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Post by theguvnor on Jan 13, 2024 23:19:26 GMT
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Post by tisbearself on Jan 19, 2024 15:43:54 GMT
Tried to read this but your link is dead, cannot be found. I tried removing the characters at the end and it's still dead. Found the story in the Irish Independent but it's paywalled. www.independent.ie/world-news/middle-east/huge-swathes-of-gaza-being-wiped-from-the-map-irish-lawyer-blinne-ni-ghralaigh-at-the-hague/a637092304.htmlI don't really think "Irish Americans" have one overall view about Gaza. I think most people in US who are neither Jewish nor Palestinian nor black just want peace and are equally appalled by people dying on either side of the issue. At the same time I think there is a feeling that this is not really the US's war and most people don't want to be heavily involved in it. There's always some fear that the US will rush in and have another Vietnam basically, with our people dying for some other country. I only have one US friend who's neither Jewish nor Middle Eastern and yet has a big opinion on Gaza. This person has a white Euro background of some sort (I never inquired as to what) and has been suffering through some severe family dysfunction/ trauma and glommed onto the suffering in Gaza as relatable or as perhaps a distraction from their own personal problems. I see this a great deal, sort of substituting a big global crisis for the small personal crises that are essentially ongoing for the longterm and that no one can really do anything about and that people are also probably tired of hearing about. There's only so many times people want to listen to someone be upset that they had a bad parent or that they ended up disabled from an accident. |
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Post by theguvnor on Jan 20, 2024 13:58:17 GMT
I haven't had much of a chance to answer till now. Apologies for the dead link. I'll see if I can find you another link. Of course 'Irish-Americans' is as vague as a collective noun as 'black' or 'Asian.' People obviously will vary in their points of view. I can definitely see why no-one would want Vietnam round two. I'm supportive of a ceasefire but I think the point that it is being used as something to project other traumas onto and through is valid. Many of the people joining in the marches in London are simply not likely to know all the much about these areas. One of them did try to discuss it with me at university. I had a feeling I was being set up. He noted I was using a book on Irish myth intersecting with Asian myth for a source and asked about my background. I gave him a brief reply and he then suddenly jumped to talking about Palestine and Gaza. I noted this is not a subject I think it is profitable for non-specialists to keep going on about. Especially as some of the conversations on both sides are less than charitable. He tried to keep going on it about so I asked him to tell me about the Palestinian mandate and the relationships of the various countries surrounding Israel with each other. He couldn't do this. I noted if he couldn't do that perhaps it was wisest to be careful in taking a position on the matter. I think I probably annoyed him but it is not someone I deal with much so it doesn't bother me to do so. My wife has a colleague who is constantly telling her about the horrors of having a horrid parent and growing up poor in Wales. She has become so annoying that people now exit staff rooms from breaks early if she suddenly appears. It's all she does and it makes people feel miserable. www.thenational.scot/news/24042943.blinne-ni-ghralaigh-lawyers-closing-statement-icj-case-israel-praised/ |
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