Saudi Arabia sez, "Fuck All Y'all."
Seriously, if this isn't *exactly* what any man woman and child thought would happen once Israel started swinging its balls (I can talk like this because my little brother is at the beach right now and I don't think he reads my old blogs anyway), I will stand corrected. But the minute Israel began bombing the south of Lebanon, a sovreign nation, in return for what a "rogue" militaristic force has done by way of kidnapping and border skirmishes, it was clear that there would be Big Trouble.
It's hard to come down on one side of the issue or the other -- I have not been a big fan of Israel's ever since Yitzhak Rabin's assassination. Despite my sympathy for the precarious position of being the lone Jewish state in a sea of Islamic countries, the somewhat egocentric logic of duking it out with everyone to prove that you're here to stay and you're not taking any bullshit has been proven unsuccessful time and time again. One of the biggest inherent flaws here is Israel's reliance upon the US as a staunch ally and heavy-hitter in the Middle East. Whether or not that was one of the first strengths to be taken into account, they have nevertheless ignored or underestimated the drastic loss of US credibility in the Middle East. It's only going to get worse, too. US is unremittingly supporting Israel's onslaught (incredible enough position that it is) by not calling for an immediate ceasefire. WTF, Mate?
The problem is, Israel's link to the US has turned into a double-edged sword. Seeing Israel as Little Brother, Islamic extremist sentiments are being multiplied and reinforced across the region and across the world at large. Support for Palestine, already strong, is going to get stronger -- there will be no peace in Israel for ages because they've targeted themselves. And when Saudi Arabia, a typically canny and subtle country who's in bed with everyone and therefore usually doesn't say too terribly much that isn't entirely cloaked in diplomatic language, comes out to tell the leaders of the Western world that there will be a war in the Middle East...well, bitches bettah be scared.
As usual this post is unnecessarily inflammatory, has very little solid evidence to back it up, and is more or less the product of my fevered and highly aggressive brain (this week, anyway). Someday I'll get better at citing sources, people, I promise. It's just easier to ignore formalities and veracity in the summer time because...
...I'm gonna be on the Outer Banks in approximately 24 hours, and I'm going to be gone for a hot week and a half. I believe I will simply not check my email, or MySpace, or whatever, for that entire time. Do you think I can do it? Will you give me a dollar if I do? I'll think of you guys, as I lounge in the surf, splashing, bike-riding, shopping, eating gratuitous amounts of ice cream, drinking beers and generally enjoying all that North Carolina can throw at me in one week.
Yeah, baby.
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