What is your background/interest in the Middle East?

[Saigon]

I lived in Oman for a year and a half. Lived in a house in Muscat. Shopped at the local stores. Omanis are good people.

Many short visits to Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait. I liked the locals. Even shorter visits to Iraq and Afghanistan, but didn't get to meet any locals.

Cool....they must have been amazing countries to go to. Although I'm not ure Iraq is on my travel list for the immediate future.

 

[Saigon]

My posting is based on hatred and intolerance. Remove that from the picture, the conflict is non existent. That is the truth.

Ps. I know jackshit about the Koran. Stormfront preys on weak and ignorant morons like me.

Finaly, a truthful statement!

I agree with you Roudy, and commend you for that insight.

 

[Lipush]

"Panther in the Basement" By Amos Oz is very recommended.

I'm a big Amos Oz fan, from the time I read 'My Michael' and his amazing short stories.

On kibbutz, I started reading fiction first, and read him, Chaim Potok, Saul Bellow and Philip Roth. I learned so much about Jewish life and culture that I could never have picked up anywhere else, so I think they are great to recommend.

I usually don't read Israeli novels, because most of the time I get bored by them. but this specific one was good. I also liked Michal Shalev's "Rachel's Vow" about the Jewish lifestyle in Russia and Israel in the last century. very good.

 

[Lipush]

Bullshit. All you are saying is that you were somewhat of a moron before, and even more of a moron after.

Roudy, instead of coming to the thread just to attack people.

Why not read the objective of the OP and post Your personal thoughts on the Middle East.

Douchebag, you just admitted to everyone that after you read the Koran and converted To Islam, you started becoming anti Israel. Now how rare is that? Oh I'm sure it was all based on facts. Nothing to do with the Koran being a book of hate, conquest, and intolerance. Nothing to do with the hate that flows from mosques and the followers of Islam. No.

Being a fundamentalist on one side, then becoming a fundamentalist in the other.

That's like an orthodox that become an atheist and bashes religious people.

That kind of thing happens.

 

[JStone]

Quote: Originally Posted by Roudy
My posting is based on hatred and intolerance. Remove that from the picture, the conflict is non existent. That is the truth.

Ps. I know jackshit about the Koran. Stormfront preys on weak and ignorant morons like me.

The Bible is among the most beautiful literature ever written, if not the most beautiful.

Quran, not so much. Quran is mostly about muhammad's caravan raids, wars and his wives. Reading the quran actually makes me sick to my stomach

 

[Saigon]

OK, I might as well put mine in....what the hell.

I wasn't wildly interested in the conflict until 1984, when I went to Israel by chance. I was just backpacking around Europe, and friends were headed there.

I stayed for a year, working on a kibbutz 1.5 kms from Lebanon. While there, I became fascinated by the conflict, especially after doing a short history course at Hadera.

After that I read everything the kibbutz had, starting with fiction (Oz, Potok, Roth) to the commentaries written by outsiders (Raban, Lacy, Lamb) to the Jewish writers (Arendt, Hilberg, Harding) and the major works from the Palestinian perspective (Said's Orientalism, the Gilmours, Hanan al Shaykh etc). More important was just talking to Israeli and Palestinian people - a year of late nights in Tel Aviv, Amman and Beirut. It's that kind of thing the haters really miss out on.

Years later I became a journalist, and returned to Lebanon, Syria and the Golan Heights and wrote 2 major features on those areas.I certainly haven't read everything, but I try to keep up with new material, and would guess I've read around 60 - 80 books on both the conflict and Holocaust history. This became important to me after I wrote about Birkenau and Babi Yar (Ukraine). I have also published stories on Kurdistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia and Ethiopia.

In all, I have been to something around 15 Islamic countries, and have research and published material relating to most of them at some point. Some countries (Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey) I have now been to several times.

 

[daveman]

I lived in Oman for a year and a half. Lived in a house in Muscat. Shopped at the local stores. Omanis are good people.

Many short visits to Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait. I liked the locals. Even shorter visits to Iraq and Afghanistan, but didn't get to meet any locals.

Cool....they must have been amazing countries to go to. Although I'm not ure Iraq is on my travel list for the immediate future.

I was in the Air Force. The assignment to Oman was voluntary, but the trip to Iraq and Afghanistan wasn't so much. But it had to be done, and I was the guy to do it, so I went.

What I learned from the Omanis, and from an Iranian kid whom I met there (he desperately wanted to get an American visa so he could go the the US and study) was that they're just like us -- only saddled with political and religious leaders who force hatred of Jews upon them.

