Re: [metatuning] Re: If you were president, what would you do?.3

In a message dated 11/13/01 6:27:28 PM Eastern Standard Time,
jdl@... writes:

> Funny you should mention this, since that has been exactly _my_ point
> when you've claimed we're welcome in Saudi Arabia! If the analogy
> of house/country troubles you, let us drop it.
>

Saudi Arabia is a country that does not allow tourism by non-Muslims. As an
individual I could never be invited to visit. So, when the government
invites the U.S., they accept...the invitation is so rare.

> Well then, I'm still waiting for some serious rationale for the
> settlements in territory outside the border of Israel.
>

I am not in favor of settlements outside the borders of Israel and never have
been. One reason this continues is the stubborn determination to live within
ancient religious areas. I have no such convictions. Yes, these have been
irritants in the peace process. They are related somewhat to an insistence
to live among neighbors. (Please try to hold back your incredulousness.)
Israelis no longer are comfortable with being pushed around.

> No. Israel has for years hidden behind the Holocaust to excuse its
> transgressions against acceptable behavior. That's Israel's guilt trip,
> not mine. And I'm not buying it any more.
>

Israel hides behind nothing. They are literally, out in the open. What you
call hiding behind guilt is something else for these people themselves.
Clearly, you are not as sensitive to them as you are to others. Personally,
guilt is not something that I associate much with present Middle East
politics.

> If I were prone to panicking, I would have done so long ago. Are you
> blind to the death that the U.S. has been dealing out in Afghanistan?
>

Obviously not. I am hoping that a better situation can be achieved following
some necessary force. It seems that this is becoming so.

> I would say that it is Bush, and those who support his indiscriminate
> bombing, who are panicking. Gotta kill someone, guilty or not, to prove
> that we're not wimps, eh?
>

I can't dissect your particular animosities with Bushes. I have never killed
anyone. But unless you have dealt with bullies, you would not necessarily
know how to react to them. The Taliban are bullies.

> I'd like to have a Bill of Rights that really meant something in the
> U.S., for that matter. Wouldn't you?
>
> JdL
>

Well, it's a lot better here than some other places I know. New York
certainly didn't put the Bushes on the map, you know.

Johnny Reinhard

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