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Paco Despacio
I am here to learn about myself, others, and the realities beneath our beliefs and behaviors. I want to have a voice in the decisions my government makes and to contribute to dialogues directed at creating a peaceful world.
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Paco commented on the article |I don't know what I'd do if Canadians were lobbing missiles or sending suicide bombers into my community. I have never been in that position. It must feel terrible. Whatever I think I'd do now would probably change if I was really in that situation.Maybe I'd inquire about my role in creating a situation where the Canadians were taking such desperate measures with such terrible consequences. If there was something I could change in my behavior without compromising my integrity, I hope I'd try that first.Maybe I'd build a wall around Canada, kill a hundred Canadians for every American that died, blockade the country, assassinate their leaders, destroy their homes, industries, churches and farms, take their land away and refuse to talk with their elected leaders if I thought that was the only to protect myself. Perhaps I would drive the Canadians off their land and force them to flee to England and France. This strategy does not have a good track record when it has been used. From my current perspective I don't think it would stop the missile attacks.About your request that I speak up against Hamas' human rights abuses, I'll respectfully refuse. If you want to write about it, I will probably read it and inquire about what is true or not in what you are saying and ask myself why are you saying it.I am against all human rights abuses and killing of civilians. As a citizen of the United States I think it is my duty to speak out against the war crimes that my government sponsors and supports. As the son and grandson of zionists, I want to see Israel live up to the highest standards of human conduct and the ideals and visions of some of the original zionists and live in peace with their semitic neighbors. I don't claim to be righter or better than anyone. I don't know what I'd do if I were in the predicament of the Israelis or the Palestinians. I am subject to the same human weaknesses and strengths that we all share. I'm getting tired of the polemical adversarial tone of this discussion. I believe that open hearted dialogue, not self righteous argument is the path to a solution.
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Paco commented on the article |
Dear WebmasterEarlier I opted to get email notification of responses to the thread I posted on. As my mailbox fills up with these notifications I would like to opt out of email notification and just check the thread myself. How do I do that?Thanks.
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Paco commented on the article |
Steve, Did it take you long to go through your label collection to find the labels "Antisemitic" and "bait and switch" that you directed at my comments? I invite you to wonder what, if anything, is their relationship to reality?
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Paco commented on the article |
James,Are you saying that a Palestinian person who straps on a bomb and attacks Israelis is a criminal while an Israeli who sends missiles, or fires tank shells into densely populated Palestinian cities, or prevents medical supplies from reaching ill and gravely wounded Gaza occupants is not? If killing civilian non-combatants is criminal, then both sides need to control their criminals. Look at the numbers. And you call my thinking silly in three consecutive redundant posts? Wake up! Your inconsistent prejudiced partisan kind of thinking is prolonging the killing. If both sides wait for the other side to do right, the conflict will grow worse as more people will be drawn to violence after losing their loved ones to the other side's violence. The military strategies have been tried for decades and do not work. I'm ready for a different approach.
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Paco commented on the article |
Hi Steve,Are you willing to question your fantasy that people who criticize the actions of the Israeli government hate Israel?Israelis should be especially aware of the racist nature of walls since the Jews in European cities were forced to live behind ghetto walls by the Catholic church for centuries. What did the church claim they were protecting their people from? The anti-semitic stereotypes the church was spreading. My grandmother, who lived in a ghetto as a child told me that periodically the priests would preach an anti-semitic sermon and the gangs of Polish Catholics would go into the ghetto and attack the people and homes there. Does this resemble anything happening currently?Semites are defined in the english dictionary as Arabs an Jews. An anti-semite is defined as someone prejudiced or hostile toward Jews. What about Arabs? The US and Israeli rhetoric against Arabs uses some of the same stereotypes and behaviors as the old European anti-semites used against the Jews. Anti-semitism is still alive and thriving, only redirected toward the Arab side of the semitic people.
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Paco commented on the article |
PS. Steve, are you in the United States or Israel? I have some cousins on my father's father's side named Ornstein in the Cleveland area.
