Reply #60: never said i was an expert...never claimed it... [View All]

[pelsar]

and i havent lived in the westbank nor gaza..never claimed that either....one the other hand i do live in israel speak a few relevant languages, have spent time in Gaza and the westbank, seen the changes with my own eyes over the last 20 years and been told very clearly what to expect from the environment each time, very clearly....and hear the interviews, see the image daily (its relative) and speak with israeli arabs.

i probably have different experience than she does and hence a different view....I doubt shes patrolled khan junis (gaza) from pre intifdada up to intifada II...that provides a far different set of experiences that what she goes through. I get the impression that she doesnt spend much time with the different israelis, educated and not from central israel who have spent time in the territories...to know how we see the Palestinians. Furthermore, i actually prefer israeli arab reporters who i believe understand the culture far more than she does. I get the impression that her view is from the "white elite colonialist view point".......she doesnt write about the israelis that i know and work with, i never seem to recognize them (me) in her writings...so from my point of view its makes it suspect.

i wouldnt mind her coming to the forum...she could obviously provide additional information that i know nothing about, nor does it bother me to have it and be corrected when wrong. I dont believe information is to be discarded because i may or may not like its source (its seems many here have that problem...sort of website racism....). And when she starts calling israel an apartheid state i will disagree and ask her why she "get to redefine the word.

i like to believe empirical evidence more than "what people say"..hence when Palestinians appear on israeli TV, are heard on the radio, etc its tends to personalize them for everybody watching TV....in fact during the latest lebanese war, one of the tv stations had live interviews with lebanese in beruit...The arab and Palestinians dont interview israelis on TV nor on the radio nor in print

when that starts happening you'll have a case that the Palestinians and arabs recognize us israelis as humans.....in the meantime we do and they dont.
(where is the arab/palestenain version of Amira Hass?)



as far as the second ad...i dont save info, i'll see if i can find it for you....

in answer to your title: i actually do know more about the conflict in its present state then most of the posters here, part of via personal experiences as well as via everyday news as well as people i know and speak with, who also live here. I find the accusation that people who have never even been here, dont speak any of the relevant languages may know more than me on the "citizen level", rather absurd...but then its human nature to not want information that makes us uncomfortable or tends to interfere with a point of view (its easier to discard it)....thats been my experience here at the DU.