Monday, March 9, 2009

I just had about an hour long debate about Arab/Israeli peace over the phone with my biological father. A brief background: we've never met. He divorced my mom and signed away his parental rights when I was an infant. I tracked him down thru his mom when I was pregnant in 2007. It was out of curiosity more than anything else, and now I sort of regret finding him. He's in New Jersey and I'm in Texas. We talk on the phone once in a while and email and he's mostly harmless, except when we talk politics, because it somehow always turns into a heated discussion about Israel.

He believes the Jews should leave or be removed from Arab lands. Tonight he thought he was teaching me a lesson that went all the way back to the Crusades, according to him. Arabs always get their land back. That was his final statement on the matter. No matter how much I told him that Palestinians did not have a "right of return" and multi-generational refugees should no longer be considered refugees, they should be allowed to live freely in the countries they now live in, his bottom line was always LAND!

We even discussed peace treaties and I reminded him that many many many peace treaties had been signed only to end in more Israelis being killed by Hamas and Hezbollah. You can't make treaties with terrorists and expect anything but deceit.

There's really no point in discussing things such as these because neither party is likely to be influenced, but I can't help it. I love it. I love discussing things that are real and substantial and meaningful. And the best thing about talking to Larrry is that he doesn't take anything I say personally. I told him his world view was narrow and ignorant and he just suggested I do some reading. Then I suggested he do some more research. It was fucking great!

The worst part, tho, is that he blames everything, including 9/11, on our relationship with Israel. He's an extremist. I just don't get it. Oh, and here's the kicker. He's Jewish. Weird, huh?


No comments:

Post a Comment