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Paco commented on the article |
Hi Steve,Your understanding that I am an Israel hater is something you made up. I wish for the people of Israel to live in peace and security with mutual respect and cooperation with their neighbors. Sell your Brooklyn bridge to someone who believes your rhetoric about the mideast.Many of the posts I am reading on this topic can be summarized to read "My side is right and your side is wrong. My side represents good people and your side represents insane, immoral, killer animals. If you criticize the actions of people on my side you hate all my people. The killing of my people is evil and the killing of your people is justified."This is the rhetoric of war. How much peace and security has it brought anyone? Do Israelis and Palestinians feel safer after all the killing?I stand with the Israelis and Palestinians who declare that military strategies are taking us further from a peaceful solution. I support those who are willing to enter a sincere dialogue about peace despite the intimidation they receive from the war profiteers minions, the militant religious fanatics. and the political opportunists in their governments.Being right and making your opponent wrong is a sad booby prize as long as the killing etc. continues.
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Paco commented on the article |
I agree with those who give credit to Israel and the Jewish people for the major contributions they have made to western civilization. As we saw in Nazi Germany, scientific, technological, and philosophical advancement does not prevent moral abominations.When will the human occupants of this planet learn that punishment is not an effective way to change people's behavior? It creates the opposite effect, making victims of people and creating a growing snowball of violence, enmity, and revenge.Just as Israeli violence against Palestinians motivates more Palestinian violence against Israelis, economic sanctions against Israelis, many of whom oppose the occupation and oppression of the captured territories is unlikely to lead to an atmosphere where peace is created.I don't know how or if it is possible to end the worldwide cycle of violence that threatens to bankrupt our governments and possibly destroy (the myth of) civilization. The best thing I have seen so far is for leaders of governments to TELL THE TRUTH about what is happening and change the atmosphere of lies, rhetoric, and secrecy that supports government and other terrorist violence.Unfortunately, when leaders like former president Carter and presidential contender Dennis Kucenich told the truth in public they were marginalized. I wonder if President Obama could survive telling the truth and practicing the government transparency he promised in his election campaign. I'm hoping he will give it a try.
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Paco commented on the article |
My heart is heavy and my blood boils when I think about the killing and destruction in Gaza. How can you compare the ineffective home made rockets coming out of Gaza to the state of the art missiles Israel uses to kill thousands of Gaza civilians in the hopes that along with the women, children, and old people in the buildings they destroy, some Hamas leaders will also be assassinated?
A consumer boycott will not stop the billions of taxpayer dollars that our government gives to Israel, nor the billions in arms trade that make up the biggest part of the Israel economy. If the people of the US want to influence Israel's treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, the territories Israel captured using US military aid, we need to get our representatives to tie humane treatment of Palestinians to US aid to Israel. Our government could also back the prosecution of Israeli leaders responsible for atrocities of the Gaza invasion for war crimes. Before threatening to bomb Iran for suspected development of nuclear capability, President Obama needs to acknowledge the elephant standing in the middle of the living room, Israel's nuclear arsenal that the US helped them acquire which is driving the nuclear arms movement in the middle East. -
Paco commented on the article |I wonder how the drug companies can sell the same drugs in Canada and Mexico for a fraction of what they charge here? They are enabled to do this by a Federal Law against bringing prescription drugs back into this country, even with a valid prescription. Meanwhile the drug companies are having their drugs manufactured in China and India, where quality control can have serious lapses which have killed a significant number of their customers, and poorly handled toxic waste from drug manufacture sickens and kills local inhabitants.The money the drug companies give to politicians through lobbying and campaign contributions is paying off in big profits for them at the expense of Americans who often cannot afford to pay for the drugs they need, or get sucked dry financially when they are old or ill and must forgo basic comforts and necessities in order to pay for the drugs.Repeal the laws against purchasing prescription drugs across the border and give Americans a break from price fixing in this country!
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