March 25th, 2015

The Middle East

            Today we talked about the Middle East. In particular, we talked about Israel’s actions, Iran, Iraq and terrorism.

            With respect to Israel, the country has taken many actions in the past that the US would consider terrorism if they had been done by another country.  Israel sanctioned citizens to hunt down the people responsible for the Munich Massacre, even across international borders, with no trial for the murderers. It also “mistakenly” blew up a US ship in the Mediterranean Sea because it didn’t want the US to spy on it. The US has historically sided with Israel though. There are a few reasons for this. Lobbyists heavily target the Democratic party, and the Conservative party generally side with Israel for religious reasons. In this way, Israel is able to remain unaccountable for their actions, even though they freely admit that they aren’t innocent.

            In my opinion, Israel should be allowed to exist because it isn’t really fair to take a country away from its people. I don’t believe, however, that it should be able to continue taking action without bearing consequences. The US absorbs the consequences for Israel, sort of like a protective parent, and Israel shouldn’t be able to get away with it.

            We spoke, in relation to Iran and Iraq, about why they hate us. Several legitimate reasons were listed as justification for the dislike certain Middle Eastern countries have for the US. The nuclear family is much less important in America than in the Middle East, and this causes distrust. Materialism seems to run rampant in the US, whereas Middle Eastern culture condemns it. From a Middle Eastern perspective, our society seems to be addicted to drugs and alcohol, but those things are highly prohibited in their culture. Also the liberation of women in American society is condemned by some Middle Eastern cultures because they see the way Americans view women who choose to be caretakers rather than work outside of the home as lesser women, which is completely contrary to the way Middle Eastern cultures view the roles of women. These all seem like completely legitimate reasons for the two cultures to disagree and for them to dislike us.