Robin- The first thought that comes to mind is that old joke, “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.” I have counter protested pro Palestinian protesters in the streets of New York and at times they find it to their benefit to hold hands with blatant Jew haters. And then they dare to call me paranoid! This doesn’t apply to you, because I do not recall anything in your posts that resembles that idea of holding hands with Jew haters.
Fear is innately irrational because it is an emotion. When one steps away from the emotion and tries to analyze whether intellectually there is or isn’t something to fear, then one can analyze whether it is a rational fear or an irrational fear. Paranoia is a disease. If a fear has some basis in the present reality rather than in some incident that occurred in connection with another person years ago, then it is not paranoia, it is not a disease. It can be called (whatever you want to call it, but assuming you wish to use the language with some degree of precision rather than talk or write like an ignorant street rabble rouser) exaggerated fear, but it is not paranoia.
If I read the Hamas charter and take it at its word, does that make me paranoid. It may be a bad argument because the Likud charter is bad too. But this is not about arguments per se, this is about whether my fears are so irrational to be labeled diseased. If I take the Hamas charter at its word does that make me diseased? I think not. If the founders of the Muslim Brotherhood, the “mother” organization of Hamas were admirers of Hitler, this might not be argument enough to avoid negotiations, but it certainly is enough to remove fear of Hamas from the category of diseased.
I could go on in that vein, but I think the accusation of paranoia is just bull**** and should be avoided, unless you wish to use words in an imprecise and thus unhelpful manner.
To associate Palestinians with the hatred evinced by Nasrallah is a disconnect of sorts. But this would be truer if Nasrallah’s appearance were followed by some Palestinian saying, “This guy is a total shit, do not pay any attention to him. He is a man of violence and we do not wish to be associated with him, his speeches, his methods and his ideology.” But Nasrallah is not followed on t.v. by someone saying such words. (How far do you think Beirut is from Jerusalem? Closer than Philadelphia to NYC? Closer than Washington, D.C. to NYC, that’s for sure. He’s not Palestinian, but he is an Arab and a Muslim who lives near me and words in his praise are poured in this blog’s comments section and words of criticism of him have never been typed by the authors of this blog. If I am wrong, show me that Phil or Adam or any of their guests have ever spoken poorly of Nasrallah.)
The fact is that no matter what anyone could prove to me about the intents of the Palestinians the Israeli public is nowhere near to approving a one state solution. The fact is that I am not about to advocate such a solution unless I do not feel conflicted about it. Even if I were allowed to see the future, say the next 100 years, and it would indicate that a one state solution would not lead to bloodshed, I would still feel twinges of regret about advocating it, for there is the idea that the Jewish people need a country of their own and this country has been handed to this current generation of Jews and Zionists and it is the duty of this generation of Jews and Zionists to keep the faith and pass the Jewish country to the next generation. A twinge of regret that I would be willing to bulldoze over because 100 years of peace would be enough of a motivation for me to drop the duty that the previous generation has handed to the present generation. But if you think I am going to hand over the keys to Hamas to endanger my nieces and nephews based upon the premise that the suicide campaign of 2000 to 2005, killed only a quarter as many Jews as it killed Arabs, or was based on their sense of grievance which will disappear as soon as we share the land, despite their written word that the Jew has no place in this land, then you are just plain wrong.
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