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textbooks can never be trusted, they're put out by the government. According to our textbooks Christopher Columbus was a fine upstanding explorer who did no wrong. It's very dangerous to mix up the beliefs of a government and the beliefs of it's people, especially in this day in age.

 

Our textbooks fail to point out an important contributor to history's negative aspects. Their textbooks teach children to hate the Western world, and support Islamic fundamentalism. Lame.

 

While we're giving land to this or that group, let's give some land back that we stole from the American Indians as well. And not just some pissy little section in Oklahoma...

 

As my grandson would say you learned me something

 

that was one little example, our textbooks lie about a hell of alot more than just Columbus. And I'm not saying I support the teaching of islamic fundimentalism, quite the opposite in fact, I'm simply pointing out that mixing up the beliefs of a government, and the beliefs of it's people isn't the wisest thing to do. Look at the vietnam war here for example. Children in school at that time were being taught that we were at war fighting for freedom and to stop the spread of communism, and so by that logic, you could say that all Americans supported the vietnam war, and all the atrocoties commited during it. But the fact is, more people worked to stop that war than ever before in our history, many many people didn't support it.

The same goes for slavery. Just because the government said it was OK, and enforced it, doesn't mean that huge ammounts of the american people didn't oppose slavery.

like I said, I'm not defending islamic fundimentalism here, I'm simply fighting the horrifying sterotyping and generalizations that can lead to huge problems. When we stop recognizing that people are in fact people, with pretty much the same morals as we have, and start thinking of them as a group with only one mind set, that's when we get ourselves and others into serious, irreversable, trouble. That's the kind of thing Hitler used to start the holocaust, and before you ball me out, no, I'm not saying that Israel is going to start a genocide, but I am saying that if we don't watch out, and pay attention to history, it will not be good.

 

The problem is that in some cases generalizations like "Many Arabs hate Jews" or "A lot of Palestinians would like to see the complete destruction of Israel" is true. Yes, it's dangerous to make generalizations that aren't true, but unfortunately these ones are. Also, why do you assume that these people have "pretty much the same morals as we do"?

Any comparison of the Israelis to the nazis or the Palestinians to the Jews in nazi Germany is completely wack. The Jews in Germany during the rise of the nazi party were peaceful, affluent, contributing members of society. They weren't blowing up german citizens in buses on their way to work. The Palestinians made their bed, and they're lying in it, as unfortnate as it is.

 

I suppose that if someone harbors hatred for others in thier heart then it would be very hard to see how others couldn't do the same.

I assume that thier morals are pretty much the same as mine, because I have faith in humanity, and because I have very good friends who are palestinian. A friend of mine's parents immigrated here from Israel, and they are NEVER anything but kind and lovely, as are all of her relatives that I've met, who are in fact from Israel. On many occasions I've heard them discuss the fact that what they really want is to see the violence stop, and see peace.

And please don't misquote me, I never said anything about the jews being like the nazis, and I never would, I have relatives who were killed in the holocause, don't twist my words.

I've said my piece, I'm done posting in this thread, I truly hope that you can someday find the love and faith for people that you soreley lack.

 

Back up there... first of all I never misquoted you. I never actually quoted you at all. You started to make comments that sound similar to the all-too-common "Israel = Nazis" argument, and I wanted to reply before someone brought that up. As far as me being anti-peace, and lacking love and faith- I have no idea where that came from. I never even suggested that MOST Palestinians hate Israelis... I just said that many do. I'm not trying to spread hate, I'm just trying to dispel some myths that are believed by some naive Americans, many of whom have never been to Israel, the West Bank or Gaza. It's good to have faith in humanity, but not when it blinds you to the brutal truth that this world is full of hurtful, hateful, ill-intentioned people. Please let me apologize for anything I could have said that could lead you to believe that I want anything less than peace.

If anyone else came to the conclusion from reading my posts that I lack faith in humanity and love for my fellow man, BY ALL MEANS SPEAK UP so that I can change myself for the better.

Shalom v'Salaam