Peace Mongering Among "Pro-Israelis"

Thank for the term Peace Mongering Khaled! I sure felt like one these past few days lol. I get this urge to reach out, listen to others and debate things. I sometimes hope that the Internet may help bring people together, maybe help us listen, see other perspectives, get in touch with people with different points of view, learning from others. I still think that is possible, especially witn one-on-one encounters or on very well moderated boards. Otherwise, the other side of Internet discussions rises its ugly head.

I have experienced that only too well over the past 24 hours... I joined a board that declared itself to be "Pro-Israel" and "Pro-America". Now, some of the people posting there are good people, and there were a few posts in threads where I participated that were insightful and well written. I also got a nice PM from one of the moderators. That about ends the positive things I have to say about that board. It didn't take more than two or three members to make me physically ill at the extent of hatred. They reminded me of the fanatic Muslims on the Iranian boards. Calling out to make parking lots of Gaza and Lebanon... not much different than the Syrian poster on the Muslim board rejoicing over the mental image of a chemical attack on Tel Aviv.

The amazing thing is how extremists fail to see that they are mirror image of each other. A Jewish extremist is just like a Muslim one. The exact kind of distorted view of the world in black and white. The same de-humanization and demonization of the other side too. So similar and so blind to one another.

Similar style too, who would have guessed? Say something they disagree with and they go off a tangent right away, calling you every name in their book. I guess demonization becomes a habit after a while lol. It was actually quite funny to begin with. Check out this thread here. It struck me as funny, in the weird sense of the word, to have my support of Israel questioned, my contribution and willingness to "pay the cost" brought into this. Like I was some outsider looking into something that has nothing to do with it. Me, born and bred here, living here, serving this country in the military, raising my kids here...

There's a part of me that wants to move away from these kind of people (Jews or Arabs). Like IsraeliDad says, they're just nuts, so why deal with that? It's disgusting and not good for one's health. I keep telling him that we can't afford to ignore the extremists, because they are the ones who will end up dragging us all into more wars. In the end, it's us that pay the price, not just them (them as well, sometimes, but looks like they don't mind killing and dying like we do). I can and did put a couple of members there on "Ignore" - I'm just not sure we can all afford to do that irl.

Sigh, very frustrating indeed. And just in case there's anyone from "over there" reading this blog here... I doubt that I'll be back often. From time to time, maybe, but not too often. Too easy to get sucked in into that dark hole. Anyway, I wanted to say that my post here does not refer to everyone who posted there in threads where I participated. There are some sane people posting on that board as well... just too many psychos that are allowed to go on preaching their hatred. I can only stomach so much of that in any given period of time ;)