Mr. Abdullah, an Omani national whom I worked with in the US Embassy in Muscat, once said to me in a discussion about Israel, "Mr. David, why can't people just get along?"

Mr. Abdullah is a wise man.

 

[Lipush]

OK, I might as well put mine in....what the hell.

I wasn't wildly interested in the conflict until 1984, when I went to Israel by chance. I was just backpacking around Europe, and friends were headed there.

I stayed for a year, working on a kibbutz 1.5 kms from Lebanon. While there, I became fascinated by the conflict, especially after doing a short history course at Hadera.

After that I read everything the kibbutz had, starting with fiction (Oz, Potok, Roth) to the commentaries written by outsiders (Raban, Lacy, Lamb) to the Jewish writers (Arendt, Hilberg, Harding) and the major works from the Palestinian perspective (Said's Orientalism, the Gilmours, Hanan al Shaykh etc). More important was just talking to Israeli and Palestinian people - a year of late nights in Tel Aviv, Amman and Beirut. It's that kind of thing the haters really miss out on.

Years later I became a journalist, and returned to Lebanon, Syria and the Golan Heights aI certainly haven't read everything, but I try to keep up with new material, and would guess I've read around 60 - 80 books on both the conflict and Holocaust history. This became important to me after I wrote about Birkenau and Babi Yar (Ukraine). nd wrote 2 major features on those areas. I have also published stories on Kurdistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia and Ethiopia.

In all, I have been to something around 15 Islamic countries, and have research and published material relating to most of them at some point. Some countries (Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey) I have now been to several times.

Wow. cool.

In which Kibbutz did you work in the north?

 

[Sunni Man]

OK, I might as well put mine in....what the hell.

I wasn't wildly interested in the conflict until 1984, when I went to Israel by chance. I was just backpacking around Europe, and friends were headed there.

I stayed for a year, working on a kibbutz 1.5 kms from Lebanon. While there, I became fascinated by the conflict, especially after doing a short history course at Hadera.

After that I read everything the kibbutz had, starting with fiction (Oz, Potok, Roth) to the commentaries written by outsiders (Raban, Lacy, Lamb) to the Jewish writers (Arendt, Hilberg, Harding) and the major works from the Palestinian perspective (Said's Orientalism, the Gilmours, Hanan al Shaykh etc). More important was just talking to Israeli and Palestinian people - a year of late nights in Tel Aviv, Amman and Beirut. It's that kind of thing the haters really miss out on.

Years later I became a journalist, and returned to Lebanon, Syria and the Golan Heights aI certainly haven't read everything, but I try to keep up with new material, and would guess I've read around 60 - 80 books on both the conflict and Holocaust history. This became important to me after I wrote about Birkenau and Babi Yar (Ukraine). nd wrote 2 major features on those areas. I have also published stories on Kurdistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia and Ethiopia.

In all, I have been to something around 15 Islamic countries, and have research and published material relating to most of them at some point. Some countries (Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey) I have now been to several times.

Are you a Jew?

 

[JStone]

I lived in Oman for a year and a half. Lived in a house in Muscat. Shopped at the local stores. Omanis are good people.

Many short visits to Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait. I liked the locals. Even shorter visits to Iraq and Afghanistan, but didn't get to meet any locals.

Cool....they must have been amazing countries to go to. Although I'm not ure Iraq is on my travel list for the immediate future.

I was in the Air Force. The assignment to Oman was voluntary, but the trip to Iraq and Afghanistan wasn't so much. But it had to be done, and I was the guy to do it, so I went.

What I learned from the Omanis, and from an Iranian kid whom I met there (he desperately wanted to get an American visa so he could go the the US and study) was that they're just like us -- only saddled with political and religious leaders who force hatred of Jews upon them.

Mr. Abdullah, an Omani national whom I worked with in the US Embassy in Muscat, once said to me in a discussion about Israel, "Mr. David, why can't people just get along?"

Mr. Abdullah is a wise man.

What religion except islime specifically singles out Jews and Christians as targets for hatred, persecution and MASS MURDER?

 

[Caractacus]

The Bible is among the most beautiful literature ever written, if not the most beautiful.

Quran, not so much. Quran is mostly about muhammad's caravan raids, wars and his wives. Reading the quran actually makes me sick to my stomach

The Bible is a book of horrors, filled with murders, plundering, and other assorted cruelties- often at the express command of the Almighty (so the authors of the Bible say!). The Koran is simply the Bible's ugly little sibling and calling either of those books the Word of God is an insult to Him. The former contains the fabulous tales of the Jews, complete with genocidal warfare, pillaging excursions, rapine, etc., and the latter contains the fabulous tales of the Arabs, complate with complete with genocidal warfare, pillaging excursions, rapine, etc.

