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How a pro-Palestinian American reporter changed his views on Israel and the conflict
Jerusalem Post ^ | February 15, 2017 12:17 | Hunter Stuart

Posted on 02/19/2017 10:46:55 AM PST by Olog-hai

… Before I moved to Jerusalem, I was very pro-Palestinian. Almost everyone I knew was. I grew up Protestant in a quaint, politically correct New England town; almost everyone around me was liberal. And being liberal in America comes with a pantheon of beliefs: You support pluralism, tolerance and diversity. You support gay rights, access to abortion and gun control. The belief that Israel is unjustly bullying the Palestinians is an inextricable part of this pantheon. Most progressives in the US view Israel as an aggressor, oppressing the poor noble Arabs who are being so brutally denied their freedom. […]

It wasn’t until the violence became personal that I began to see the Israeli side with greater clarity. As the “Stabbing Intifada” (as it later became known) kicked into full gear, I traveled to the impoverished East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan for a story I was writing.

As soon as I arrived, a Palestinian kid who was perhaps 13 years old pointed at me and shouted “Yehud!” which means “Jew” in Arabic. Immediately, a large group of his friends who’d been hanging out nearby were running toward me with a terrifying sparkle in their eyes. “Yehud! Yehud!” they shouted. I felt my heart start to pound. I shouted at them in Arabic “Ana mish yehud! Ana mish yehud!” (“I’m not Jewish, I’m not Jewish!”) over and over. I told them, also in Arabic, that I was an American journalist who “loved Palestine.” They calmed down after that, but the look in their eyes when they first saw me is something I’ll never forget. Later, at a house party in Amman, I met a Palestinian guy who’d grown up in Silwan. “If you were Jewish, they probably would have killed you,” he said. …

(Excerpt) Read more at jpost.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Israel; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: abortion; antisemitism; antizionism; homosexualagenda; palestinians; rop
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1 posted on 02/19/2017 10:46:55 AM PST by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

You can not have peace with someone who wants to kill you.


2 posted on 02/19/2017 10:48:39 AM PST by ARGLOCKGUY
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To: ARGLOCKGUY
IT WASN’T until the violence became personal that I began to see the Israeli side with greater clarity.

Nothing like getting your ox gored to wake you up.-Tom

3 posted on 02/19/2017 10:55:05 AM PST by Capt. Tom
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To: Olog-hai

The author still has a liberal mindset.

Be fair to both sides. Be open-minded, be caring for seeing both sides now. sarc/


4 posted on 02/19/2017 11:00:44 AM PST by Pirate Ragnar (Libs put feelings first and thought second.)
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To: Pirate Ragnar
The author still has a liberal mindset.
Be fair to both sides. Be open-minded, be caring for seeing both sides now. sarc/

Yes if only everyone could just understand; there is no black or white, just various shades of grey. /s -Tom

5 posted on 02/19/2017 11:11:45 AM PST by Capt. Tom
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To: Pirate Ragnar

He does indeed. He reiterates the “ancestral homes” lie of the “Palestinians” who refuse to recognize Israel (and who would have kept their homes if their forebears had not joined in the attacks against Israel, presuming that to be who they are).

He definitely needs to study the Bible more, and weed out the heresies taught to him by his liberal “religious” instructors.


6 posted on 02/19/2017 11:12:51 AM PST by Olog-hai
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To: Capt. Tom

Or getting gored by the ox.


7 posted on 02/19/2017 11:13:30 AM PST by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

Two weeks in Israel I knew who’s side I’d be on if I had to choose! We encountered a group of probably 8 year old boys with 3 grown men on a hike. One of the boys took off his t-shirt and slapped one of our group across the back after he passed him. I shouted “rude”. The grown men did nothing and the boys laughed (probably 12 boys). Then we had our bus trying to negotiate a “Y” intersection. The Palestinians blocked the intersection for about 30 minutes, refusing to back up for the bus for 30 seconds to free the intersection. It was amazing to watch!! They got out of their cars and shouted and shook their fists at the bus!! Another time we were traveling on the bus through Palestinian area and the kids stood on the side of the hill, some 3-4 years old and stuck out their tongues at us an spewed angry faces! The same area a few weeks earlier had dropped a rock onto a car and a Jewish child was on life support from the impact. There is no peace in their areas.


8 posted on 02/19/2017 11:16:26 AM PST by YouGoTexasGirl
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To: Olog-hai; All

Someone posted this link on another thread earlier this week. Required reading for every Freeper.

http://www.targetofopportunity.com/palestinian_truth.htm

Take or give credit if you know who I’m talking about! Thanks!


