Israeli-Palestinian Journal April 27th

Ok, so this short article does not really address anything particularly new in the world but I still think it addresses a few important things. It is going to be a bit difficult to try and directly connect it with Barcelona but there are still a few important connections that can be made.
Basically, the article addresses the recent death of a Hamas militant in the West Bank on Monday afternoon. He was unsurprisingly killed by the actions of Israeli soldiers who had surrounded his house and asked him to surrender. To make a long story short, the Hamas militant, Ali Suweiti, had been suspected of killing numerous Israeli officers/soldiers and was a prized asset for the Israeli military. However, he refused to “surrender” and promptly opened fire on the soldiers which forced them to return fire thus cementing his status as a “martyr.”
Now, I have chosen to talk about this situation because it touches upon one of the most difficult/controversial topics in modern history: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Although I am still torn with my feelings on the situation, I am certain that the conflict originated because of numerous political blunders. The creation of Israel has done nothing but cause havoc in the Middle East for the past 60 years. Now, this area is certainly not unaccustomed to chaos/persistent conflict…a simple look at the region’s history would reveal that this area has been one of the biggest “cluster fucks” in history that has constantly been plagued with tribal wars and unchecked aggression. We need only recall blatant reality that Islam is widely considered by many academics to be a religion “spread by the sword;” that existence in and of itself tells you a lot about the region. But I digress…
The conflict between Israel and the entire Muslim world is starting to become a bit sickening. Seriously, when is this going to stop? Sadly, I think there are only two options which few people neither like nor are willing to admit. The first of these is exactly what the majority of Arabs are calling for: the destruction of Israel and the reclamation of the Holy Land (I could easily go into greater detail about this topic because it is absolutely fascinating but I would easily write volumes on it so I will not address such intricacies). The other option is the one that few individuals, particularly those of us in the West, are terrified to even whisper: the destruction of Arab nationalism. Yes, I said it…seriously considering a way to keep Arabs from uniting against Israel and wanting to kill each end every Jew that they come across. The most logical option, the destruction of Islam. BOOOOM. The cat is out of the bad and the anvil has promptly struck the floor…
Now, I should stress the fact that I am not making anti-Islamic remarks here because I hate Muslims; rather, if I make the point because if it were possible I would do away with religion entirely. Religion has caused far too much bloodshed over the years and it is effectively holding society back but that is another story for a different day…back to the point at hand, it would seem that these are the only two logical options that will end this persistent warfare. We must not forget that the Arab peoples (and a majority of Muslims for that matter) consist of societies which are largely based upon tribal affiliations. To put it bluntly, the only thing keeping these people “together” are the tenets of Islam and their subsequent belief in Allah. The only reason that all the Muslim states hate Israel is because they are all Muslim and their Muslim “brethren” (Palestine) have been disrespected. Furthermore, the Jews are forced to hate the Muslims because they are now forced to fight for their survival because their grandparents refused to “give up” the Holy Land.
All in all, this situation has caused far too many headaches on the political/social arena and drastic measures need to be taken for any real changes to be made. Like I said earlier, it’s a bit difficult to connect this to Barcelona seeing as this debacle that the Middle East finds itself locked in revolves primarily around the resultant actions of the Allied nations post-WWII and the “bossy” United Nations. However, I think the only connection that can be drawn is the reality/thought that the Spanish people are slowly beginning to stop “trusting/turning” to religion for any sort of substantial value. In many ways, people are just practicing in Catholic practices because they are “traditional” NOT because God commands them to do it…as such, I think both Muslim and Jews alike should learn from Spain that religion is truly holding people back and is causing far too many problems. By the way, if you were wondering…I am not actually an atheist but I just strongly despise what religious values do to people.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/middleeast/27briefs-Westbank.html?ref=world