I was talking to an Israeli the other day about the situation going on right now between his people and the Palestinians.
He asked me what I thought of the situation. I responded that I had not had the chance to listen to both sides of the story.
This appeared to confuse him as he responded, "Why do you need to know both sides of the story? There is only one side: the side that is telling the truth."
This opened a whole new topic for discussion. I tried to explain to him the discrepancies in truth. He couldn't seem to understand that many things can slant truth. The most common slants are religion, family, and politics - the same three things you should never talk about while drinking.
He then retaliated with statements about how the United States would handle a similar incident. He told me we would go in and drop thousands of bombs at no specific targets, killing innocent people while we try get the people we were actually going after.
After trying for almost an hour to explain to him why you need both sides of the argument, I decided I should probably do some research to find out both sides of the story. Besides, it is usually fairly interesting to look at both sides of an argument (especially in times of war). This took me to several sites. Most were pro-Israel, but there were a few sites featuring pro-Palestine information.
I started out with the Palestine News Agency, which was only able to provide me with six news stories despite all the events happening right now. Perhaps it is the current situation that is preventing them from providing more information, but I made do with these six stories.
Three of the stories gave me insight to the Palestinian argument that Yasser Arafat is helping Palestine achieve its goal of becoming an "independent state on their national soil with Jerusalem as its capital."
The stories also discussed the hopes that U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell will succeed in restoring peace to the area.
Then there are the other three that refer to the "Israeli Nazi terror and criminal massacres." They poke fun at how long it took for Israeli armies to penetrate the Jenin Refugee Camp as if trying to instigate further fighting.
I found especially interesting how these stories referred to the "genocide" that followed the invasion, citing that Israeli armies killed women first, then children, then old people and finally the young men.
On the Israeli side of the coin, I started my reading with the Jerusalem Post. I was excited to see the collection of news contained on this site. Upon reading several stories, I started to notice similarities between the stories on this site, and the stories I read with the Palestinian News Agency.
The Post referred to the Jenin events as if they never happened, calling the stories lies.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said, "(Palestinians )look you in the eye and lie." The story also talked about how the massacres were exaggerated and talked about how "cautious" the invasion was. They also cited that had other armies performed the same invasion of the camp, they would have bombed the entire area.
The Jerusalem Post was very similar to the Palestine News Agency in its referral of suicide-bombing victims. They were clear to point out all of the children, women and old people killed by the suicide bombers. They gave detailed stories of their lives and families.
If I were to choose a side based only on the news available to me through United States news sources, I would probably be on the side of Israel. But our news sources are pro-Israel. So, in the same sense, if I were to choose a side based on pro-Palestine sources, I would probably side with Palestine.
I guess what I learned from all of this is that I am more confused than I was before researching. The only difference is now I know both sides of the argument.
Now that I understand that, I personally take no side in this matter, and it is probably a wise decision.
Write to Aaron at rantinrex@hotmail.com
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