Comment Trail:

@ Simply Lujayn the blogger rants on a bit unintelligibly. One cannot quite follow the leaps from the purported topic of the post which is that "76 US Senators pressed Obama to “take into account the risks Israel will face in any peace agreement" to Lujayn's amusing recounting of history "(Israel) come out of nowhere, take your land, label it a Jewish state, make you into either a prisoner or a refugee, and strangle you in every which way possible" to a concern for international law and human rights abuses committed by none other than said Israel, to a psychological analysis of the strange hold that Jews have over "anyone[who] managed to put aside their historical guilt towards the Jewish people".

I don't see how it is possible to respond to the lack of rational discipline, the self indulgent absence of knowledge or verifiable facts that is demonstrated in these kinds of posts which are pretty typical of what one can find on the Arab blogosphere when "Israel" "Jews" or "America" are mentioned. The lies and invective are a consequence of decades long nearly Pavlovian conditioning, and the subjects can only react to a situation emotionally and mindlessly, rather than apply some sort of critical thinking.

Anyway, I decided to respond to the rant nonetheless by suggesting to the blogger that people who sit in glasshouses should not throw rocks:

"Is there a hotline somewhere I can contact to hand over the deeds to my home, land and life in exoneration for my sin of having been born on someone else's potential state?"

I often ask the same question myself:

"On first entering Syria, the observant traveler will probably be startled to go through passport control and notice a military map of Syria on the wall, for this map contains several anomalies. It shows the Golan Heights under Syrian control, though they have been occupied by Israel since 1967. Syria's boundaries with Lebanon and Jordan appear not as international borders but as something called "regional" borders. Israel does not even exist; instead, there is a state called Palestine. And Palestine is separated from Syria by a line designated a "temporary" border". Finally, the province of Hatay, a part of Turkey since 1939, appears to be included in Syria; only on close inspection can one see the "temporary" border between it and Syria.[2]

The many inaccuracies on this map reflect the Syrian rulers' profound unwillingness to accept the actual size and shape of the country they administer. They remember that until 1920, "Syria" referred to a region much larger than the Syrian Arab Republic of today, a region that stretched from the borders of Anatolia to those of Egypt, from the edge of Iraq to the Mediterranean Sea. In terms of today's states, the Syria of old comprised Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, plus the Gaza Strip and Alexandretta. This larger land, known since 1920 as Greater Syria, is what they dream of reclaiming."

http://www.danielpipes.org/books/greaterchap.php

And

"Or the risk of acknowledging its appalling human rights record."

I don't suppose there is any such risk of you acknowledging any of the following:


"The Hama massacre (Arabic: مجزرة حماة‎) occurred on February 2, 1982, when the Syrian army bombarded the town of Hama in order to quell a revolt by the Muslim Brotherhood. An estimated 7,000 to 40,000 people were killed, including about 1,000 soldiers, [1][2] and most of the old city was completely destroyed, including its palaces, mosques and ancient ruins."

_________

"According to the U.S. State Department’s 2004 report on human rights, Syria’s human rights record remains poor. A state of emergency has been in effect since 1963. Security forces continue to commit numerous and serious human rights abuses including arbitrary arrest and detention, torture in detention, prolonged detention without trial, fundamentally unfair trials in the security courts, and infringement on privacy rights. Police and security forces are corrupt. Prison conditions are poor and do not meet international standards for health and sanitation. The regime significantly restricts freedom of speech, press, assembly, and association. Kurds suffer systematic discrimination. After a brief period in 2000–2001 known as Damascus Spring, during which time independent debating clubs were established, satellite dishes became much more prominent, Internet cafés opened, new independent print publications were established, and political detainees from across the political spectrum were released, Decree No. 50/2001 was passed, which places severe restrictions on the media, especially the print media. According to Arab Press Freedom Watch, the current regime has one of the worst records on freedom of expression in the Arab world."

From the content, tone and shrillness of your mindless baseless, a-historical accusations, I see the Syrian regime has been wildly successful in its efforts to put a stop to any equitable flow of information or the capacity for independent thinking.

I assume, having just proclaimed Jews to be liars, usurpers and murderers, your invitation to Jews to return to Syria was something like:

"Will you walk into my parlour?" said the Spider to the Fly,
'Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy;
The way into my parlour is up a winding stair,
And I've a many curious things to shew when you are there."
Oh no, no," said the little Fly, "to ask me is in vain,
For who goes up your winding stair can ne'er come down again."

etc etc

"And now dear little children, who may this story read,
To idle, silly flattering words, I pray you ne'er give heed:
Unto an evil counsellor, close heart and ear and eye,
And take a lesson from this tale, of the Spider and the F

_________

Poor Lujayn. She seems a relatively decent sort with some correct instincts but still is incapable of transcending the evil teachings of her immediate environment. As the great Hebrew Russian poet Shaul Tschernichovsky once said in a poem:

A man is nothing but the cast of his native landscape.

________

Other comments:

@ Bob's

@ The Spine