I'd dare say this is your inspiration for both:

 

[JStone]

The Bible is among the most beautiful literature ever written, if not the most beautiful.

Quran, not so much. Quran is mostly about muhammad's caravan raids, wars and his wives. Reading the quran actually makes me sick to my stomach

The Bible is a book of horrors, filled with murders, plundering, and other assorted cruelties- often at the express command of the Almighty. The Koran is simply the Bible's ugly little sibling and calling either of those books the Word of God is an insult to Him. The former contains the fabulous tales of the Jews, complete with genocidal warfare, pillaging excursions, rapine, etc., and the latter contains the fabulous tales of the Arabs, complate with complete with genocidal warfare, pillaging excursions, rapine, etc.

I'd dare say this is your inspiration for both:

The "Bible" gave the world the 10 Commandments.

Enough said.

 

[Saigon]

Lipush -

I was on Dan. The springs for the Dan river were right there (Tel Dan), and when we used to go swimming, we could see Lebanon border warnings on the other side of the springs.

It's hard not to be interested in the conflict when it is that close and that real. We have 3 katyusha attacks that year....

 

[daveman]

Cool....they must have been amazing countries to go to. Although I'm not ure Iraq is on my travel list for the immediate future.

I was in the Air Force. The assignment to Oman was voluntary, but the trip to Iraq and Afghanistan wasn't so much. But it had to be done, and I was the guy to do it, so I went.

What I learned from the Omanis, and from an Iranian kid whom I met there (he desperately wanted to get an American visa so he could go the the US and study) was that they're just like us -- only saddled with political and religious leaders who force hatred of Jews upon them.

Mr. Abdullah, an Omani national whom I worked with in the US Embassy in Muscat, once said to me in a discussion about Israel, "Mr. David, why can't people just get along?"

Mr. Abdullah is a wise man.

What religion except islime specifically singles out Jews and Christians as targets for hatred, persecution and MASS MURDER?

Not interested in playing your game today.

Your question in no way invalidates Mr. Abdullah's.

 

[Caractacus]

The "Bible" gave the world the 10 Commandments.

Enough said.

Which are a part of the religious laws given to Moses and Aaron for the tribes of the Jews alone to follow.

It was a sad day for the world when the "Gentiles" became enamored of that book.

 

[Saigon]

Are you a Jew?

No, not at all!!

In all seriousness, the ONLY reason I went to Israel was I'd heard that you could party there and not spend any money. I was 21 years old, totally näive, and had really no preconceptions at all.

This was actually a good thing - I arrived with no idea at all who were good guys and who were bad.

 

[Mr Natural]

I have no background and even less interest in the Middle East.

 

[Saigon]

I was in the Air Force. The assignment to Oman was voluntary, but the trip to Iraq and Afghanistan wasn't so much. But it had to be done, and I was the guy to do it, so I went.

What I learned from the Omanis, and from an Iranian kid whom I met there (he desperately wanted to get an American visa so he could go the the US and study) was that they're just like us -- only saddled with political and religious leaders who force hatred of Jews upon them.

Mr. Abdullah, an Omani national whom I worked with in the US Embassy in Muscat, once said to me in a discussion about Israel, "Mr. David, why can't people just get along?"

Mr. Abdullah is a wise man.

Wow, that really is awesome stuff.

And it also mirrors my own experience.

I will always remember sitting on a balcony in Damascus with a Syrian family. They were all speaking English to be polite to their guests, but they got into a big argument which got very heated - was it about Israel? No. The US? No. They were arguing about why the kids school had such poor teachers.

It was the mirror image of discussions I hear in Finland every week!

 

[Lipush]

Lipush -

I was on Dan. The springs for the Dan river were right there (Tel Dan), and when we used to go swimming, we could see Lebanon border warnings on the other side of the springs.

It's hard not to be interested in the conflict when it is that close and that real. We have 3 katyusha attacks that year....

Wah, that's not cool.

But I'm glad you had good time, at least, seeing how things for real.

I love the north very much, but I don't get to travel there at all, besides Haifa and the Arab villages nearby. The people of those villages are very kind.

Did you get to travel in our area as well? (the southern Negev)

 

[Lipush]

Are you a Jew?

No, not at all!!

In all seriousness, the ONLY reason I went to Israel was I'd heard that you could party there and not spend any money. I was 21 years old, totally näive, and had really no preconceptions at all.

This was actually a good thing - I arrived with no idea at all who were good guys and who were bad.

That's a good starting point.