What's With Israel?

What the heck is going on with the Israeli mentality?

The title link is the best summation I could find of the latest flap of the dying birds wings. Here's what I understand about this situation (I am trying to be objective and present both sides of this story):

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, SUMMONS the Turkish Ambassador to Israel to a meeting. (Meeting topic: Israeli displeasure with a privately produced Turkish TV drama that depicts Israel in a negative light)

Minister Ayalon then invites the Israeli Press to cover the beginning of the meeting

When the Turkish Ambassador arrives he is forced to wait in the hallway with the Press while Minister Ayalon did who knows what?

When the Turkish Ambassador is finally called into the room Minister Ayalon directs him to a very low sofa, refuses to shake his hand and points out the presence of only an Israeli flag on the table (a blanked violation of international diplomatic protocol).

Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs Official version of events

Apologies were made after the issue was brought to light by the international media, but the apologies were weak and indirect.

I see something bigger here than just a violation of international diplomatic protocol. It seems as though Israel (I am speaking of the government) believes they can do whatever they want, whenever they want, however they want, to whomever they want and no one is going to hold them accountable to it. I see a bigger picture with a very sour coloring.

When is Israel going to stop using the German Holocaust, and the global delay in stopping it as an excuse to do pretty much anything. When is Israel going to take the lessons they so directly learned about genocide to detect and prevent further genocide, i.e. Darfur, Somalia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. I have never heard anything of a warning or an opening of dialog like:

"You know, when the Germans did this they first restricted the movement of Jews, relieved them of all their property, divided families, concentrated the population in relatively small geographic areas and limited food rations before they started an extermination campaign. We can see the same thing happening in Darfur. Maybe we should stop it before this gets out of hand and millions more people die needlessly"

Actually there is a reason I believe they do not take the lead on matters of war crime prevention; they would have to take a look at what they are doing. HMMMMM think about the Palestinian issue for a moment. What has Israel done to these people who are different from them:

Restriction of movement - check

Relieved them of property - check

Divided families - check

Concentrate the population in small geographic areas - check

Starve that population - CHECK

Began an extermination campaign - ? (If you ask the people who live in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank they would probably give a big check)

So the final question I have is this: When is the world going to start holding Israel accountable for the deeds they are perpetrating in the same fashion as the Holocaust they use as an excuse to perpetrate one of their own?

How many wrongs does it take to add up to a right?

Disenfranchised People

The Turkish Government is so scared of the population showing their displeasure that they limit their ability to gather. Of course, if you are living in Turkey you don’t need to read a blog to know about that.

Democracy is an interesting thing. In order to have a truly functioning democracy you need the people to have their say and the majority gets their way. And Governments don't like it when after the population has their official say, at the polling station, they have more to say afterward by means of demonstration.

The Turkish Government in particular has a recent history of a thriving democracy, and a long history of tyrannical class rule. The problem is the current governmental style is much like the old class rule system hidden beneath the democratic government, and the people of Turkey feel it but are powerless to do anything about it because it is relatively intangible.

May Day, today, is a good example of that. May Day is the equivalent of Labor Day, and it is a national holiday. What normally happens is the Labor Unions try to march as a group peacefully to specific areas like Taksim Square in Istanbul where there is a monument to the Turkish Labor Force (the people). The problem is that group dynamics take over and the demonstration turns into a mob when the disenfranchised people suddenly feel powerful enough by the sheer weight of their numbers. Traditionally, the result has been a few people killed, a lot of people hurt, and an excessive amount of damage to public and private property. Government being what it is tries to limit this by limiting the numbers of marchers and by limiting the different, and usually opposing, groups destination.

Can you see where this WILL lead? The already disenfranchised become more disenfranchised. The people feel less powerful than before which leads them to vent the frustration in more places but smaller numbers. The feelings of powerlessness become anger and they turn to any means possible to vent it. People throw rocks and bricks at the Police, who have been assigned to control access to main artery streets.

What can be done? The government and the people both have a point. They are both wrong, and they are both right!

The government bribes the people to vote for them, either directly (purchasing votes and sponsoring families needs with coal and rice during the winter) or indirectly by starting grand infrastructure projects just before the elections take place. There was a really good example of political party buying votes this year when they spent millions of Liras delivering household appliances to all the people in villages in the east of Turkey. The political party in question showed how out of touch they were with the needs of the people with this bribe because none of these homes have running water or consistent electricity service and the appliances are still sitting in their packages on the front porch of these houses because they are useless to these people.

Then again the People voted for them because they have better roads or new natural gas service, or free coal, or free rice etc... The people missed their chance to have their say about the things that really matter like a government that will listen to them and their needs rather than maintaining the status quo. So the problem gets deeper in the psyche of the people and the government. The people get angrier, partially at themselves, and the government is more guarded about groups demonstrating.

What to do? Educate these poor people! The people who got refrigerators or washing machines need them, but not before they have schools for their children that provide reading, writing and arithmetic rather than religious schools that teach Arabic and the Koran. These people need consistent running water, and electric service. They need the tools to live before they can live more comfortably. EDUCATE them, EMPOWER them!

When you build a road, first FINISH the road, and don't dig sections up after a month to do something you should have done while the road was open in the first place. That means you need to educate yourself about what the needs of the people are, which leads me to my final point, and original one, enfranchise your people.

Enfranchised people are part of your team, you listen to them and they listen to you. TWO way communications is a wonderful thing. You both learn, you both have a say, you both feel comfortable with a compromise that may not meet everyone’s needs but do for most, and the other needs can be met through compromise in a different issue.

If the people felt empowered in their lives, they would not become the mob. you could allow the march to commemorate the success of the labor force, YOUR PEOPLE!


Peace to you

LeePsycho