A Blog from the Palestinian Side

to Haitham Sabbah, a Palestinian activist and blogger.



You and I may share some thoughts. While I consider myself a zionist, I also feel strongly that there is a huge lack of understanding of the role European nationalism and racism played in early zionism.

Who benefits most form this conflict? Who actually started it?
I am Andalusisan by ancestry and feel that Israel should be part of a renaissance of the kind that El Andalus offered before its invasion by Christian barbarians.

I feel deeply that the great heritage of the semites has been the victim of Christian hegemony. While we fight over who gets to pray on the Temple Mount, how many know that until the liberalization fo Jerusalem by Ummar, the Temple Mount was used as a garbage dump and Jews were not allowed in Jerusalem much less on the hill? How many know the rtole Maimonides played under Saladin or , for that matter, the huge commonality between Islam and Judaism on matters of law?

Put another way, the last 50 years of conflict seem to me more in the interests of the Nazis and the worst ideas of Christendom then in the interests of either of us.

I am certainly more of an optimist than you are. I have little idea about how, short of a holocaust inflicted on one side or the other, you imagine a solution occurring? It seems to em there are huge opportunities for better ideas and, like you, I feel those must begin with ending what Jimmy Carter has rightly called the apartheid of the Palestinian exiles.

So, why am I writing? I blog as as SeattleJew. SJ is a very doifferent sort of blog than yours, wider in focus and more a new stream than a commentary. One reaosn I value your blog is that I often find news here that I can not find elsewhere.

It seems to me that there is an opportunity for new kind of blog,
a more ambitious effort that will be Huffington with a news stream and regular contributors but a broader news stream that is not limited to American liberalism.

I believe that the key to such a blog is shared belief in knowledge, rationalism, and the needs of all people. I already have very rational contributors, for example, who are fundametalist Christians .. opposed to birth control, etc.

I would hope that this new blog would be open enough to host strong views on different sides of issues .. especially to be a place where folks can go to find real news.

Bottom line, let me know if this interests you and of course I wold be leased to hear from you via my blog as well.

Steve (Shmoel)