[Buddha-l] Re: Gog and Magog

[Richard Hayes]

On Tuesday 18 September 2007 17:43, Dan Lusthaus wrote:

> Now I find that fascinating. Barak offered Arafat the West Bank, Gaza and
> half of Jerusalem (including the Temple Mount and Western Wall).

Arafat turned it down. A foolish move on the part of a stubborn man, to be 
sure. But one foolish move cannot be used to characterize some sixty years of 
history, a sad history characterized by plenty of greed, hatred and delusion 
on both sides of the dispute. I have not seen much evidence of either side 
following Buddhist principles of relinquishing views, abandoning attachments, 
extending genuine love and friendship and trying to live in peace and 
harmony. I have seen plenty of individuals on both sides trying to do all 
those things, but I have not seen government leaders exemplifying such 
conduct. That being the case, I find it nothing short of tragic for any 
country to take sides with either the Palestinians or Israel. Alas, it is a 
legacy of the cold war that countries have taken sides. The Soviets chose to 
side with the Arabs, the Americans with Israel. Which was more foolish and 
short-sighted? I cannot see any way of determining the answer to that 
question.

The United States has made so many disastrously idiotic foreign policy 
decisions during the past sixty years that it would be foolhardy to single 
out any one as the most foolish and calamitous. Suffice it to say that the 
unqualified support of Israel has been one of dozens of blunders and that the 
world as a whole is much the worse off for this mistake.

But you know how I see the situation, and I know how you see it, and we'll go 
to our respective graves without either of us having convinced the other. So 
let's take up respectful silence on the issue and get back to discussing 
Buddhism (about which we also have profound disagreements -- or perhaps they 
are, after all, shallow, for we are both pretty much incapable of any kind of 
profundity).

-- 
Richard P. Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico
http://www.unm.edu/~rhayes