Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!magnesium.club.cc.cmu.edu!news.sei.cmu.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!bogus.sura.net!darwin.sura.net!sgiblab!wetware!spunky.RedBrick.COM!psinntp!psinntp!bony1!jake
From: jake@bony1.bony.com (Jake Livni)
Subject: Re: FLAME and a Jewish home in Palestine
Message-ID: <C5stzJ.Er7@bony1.bony.com>
Organization: The Department of Redundancy Department
References: <Apr.9.16.53.52.1993.29422@caip.rutgers.edu> <1993Apr13.172422.2407@newshub.ariel.yorku.ca> <C5HJBC.1HC@bony1.bony.com> <C5rxH0.LJy@imag.fr>
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1993 20:23:42 GMT
Lines: 41

In article <C5rxH0.LJy@imag.fr> maler@vercors.imag.fr (Oded Maler) writes:
>In article <C5HJBC.1HC@bony1.bony.com>, jake@bony1.bony.com (Jake Livni) writes:

>|> Typical Arabic thinking.  If we are guilty of something, so is
>|> everyone else.  Unfortunately for you, Nabil, Jewish tribes are not
>|> nearly as susceptible to the fratricidal murdering that is still so
>|> common among Arabs in the Middle East.  There were no " killings
>|> between the Jewish tribes on the way."

>I don't like this comment about "Typical" thinking. You could state
>your interpretation of Exodus without it. As I read Exodus I can see 
>a lot of killing there, which is painted by the author of the bible
>in ideological/religious colors. The history in the desert can be seen
>as an ethos of any nomadic people occupying a land. That's why I think
>it is a great book with which descendants Arabs, Turks and Mongols can 
>unify as well.

You somehow missed Nabil's comments, even though you included it in
your followup: 

  >The number which could have arrived to the Holy Lands must have been
  >substantially less ude to the harsh desert and the killings between the
  >Jewish tribes on the way..

I am not aware of "killings between Jewish tribes" in the desert.

The point of "typical thinking" here is that while Arabs STILL TODAY
act in the manner you describe, like "any nomadic people occupying a 
land", killing and plundering each other with regularity, others have
somehow progressed over time.  It is not surprising then that Arabs
often accuse others (infidels) of things that they are quite familiar
with: civil rights violations, religious discrimination, ethnic
cleansing, land theft, torture and murder.  It is precisely this 
mechanism at work that leads people to say that Jewish tribes were
killing each other in the desert, even without support for such a
ludicrous suggestion.

-- 
Jake Livni  jake@bony1.bony.com           Ten years from now, George Bush will
American-Occupied New York                   have replaced Jimmy Carter as the
My opinions only - employer has no opinions.    standard of a failed President.
