- Joined
- Jan 25, 2013
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- 12,228
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- Location
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- Political Leaning
- Independent
In the summer of 2015, just three days after I moved to Israel for a year-and-a-half stint freelance reporting in the region, I wrote down my feelings about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A friend of mine in New York had mentioned that it would be interesting to see if living in Israel would change the way I felt. My friend probably suspected that things would look differently from the front-row seat, so to speak.
Boy was he right.
How a pro-Palestinian American reporter changed his views on Israel and the conflict - Arab-Israeli Conflict - Jerusalem Post
There is usually no middle road when it comes to the I/P issue. I myself a staunch defender and supporter of Israel for too long to remember. I literally have written no less than 200,000 words on the subject ( a god-damned book!) on political sites such as this and have yet to be persuaded to change my opinion, if anything, to the contrary, I've only become more convinced of my opinions.
I've avoided this issue for the most part on this particular site largely due to the fact that I've heard all the arguments, I've seen all the data, have listened over and over to the perceived unjust, heavy-handedness of the Israelis all of it and I find no enjoyment rehashing the same old rebuttals -- as true as they may be -- over and over and over again.
The behavior and outlandish claims, the stubborn refusal to seek compromise by the Palestinians and their supporters have actually moved my position further away from compromise, as I'm sure it has had the same effect on others. The same I'm sure will be said by the other side of the argument.
If more people on that side of the argument had the ability to be as open-minded as the author of this article I have no doubt they would find hard-liners such as myself more agreeable to meet them half way.
But until that happens...