the difference between you and i

Simply terrific!

Exquisite.

great, sigalet.This poem really touches my heart. Shabbat Shalom!

Beautifully stated.

thanks folks! i must say i was shocked from a reaction i got to another poem and it started me writing ..thanks yankee, mary, marilyn and donna!

Beautiful!!! Good for you for speaking out!!!

Dialogue is important, Sister Sigalit. Even when confronted with statistics and analysis like Scot C. projected in the comment that prompted you to compose this post.
(http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976762176)

The Zionist concept is no longer a weak wish. The proponents of Zionism are mighty. Some say their UN mandated state is now the fifth largest nuclear power on the planet. Yet yawl still have an air of desperation that is really frightening.

Of course you don't have to justify, or make excuses for, or explain. But is it not more suitable for the strong to hear the complaints of the weak? What happens when the weak have little to no voice? What happens when the dissenting opinion is repressed, ignored, stifled, and ridiculed, instead of thoroughly discussed, analyzed and any real injustices are fixed?

Hate and Fear are two edged swords, Sigalit, that swings both ways. They are swords that slices through truth, valid opinion, and legitimate complaint in one stroke, and cuts and dismembers, practical considerations, political realities, and opportunities for compromise with the other.

Knee jerk emotional tirades are beautiful only to the partisans they are intended to stroke, or defend. It's better to look into the face of controversy with a scientific eye, and try to see the validity or lack there of in your opponent's argument. If he or she is representing truth, his or her vision should be embraced, for Truth is An Attribute of God.

But if there is a logical, legitimate counter argument, it should be presented and explored with the force of humility, and open minded-ness. Remember. Whoever wears The Ring Of Power will most likely become corrupt. Only level headed, humble God Feared-ness can prevent that from happening.

Shalom,
ali

Ha-r'neenu goyeem amo,
kee avadayv yeekom
v'nakam yasheev l'tzrayv;
v'keeper ad'mato amo.

-w

I cannot improve upon Deuteronomy.

i am touched by candida and will.
Abu Tarleyb. i am not objective about my faith just as you are not objective about yours, you are a wise and knowledable man, surely you have eyes to see how many moslems lands there are and how many jewish homelands-only one!
It does not require science..if there is a power that is the one holding oil. let me reveal to you also a truth the corruption of the palestinian leaderhip that deeply disturbs me and saddens me to see israel as responsible for what it is not responsible for, among them not accepting missiles.
I have personal experience with the war from the neighbering countries and trust me sending missiles to myhome by saddam hussein did not make me think israel is so powerful but thanks to higher power and american antiomissile shield i am here to write today! that is the truth and like any truth it is never one but subjective...perhaps israel is strong but that is a strength of spirit and that is the secret weapon no one has been able to explan, not even einstein..salaam alekum!

sigalit,

i love the opening stanzas to this piece, as it carries a very alluring, seductive, and asymmetric tone... and then sets the last tone forth in the subsequent stanzas as a continuation or reverberation... while still maintaining a "retrogade eye" in revisiting "apologize", but you don't have "to explain... for a people that are so few." :)

I don't have to justify
what i want to be alive
why my people have a history
why i matter too?

...

I don't have to apologize
for wanting to be a jew.
I don't have to explain
why it matters 6 millions
for a people that are so few,

namaste,
jeff

thanks Jeff!

I am very objective about my faith, my sister in humanity. I am very much aware that there are criminals on both the Jewish and the Muslim side of the Divide. I choose to stand for what is right not who is most like me.

Both of us, all of us live in a world where peace is not just a good thing, it is an ecologically vital thing. if we do not learn how to get along, all out war could bring on an international holocaust like the world has never seen. Many Jews want to see the Palestinians (or the entire Arab race) wiped from this existence. Many Palestinians (and Arabs) want to see the Jewish people rubbed out of existence unilaterally. What's more likely to happen is that both would suffer such tremendous loss, that it would be a Shakespearian ending.

The issue of Palestine and Israel is not so cut and dry. It is complex. And it not only involves facts it involves passions.

Eventually the world is going to impose a state of affairs on Israel/Palestine that will not be favorable to either side. Both sides will probably react like spoiled brats. I pray that the loose cannons in the Jewish camp do not use its arsenal to try to force a round peg into a square hole. And I hope that he loose cannons amongst the Muslims don't use theirs for the same reason.

For this reason, I still say, that I would much rather see posts intelligently addressing this problem, instead of emotionally. Too much blood already has been spent because of inflamed emotions.

Peace,
ali

well, here my learned friend ali,
i think iswhere is your mistake-emotions do not contradict intelligent-and what do you call "intelligent"? factual from you has so far been quotes from islam that are facinating but hardly scientific.
i have more than one book as my guide , i do believe in diversity and so i shall quote from one of my favorite writers of the book "The little prince"
IT IS WITH THE HEART THAT ONE SEES
THE MOST ESSENTIAL IS HIDDEN FROM THE EYE
as for both sides..a good point however you have not yet answered my biggest question :
why the lack of debate in Moslem countries? why can't people voice their various opinions , why the group think mode?
read www.haaretz and you will find a lot of people thinking like you, a lot, butwhere , can you show me in the Arab media anyone that supports israel's right to live side by side the palestinians? !
you make excuses but what about one article explaining why palestinians act on emotions ..emotions are good as long as they come from a good place , the place of caring , that is where this poem comes from , because i care about my people ,because they have suffered enough ..as soon as you write why the leader of iran denies the holocaust and published cartoons mocking it, then i will feel you are genuine and honest in your statements about common understanding
i am still waiting an explanation to the enslavement of african brothers , to deny their forefather's traditions, i am still waiting..
from the good place in the heart is better than the bad place in the mind!

As God is my Witness, I only reached out to you via this media in hopes that we could, as friends discuss the issue of our sameness, as well as our differences. But I think that you are a little bit too pissed, at the moment.

I pray that you calm down a bit, and do not join sides with those radicals who believe that Islam is the devil, and wouldn't shed a tear if all one billion of us Muslims were wiped off the face of the earth, as the most radical Jewish Rabbis publicly proclaim. There are extremist on both sides of the fence, my fellow human. I am not one of them.

Neither group would be pleasing to the Prophet they claim to represent. Both sides have an interest in the same land. But that land is sacred. And the whole world has an interest in it. More than likely, the final fate of it, will be in the hands of God, and a rational global authority. Without a doub t, the logical solution will please neither side.