Reply #10: Just as we had "Israel-can-do-no-wrong" and "Israel-is-always-the-victim" [View All]

[IndianaGreen]

posters, we also have "Palestinians-can-do-no-wrong" and "Palestinians-are-always-the-victim" posters.

A fair and balanced view of the Middle East, and I don't mean it in the way Newscorp uses that phrase, forces us to remove our rose colored glasses about the different players in this sad and prolonged conflict. Hatred of Jews predates the creation of the State of Israel. Those that we refer to as Palestinians nowadays, were the poor and dispossessed that were exploited and abused long before there was an Israel to blame for their woes.

There are 3 factors that prevent us from dealing constructively with the IP conflict. One is the shameful and criminal role the United States has often played in the Middle East, the other is the equally shameful role of the Arab nations in fostering the IP conflict, and lastly, the threat posed to Israel and Palestinians by the rise of religious ideologues in their midst.

The IP conflict reminds me of that classic Star Trek episode starring the late Frank Gorshing, "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield." Here is the synopsis of that fantastic and highly relevant to IP episode, a story that deals with two beings having only one thing in common: the hatred each felt for the other.

Synopsis

The U.S.S. Enterprise intercepts a stolen Federation shuttlecraft which contains a humanoid named Lokai. Taken aboard the ship, Lokai tells the crew he is from the planet Cheron, and asks for asylum on the U.S.S. Enterprise. His most distinctive feature is that he is half black and half white, starkly separated down the middle of his body.

The U.S.S. Enterprise tracks another vessel, pursuing at great speed. The ship's only passenger beams on board and is discovers to be another humanoid from Cheron. The difference in this man, Bele, is that his black and white skin is reversed from Lokai's. Bele claims to be Cheron's chief officer sent out to bring in political traitors, and has been pursuing Lokai. The more the two men are aboard the starship, the more Kirk realizes that the basic problem between them — and their entire race, apparently — is their opposite color. Tiring of their bigotry, Kirk decides to ignore the two guests and concentrate on his original mission; to decontaminate the planet Ariannus, plagued with a bacteria that endangers billions of lives.

When Bele takes control of the U.S.S. Enterprise in a desperate attempt, Kirk sets the ships auto-destruct sequence instead of allowing the hijacking to continue, and the alien returns command to the captain. However, once planet Ariannus is decontaminated, Bele takes back his control over the starship and leads it back to Cheron. What they find is a long-dead planet, annihilated by their interracial bigotry. Lokai beams down to the surface to escape Bele, who follows. The U.S.S. Enterprise leaves them on the surface, to decide their own fates.

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TOS/episode/68800.html