Really, what is this?

What the hell? I don’t get why we pick sides on things like this.

First of all, both Israel and their various ‘enemies’ have done bad things. One magnificent example of this is the wall. Modern walls don’t keep people out; they keep people in.

In fact, walls haven’t kept people out since 1453, when Constantinople (and thus the last of the Eastern Roman Empire) fell. Gunpowder changed everything; while some attempts were made at super-fortifications, it was quite obvious by the 1700′s that gunpowder was superior to and outpacing any fortification attempts.

An easy modern wall to recall would be the Berlin wall. Think of how well that went over.

However, I’m not picking sides here. It’s easier to side against Israel for some reasons – mostly because they are a centralized group with an organized government. Bands of terrorists which are supported largely (but not in entirety) by the population are much harder to pin down; certainly they are dangerous, violent extremists, but they don’t reflect on the people as a centralized federal institution.

The popular election of a group like Hamas certainly doesn’t help anyone’s cause, though.

Regardless, really? Should we be boycotting a racism conference? Yeah, that totally is in line with our “Hooray we finally elected a black man” image. (And just to make a mini ramble, there are much larger groups that have been denied access to that highest office. There are more atheists in America than black people, for example, and women make up half the population. I’m waiting for a black, homosexual woman to be elected as President – and then having nobody notice this as particularly interesting or outstanding. That’s when discrimination will be largely over.)