Jared drunk quote of the day:
'Just because I touch my feminine side doesn't mean that I'm gay'.
=============================
The day Ariel Sharon went up on the temple mount with an excessive amount of police force (the reasons for which I'm still at a loss about) was the EXACT DAY that the era I grew up in died and a new era began. I can locate an exact day that everything I thought I knew about the world was proven false. It's taken me quite a long time to come to terms with this new reality but 9/11 helped.
You see it's said in Israel that the intifata was planned before this event occured, but the fact is we will never know that for a fact now and that cultures find all sorts of ways to justify themselves. In other words I don't buy this excuse. I blame Sharon for this mess.
I also blame Arafat, not one week before Sharon pulled his stunt Arafat had been offered 97% of the land he asked for by Ehud Baraq. If Arafat seriousy wanted peace and wanted what was best for the Palestinian people he would have taken the offer.
Sharon and Arafat are single handedly responsible for creating and sustaining this conflict from 20 years ago to the present moment if you ask me. That said: There are greater economic forces at work here that operate in ways that I don't pretend to understand but I'm pretty sure that if oil wasn't an issue the entire 'War on Terror' in the greater scheme of things would never have taken place because Islamic fundamentalists wouldn't have had any funding to begin with.
Now that I've gone off on a tangent for a moment, let me return to the topic at hand: The opening of the Al Asqa Intifata.
Until this point in time I was under the impression that peace was more or less wrapped up and Israel was going to be the next big thing of the world map - what with all it's technological prowess that I'd heard so much about (most major high tech companies at that time and this one have R and D offices here). I figured going to school for Computer Science in Israel was an increadibly strategic move. I pretty much thought that when peace in the middle east was wrapped up this place would be the next silicon valley and I was beating everyone here - and that was the impression that everyone else in my program was under at first as well.
Oh, how we were wrong. Oh, how I've still not quite completely recovered from that shock. Oh, what the FUCK am I doing here???
Sharon went up on the temple mount and the peace process came down with him. Don't get me wrong - things were shaky already at this point but there was still hope. But not after that pointless stunt. Sharon - 'the butcher of Gaza' - going in to see the Al Asqa mosk.
What an asshole.
After that day terrorism surged. 'Jihad!' was being screamed at the top of their lungs all through the west bank and Gaza. A win-win situation became a lose-lose situation in a single day
You would think that after we restricted their passage to their jobs they would stop. You would think that when we cut off their electricity they would stop. You would think that after we killed all their important and strategic leaders they would stop. You would think that starvation would tire them.
You would think.
But you'd be wrong.
The most vicious animal is the one who is fighting for it's life. The most zealous assain is the one who will get the job done at all costs.
The Palestinians are hungry, angry, and full of religous furvor. The conflict could carry us straight into the 'Hyperion'* senario if something doesn't change quick.
Be that as it may I suppose the reason I stayed when I saw everything go to shit was twofold:
1. I was in complete shock and couldn't digest what happened.
2. It all fell aparent so quickly that I didn't realize what the reprecussions would be.
There actually came a point in that year when as soon as something loud exploded the ASSUMPTION wasn't a gas line or construction or something, it was terrorism. THE ASSUMPTION. And the sick thing is that: No one around seemed too bothered.
I don't think anyone had really processed what had happened - and thats why they didn't seem too bothered that first year. It was in the second year that the depression hit and hit HARD. The depression that hit that second year has since subsided but not ended. I know someone who killed himself that year and everyone else was probably worse off. My personal solution was to read the whole Vampire Chronicles and smoke a lot of weed.
So I did alright but everyone else looked like they were about to cry the whole time.
But I get ahead of myself again. Where we are is November of 2000. The intifata has begun. I've just failed some midterms, made a new best friend who has to be the most intelligent person who I have ever known and I'm now living in a kick ass Hertzlya apartment with a huge roof.
Ladies and Gentemen we've begun our decent - please return your tray tables to their upright and locked positions. Stew away any personal electronic equipment that you may have and secure your seat harness. Thank you for flying ELAL and have a nice day in Tel Aviv or wherever your final destination may be.
Repeat in Hebrew.
We had begun our decent, that's for sure. Like I said I hadn't really processed this but I did have an intuitive sense that things were beginning to fall apart both in my world view and in the economic climate of Israel and the world (still not sure if that's related but a the time it was one and the same in my head). A downterm in the international high tech industry couldn't have hit at a worse time and one has to wonder with all that R and D in Israel IF maybe the two events were somehow related?
I dunno; point was everything in my personal universe went to shit at the same time and at that exact time my new best friend was offering a lot of quick and easy religous answers and in that sickly state of mine I took the bait. I started studying Jewish mysticism and smoking pot and everything SEEMED to make a lot more sense at the time accordingly. And given my strong Jewish education up to this point in hindsight this was all just begging to occur at some point so I can't be TOO down on myself for falling into the trap for this religous nonsense.
The thing you have to worry yourself with concerning religons is FAITH. They all want you to have Faith but only faith in their ideas and no one elses.
Anyone who asks you to have faith in something is trying to use you. Take it from the voice of experience.
Not that I'm not still friends with Marc - and he seriously is the smartest person I'll probably ever meet - but the boy is damn misguided.
*In the SF book 'Hyperion' by non-Jewish author Dan Simmons the Palestinians eventually Nuke the entire planet earth in their wrath against 'The infidels'.
'Just because I touch my feminine side doesn't mean that I'm gay'.
