Have you been following Ahed Tamimi's case?

I’d completely forgotten about her. I see she got 8 months. The situation with Israel has to be one of the truly great ironies in history’s many tragedies. Of all the peoples on the earth, it now falls on the Jews to find themselves with their foot on the throat of an oppressed people. It’s almost unbelievable and is tragic BEYOND belief.

The only reason that the world even thinks about Ahed Tamimi is because she is a light skinned, light haired girl who doesn’t wear a head covering.

If it were a 16-year old male, swarthier or with darker pigment than Ahed Timi, no one would give half a crap about her.

The anti-Israel crowd has seized on her as a symbol because of her looks. She looks Western.

Not because of the justice of her cause.

I wonder if @thisismyusername will admit it…

@elbanditoroso: “I wonder if @thisismyusername will admit it…”

Umm…what are you talking about? Of course she is getting some play because of her “Western” looks. That’s how everything works. Here in the U.S., it takes some blond-haired suburban girl to go missing for the news to be interested. School shootings take on extra-importance because it’s no longer just black and brown people getting killed.

This is certainly part of why her case has gained any attention. But she isn’t just some kid. She’s been active for many years.

There has not been a lot of media attention but when it comes up I notice it. Not the same, I know, but….

I’ll be honest…I really don’t care. Let’s be serious…she is a violent protester in an area that has lots of violence. to me, she gets lost in the noise. I know…someone will try clocking me on “violent protester”. Get over it. She physically hit someone as part of her protest. That is violence. But really….who cares? And why?

@seawulf575 – I can’t believe it, I agree with you.

And to answer your question, look back at my previous response. She is getting all this attention because she is a light skinned Arab. End of subject.

@seawulf575: “I’ll be honest…I really don’t care.”

fair enough

@elbanditoroso It might be time to invest in space heaters for hell, eh? My suspicions are that she is being used (willingly) to push an agenda that will help the Palestinian efforts. Yes, she is a light skinned arab and she is pretty and feisty. All the things Arabs usually don’t like in their women. But they are forgiving her for having her hair uncovered and for being outspoken because she can garner sympathy from the world.

@seawulf575 and @elbanditoroso – I’m not sure why you think an obvious statement about Ahed’s “western” appearance is supposed to reason to dismiss her.

If we assume that western media has only given her a few seconds of airtime because of her appearance, this is a statement only about the western media. We all agree about this. How @elbanditoroso thinks that I “won’t admit it”, then I “admit it”, then he states “end of subject” is quite confusing.

Can I safely assume that you support the occupation, and therefore reject the premise of her fight?

@thisismyusername – you have a tendency to take 2 and 2 and make them add up to 15.

I never said that I support Israel (or for that matter, Palestine). I have tried hard NOT say who or what I support, because it isn’t a simple binary answer. You seem eager to make it into one.

Observing that the support for Ahed is based on her pigment is neither supporting nor denigrating her. Your question originally was “am I following it” and the answer was clearly yes. Then you started trying to convince me of your feelings.

You can’t conflate one question into a global assumption. It’s illogical.

@thisismyusername: “Can I safely assume that you support the occupation, and therefore reject the premise of her fight?”

The answer is – no, I can’t.

Honestly, I appreciate you answering. You’re proposing a position on things that I am so unfamiliar with, that it’s difficult to figure out. That’s all I’m trying to do here.

@seawulf575 and @elbanditoroso who cares? The reason the world cares (light skin, Western looks) is irrelevant. What IS relevant is that her case is one more troublesome nail in the coffin of zionist righteousness. While the girl herself is fortunate that she emerged from the confrontation without injury, Israel to a very large extent was also lucky. As past colonial conflicts have clearly demonstrated, time is not on the side of the “settlers” minus the incorporation of the “natives” into the overall society. The PR/propaganda war is unwinnable for Israel as long as its intractable problem persists. Already isolated, with the United States its only shield from universal sanction, long term prospects seem grim indeed. How long do you imagine the Israeli tail might continue to wag the fickle American dog?

@thisismyusername I’m not using her “western appearance” as a reason to dismiss her. I feel she broke the law and is getting punished for it. She has been raised to be a troublemaker. I feel sorry for her because I believe she is being used and has been most of her life.
I really don’t spend any time at all worrying about Israel or Palestine and how they are getting along, nor about the West Bank, or the “Occupation” or any of it. There has been strife in the Middle East as long as I can remember. It has become background noise to me. I don’t accept or reject the premise of her fight….I just don’t care about it. I’m certainly not going to make a martyr out of her violent protest.

@stanleybmanly And I will ask again…who cares? Do you honestly believe that if Israel ceased to exist today that really anything in the Middle East would change? As I mentioned to @thisismyusername as far back as I can remember, there has been strife in the ME. Some has involved Israel, more has not. Look at Syria…it is mainly al-Qaida rebels against the government. Look at Iraq before Desert Storm…Sunni against Shi’ite Muslims and everybody against the Kurds. Look at the Iran/Iraq war. Look at Desert storm…Iraq against Kuwait. Go back further…the 6-Days war, the Yom Kippur War. Go to the terrorist groups that have come out of the ME…the PLO, Hamas, Al-Qaida, ISIS…the list goes on and on. And in the end, I have gotten numb to it and really don’t care about any of it. If Israel tosses Palestinians out or if Palestinians boot Israel….I. Don’t. Care. And using this little girl as a poster child for violence doesn’t affect me at all. She is basically a thug. She has been raised to resort to violence to make her point. She deserves whatever punishment they have for her.

And if “Palestinians boot Israel” where do you suppose 90% of those refugees would choose to settle?

@stanleybmanly I don’t care. That is the part of this whole thing you really don’t get. If Israel was booted as a nation and they all wanted to come to the US, all I would ask is that they do it legally and that they preferably bring some skill to the party.