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization[9] and president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared Israel a state independent from the British Mandate for Palestine.[10][11] Neighboring Arab states invaded the next day in support of the Palestinian Arabs. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states,[12] in the course of which it has occupied the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. Portions of these territories, including east Jerusalem, have been annexed by Israel, but the border with the neighboring West Bank has not yet been permanently defined.[13][14][15][16][17] Israel has signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, but efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have so far not resulted in peace.
As a student of the Koran and things Islamic, I was interested to read that former House speaker Newt Gingrich in the US stated recently that:
He believed that “the Jewish people have the right to a state … Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire.”
“I think that we’ve had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs,” Gingrich said, “and who were historically part of the Arab community.”
Though I didn't like what he said, I could kinda see what he was getting at, insofar as the Arabs could be said to have essentially invented Palestine as an obstacle to peace with Israel - in their own words, for example:
1959 Arab League resolution #1457.
"The Arab countries will not grant citizenship to applicants of Palestinian origin in order to prevent their assimilation into the host countries."
- and again:
1957, Horns, Syria - Arab Conference of Refugees.
"Any discussion of the refugee issue that does not promise the right to the annihilation of Israel will be deemed a desecration of the Arab nation and treason."
I was reading a post today that said:
Official, institutionalized discrimination against Palestinians is widespread in the Middle East. Where does this Apartheid take place, and what are the reasons behind it?
I followed it up and came across this YouTube vid -
Apartheid in the Middle East, which seems to make the point and then hammer it home. It has all sorts of people contributing to it - Palestinian and Arab Muslims, Israelis, Lebanese, Arab in Israel, and more - and yours truly (being skeptical) made sure the facts check out. It seems to be honest/true.
To the end it refers to the above two Arab facts/quotes.
Interesting, eh?
I hadn't fully realised how much the Palestinian refugees had things stacked against them until I watched that vid.
Imagine how you and your family might feel if you were trapped in deliberate limbo like that.
Impossible to escape.
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