=============================
The day Ariel Sharon went up on the temple mount with an excessive amount of police force (the reasons for which I'm still at a loss about) was the EXACT DAY that the era I grew up in died and a new era began. I can locate an exact day that everything I thought I knew about the world was proven false. It's taken me quite a long time to come to terms with this new reality but 9/11 helped.
You see it's said in Israel that the intifata was planned before this event occured, but the fact is we will never know that for a fact now and that cultures find all sorts of ways to justify themselves. In other words I don't buy this excuse. I blame Sharon for this mess.
I also blame Arafat, not one week before Sharon pulled his stunt Arafat had been offered 97% of the land he asked for by Ehud Baraq. If Arafat seriousy wanted peace and wanted what was best for the Palestinian people he would have taken the offer.
Sharon and Arafat are single handedly responsible for creating and sustaining this conflict from 20 years ago to the present moment if you ask me. That said: There are greater economic forces at work here that operate in ways that I don't pretend to understand but I'm pretty sure that if oil wasn't an issue the entire 'War on Terror' in the greater scheme of things would never have taken place because Islamic fundamentalists wouldn't have had any funding to begin with.
Now that I've gone off on a tangent for a moment, let me return to the topic at hand: The opening of the Al Asqa Intifata.
Until this point in time I was under the impression that peace was more or less wrapped up and Israel was going to be the next big thing of the world map - what with all it's technological prowess that I'd heard so much about (most major high tech companies at that time and this one have R and D offices here). I figured going to school for Computer Science in Israel was an increadibly strategic move. I pretty much thought that when peace in the middle east was wrapped up this place would be the next silicon valley and I was beating everyone here - and that was the impression that everyone else in my program was under at first as well.
Oh, how we were wrong. Oh, how I've still not quite completely recovered from that shock. Oh, what the FUCK am I doing here???
Sharon went up on the temple mount and the peace process came down with him. Don't get me wrong - things were shaky already at this point but there was still hope. But not after that pointless stunt. Sharon - 'the butcher of Gaza' - going in to see the Al Asqa mosk.
What an asshole.
After that day terrorism surged. 'Jihad!' was being screamed at the top of their lungs all through the west bank and Gaza. A win-win situation became a lose-lose situation in a single day
You would think that after we restricted their passage to their jobs they would stop. You would think that when we cut off their electricity they would stop. You would think that after we killed all their important and strategic leaders they would stop. You would think that starvation would tire them.
You would think.
But you'd be wrong.
The most vicious animal is the one who is fighting for it's life. The most zealous assain is the one who will get the job done at all costs.
The Palestinians are hungry, angry, and full of religous furvor. The conflict could carry us straight into the 'Hyperion'* senario if something doesn't change quick.
Be that as it may I suppose the reason I stayed when I saw everything go to shit was twofold:
1. I was in complete shock and couldn't digest what happened.
2. It all fell aparent so quickly that I didn't realize what the reprecussions would be.
There actually came a point in that year when as soon as something loud exploded the ASSUMPTION wasn't a gas line or construction or something, it was terrorism. THE ASSUMPTION. And the sick thing is that: No one around seemed too bothered.
I don't think anyone had really processed what had happened - and thats why they didn't seem too bothered that first year. It was in the second year that the depression hit and hit HARD. The depression that hit that second year has since subsided but not ended. I know someone who killed himself that year and everyone else was probably worse off. My personal solution was to read the whole Vampire Chronicles and smoke a lot of weed.
So I did alright but everyone else looked like they were about to cry the whole time.
But I get ahead of myself again. Where we are is November of 2000. The intifata has begun. I've just failed some midterms, made a new best friend who has to be the most intelligent person who I have ever known and I'm now living in a kick ass Hertzlya apartment with a huge roof.
Ladies and Gentemen we've begun our decent - please return your tray tables to their upright and locked positions. Stew away any personal electronic equipment that you may have and secure your seat harness. Thank you for flying ELAL and have a nice day in Tel Aviv or wherever your final destination may be.
Repeat in Hebrew.
We had begun our decent, that's for sure. Like I said I hadn't really processed this but I did have an intuitive sense that things were beginning to fall apart both in my world view and in the economic climate of Israel and the world (still not sure if that's related but a the time it was one and the same in my head). A downterm in the international high tech industry couldn't have hit at a worse time and one has to wonder with all that R and D in Israel IF maybe the two events were somehow related?
I dunno; point was everything in my personal universe went to shit at the same time and at that exact time my new best friend was offering a lot of quick and easy religous answers and in that sickly state of mine I took the bait. I started studying Jewish mysticism and smoking pot and everything SEEMED to make a lot more sense at the time accordingly. And given my strong Jewish education up to this point in hindsight this was all just begging to occur at some point so I can't be TOO down on myself for falling into the trap for this religous nonsense.
The thing you have to worry yourself with concerning religons is FAITH. They all want you to have Faith but only faith in their ideas and no one elses.
Anyone who asks you to have faith in something is trying to use you. Take it from the voice of experience.
Not that I'm not still friends with Marc - and he seriously is the smartest person I'll probably ever meet - but the boy is damn misguided.
*In the SF book 'Hyperion' by non-Jewish author Dan Simmons the Palestinians eventually Nuke the entire planet earth in their wrath against 'The infidels'.
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
trevallion:
Dude, throughout its history Muslims have been known to fight to the death for any holy cause. If you thought you were getting 20 virgins in heaven if you died for your god, wouldn't you not give a fuck? That's why they are relentless. They don't fear death.
trevallion:
I joined your SGClan group cause I felt sorry for you 