Here's a unique perspective you don't often hear.
Back in 2002, I was bartending in a hotel lounge. A Palestinian immigrant who owned the deli on the same block as my bar usully stopped in for a shot of tequila after he closed up for the night. One night he came in shaken up. He had just heard that his family's house had just been demolished. A bulldozer drove right through it, almost killing his grandmother.
He was keeping himself together alright, but wasn't exactly in the best of spirits. I happend to have a house party to go to later that night so I invited him to come along. We went to the party and later in the evening he was telling someone about what happend. The other guy asked something I don't recall about the Israelie / Palestinian split, when my friend kind of rolled his eyes and said something you seldom hear.
He said that most of his friends back there were Jews, and that his mother and grandmother were currently staying with Jewish friends of the family who had taken them in. He said that in Israel, the majority of Jews support the piece process, get along fine with Palestinians and are opposed to the tactics used by their military. He said that blaming all Jews for the actions of an extreme right wing hawkish/ fundamentalist goverment would be like equating all Christians with George Bush.
He also said that the mass media in Israel is far more objective and reflective of the majority who support the peace process. Jewish owned newspapers in Israel are more sympathatic to the Palestinians than the American media.
Finally, he said that most Palistinians are aware of the shortcommings of the American press. They understand that the negative opinions about Israel, Palestine and the middle east in general that Americans have is due to being misinformed.
Well thats about all I remember him saying on the issue. He seamed to be more optimistic about the future than I would have expected. Mabey his story is only relavent to the town he was from, I don't know.
I'll refrain from giving any of my own opinions in the diary itself, so everyone can interpet this their own way. I realise this was a story from four years age so it may or may not be relavent. I just thought it was a perspective one never hears so I'd put it out there.