DiaBLOGue

Ever since the dark hours of September 11, I have been disquieted about what is now called “The War on Terrorism.” While I share America’s moral outrage over the barbaric attacks on our nation and its people, I have also felt uneasy about the quick polarizing rhetoric, the boasting of our power, the clamoring calls for revenge, and the military force we have unleashed upon other countries. I have wondered if there weren’t a better alternative than to launch an all-out assault on a country (Afghanistan) that had already been devastated by recent wars (and which had suffered a million casualties in the decade of the nineties), to wage a preemptive war against another nation (Iraq) on the supposition that it was tied to the September 11 attacks, and to undertake the seemingly impossible eradication of terror from the face of the earth, if not from the hearts of its inhabitants. 

For more than fifty years, the conflict between Palestinian Arab nationalism and Jewish Zionism has been one of the most protracted and seemingly irreconcilable conflicts in the world. Most people have difficulties discussing this conflict in a detached or academic way because it is so fraught with emotion and consequence.