9 posted on 02/19/2017 11:17:48 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set!)
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To: Olog-hai

I grew up with individuals such as this in Massachusetts. Most can’t park a bicycle straight let alone see the forest because of all the trees. Liberalism truly is a disorder that can be measured. I am of the view that islam needs to be contained and if you subscribe to its barbarism then go live in the sandy places and go at it. No room for it anywhere but amongst themselves.


10 posted on 02/19/2017 11:25:17 AM PST by mythenjoseph
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To: ARGLOCKGUY

“You can not have peace with someone who wants to kill you.”

And who diaper their infants with suicide vests!


11 posted on 02/19/2017 11:38:23 AM PST by vette6387
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To: Olog-hai

A Middle East version of a conservative being a former liberal who was mugged.


12 posted on 02/19/2017 11:41:43 AM PST by AlaskaErik (I served and protected my country for 31 years. Progressives spent that time trying to destroy it.)
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To: ARGLOCKGUY
This is from a M.D. at Hadassah Hospital in Israel, Dr. Arieh Eldad Prof. (Hebrew: אריה אלדד‎‎, born 1 May 1950) is an Israeli physician and politician, and a former member of the Knesset for the National Union and Otzma LeYisrael.:

The (Muslim) Arab Mentality...
It is really hard for western society to understand this kind of thinking. It is counter to civilized understanding.

I was instrumental in establishing the Israeli National Skin Bank, which is the largest in the world. The National Skin Bank stores skin for every day needs as well as for war time or mass casualty situations. The skin bank is hosted at the Hadassah Ein Kerem University hospital in Jerusalem where I was the Chairman of plastic surgery.

This is how I was asked to supply skin for an (Muslim) Arab woman from Gaza, who was hospitalized in Soroka Hospital in Beersheva, after her family burned her. Usually, such atrocities happen among (Muslim) Arab families when the women are suspected of having an affair.

We supplied all the needed Homograft for her treatment. She was successfully treated by my friend and colleague, Prof. Lior Rosenberg and discharged to return to Gaza. She was invited for regular follow-up visits to the outpatient clinic in Beersheva.

One day she was caught at a border crossing wearing a suicide belt. Her mission was to explode herself in the outpatient clinic of the hospital where they saved her life. It seems that her family promised her that if she did that, they would forgive her.

This is only one example of the war between Jews and Muslims in the Land of Israel. It is not a territorial conflict. This is a civilizational conflict, or rather a war between civilization and barbarism. Bibi (Netanyahu) gets it, Obama does not.

13 posted on 02/19/2017 11:50:56 AM PST by Baynative ( Someone's going to have to pay for these carbon emissions, so it might as well be you.)
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Now, perhaps you can start to ponder how many other things you have been brainwashed about throughout your life.


14 posted on 02/19/2017 12:01:54 PM PST by dsrtsage (One half of all people have below average IQ. In the US the number is 54%fe)
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To: ARGLOCKGUY

Nuke Mecca now! Deport all koranimals and close all mosques. Islam delenda est! Sink the invader’s boats and machine gun the survivors. Bulldoze Al Aqsa and rebuild the Temple of Solomon.
The only thing Muslims have respected in the last 1400 years is superior and overwhelming force.


15 posted on 02/19/2017 12:13:44 PM PST by Zippo44 (Liberal is just another word for poltroon.)
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To: Olog-hai

So it took an experience that threatened his own personal safety to convey to him that the Palestinians hate Jews? Really? Slow learner, I’d say.


16 posted on 02/19/2017 12:34:21 PM PST by Spok ("What're you going to believe-me or your own eyes?" -Marx (Groucho))
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To: Olog-hai

Perspective is everything

He is still fence sitting because he doesn’t like the solution. Nowhere did he talk about Trans Jordan or the fact that ‘palestinians’ are just a bunch of arabs fellow arabs rejected and threw out


17 posted on 02/19/2017 12:41:49 PM PST by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Spok
Your tagline:

"What're you going to believe-me or your own eyes?" -Marx (Groucho)

Actually should be -Marx (Chico)

18 posted on 02/19/2017 12:50:20 PM PST by stormhill
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To: Olog-hai
...an older Jewish Israeli guy who’d hosted my wife and I for dinner

This is becoming a bit of a pet peeve for me. The grammatically correct phrasing would be "who'd hosted my wife and me". If this were a blog I wouldn't care, but this and other stuff occurs more and more often in major publications.
19 posted on 02/19/2017 12:54:52 PM PST by fr_freak
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To: Olog-hai


20 posted on 02/19/2017 12:57:11 PM PST by Chode (may the RATS all die of dehydration from crying)
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