Rant #2: Toys for Tatelleh

Kuno's mood is: pissed

It's been my intention not to get into religion or politics on this blog, since my opinions on either can be pretty... controversial to some people. You know, stupid people.

So for the sake of GGL's relations with the Stupid-American Community, I plan to keep pretty quiet about those things here.

But this is game related. Apparently, Adam Sandler is a bad man because he gave PlayStations to young Israeli bombing victims.

According to this asshat writer, a Jew can't give charity to Jews unless he gives equal charity to gentiles. It also seems that giving video game consoles to war victims trivializes the war.

I didn't approve of Israel's latest invasion of Lebanon, but not because it was immoral. All war is immoral. It's no more or less immoral when Jews do it. And when a stateless army that represents no legitimate interests but its own is lobbing missiles at you from a neighboring nation that is powerless to stop it, war is inevitable.

No, I disapproved of the invasion because it was stupid. And it would not have been any less stupid if it had succeeded. Just like our invasion of Iraq.

But that has nothing to do with Adam Sandler. Mr. Sandler heard that some little Jewish children were suffering because of a war. He did something about it. He wasn't required to do anything.

I have nothing against the little Lebanese children. It seems trivial to point out that it may well be illegal under U.S. law to send PlayStations to Lebanon. Lebanese children don't need PlayStations. They need these foreign terrorist armies, like Hezbollah and the PLO, out of their country. They need Syria and Iran out of their country. They need full international support for their nascent Western-oriented democracy, which is something they never get.

It would be nice if Lebanon would give up the traditional Jewish land they currently occupy. It's hard for Israel to "invade" land that's actually occupied by Lebanese invaders. But that will never happen -- too much of the world, of no matter what political stripe, still believes that Israel is an "imperialist" enterprise; that at some point after your country is invaded by foreign imperialists, the natives lose their right to their homeland. If the natives are Jewish, that is.

I'm sick to death of people, especially my fellow Leftists who should know better, painting black hats on the Israelis and white hats on the Arabs. It's as pernicious, if not more, than the right wingers who do the opposite. Anyone with even a partial understanding of the Middle East knows its far more complicated than that; and that, on balance, the Israelis are fighting for pluralism and democracy, while, on balance, their enemies are fighting for fascism and intolerance.

And if you don't have even a partial understanding of the Middle East, then STFU.