Dare I say it?

I'm going to dare, and if y'all try to throw stuff at me through your computer screens, you'll only hurt yourself. And I'll be sitting there going, nanannana.

On our tour in Chevron, (check out last post) as we were passing by all the arabs, I said 'I feel bad for them'. That earned me evil glares from my friends, and others who heard what I said, and a friendly slap from my friend. (Though that is an oxymoron, since when is a slap friendly.)

Let me clarify: if you were ever mugged, or beaten, lets say, by a black guy, or had your bike stolen (a major occurrence in the heights) then you will obviously feel resentment, even anger, towards blacks in general. But if you were honest with yourself, you will be able to separate your feelings and say, I have reason to hate or resent THIS one, but that is not a reason to hate all blacks. And I, for one, am not racist.

Now I understand what my teacher meant when he said that he loves all arabs. I can not make that statement myself, but I can say that I don't hate ALL of them. I hate the terrorists, I hate what they do to us, I hate the fact that they hate us and want us dead. I hate the evil in them, and the fact that they let the evil rule them. I hate that they brainwash their children to hate us too.

But I feel bad for some of them. The ones that are decent. The children, who have potential, and no real choice. As a human being, I look at them, and think what a pity it is that we can't all live in peace and harmony, that there must be constant fighting. I look at the children, and wonder, why can't I think, awww how sweet, that kid is so cute. Why must it be so complicated, why must there be issues?

I feel bad that they live in poverty. I feel bad for the women who are ruled by their husbands. We passed by a shop, and I'm pretty sure they were sitting inside doing drugs. At least thats what all the guys in our group said they were doing. Though I don't know how they would know it was drugs... But I thought it was incredibly rude how some people in our group just stood there, staring through the window at them, until a soldier came and closed the shutters. They may be 'bad', but they are still people, and in my opinion, manners are manners wherever you are. It is rude to stare.

I'm not stupid. I know that in general, arabs are taught to hate Jews, and some don't even have to be taught, they have it built in. I know that given the chance, some of them would take guns, and shoot us in a second, or find some other interesting way to kill us. But I won't generalize and say that ALL of them hate us. Just like I won't say that all blacks are bad. And in a democratic state, I know I have the right to say my opinion, and feel the way I do, and not worry about the strange glances I will receive from people around me.

I was holding a bottle of water, which was becoming a burden anyway, and I was getting tired of lugging it around. A cute arab boy walked up to me, speaking in arabic, pointing to the bottle. I asked him in hebrew if he wanted it. He understood my gestures, and nodded his head yes. So I gave it to him. I didn't need it anyway, and he looked so happy as he walked away, and poured it in the dirt, and played with it. My friend jokingly said, now they'll use it to make a bomb. I didn't find it funny.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion. If you think differently than I do, that's fine. I don't feel like being stoned just because I think and feel the way I do. And in my opinion, some people say things out of hatred, stupidity, or just because everyone else says it. Those are not reasons to form an opinion. But that is just my opinion.