Danny D’Onofrio
1/26/09
Blog: Peace, Propaganda, and The Promise Land
Today I watched a film about the issues and violence in the Middle East. The film explained the violence and tension between the Palestine’s and Israelis. I really enjoyed this film because I have taken other history classes but never learned about the Muslim conflicts. As I was watching the film I was shocked about the problems both of these nations have. I always watch the news and as I am watching sometimes they show the Middle East issues. The film, unlike the news, does not show the young innocent people getting killed for indescribable reasons or for no reason at all. Even young children are being affected. I also feel that the reason why we don’t get this footage on American news is because our government does not want us to see what really goes on. If our government released that kind of footage to the public we would all have a different view of the Middle East. In my opinion the Middle East needs to find peace and eventually as time goes on I know they will and also I feel that we, as a nation, we should look more into what goes on there and take that to consideration.
I hope we get to see more films like this because this has changed my view of the Middle East. I am interested in their beliefs and the different issues they have yet to solve.
I wanted to clarify a few things that you seem slightly confused on, correct me if i'm wrong, but.. first, this is not a "muslim" conflict, but I definitely understand why youd think that, and I agree with you when you mentioned americans view on the middle east. westerners vaguely understand the middle east and have a very negative view towards this region, which shouldn't always be the case. The middle east, their beliefs, etc are an incredible part of our world, even though their immensely troubled. but that's another conversation.. the conflict is often overlooked as a war simply concerning history and religion, these are only some elements of the fight though. The arab-israeli conflict is a modern, political conflict and at it's core lies the Israeli- Palestinian conflict; a struggle b/w two peoples with overlapping claims to the same piece of land..this piece of land happens to be holy for jews, christians, and muslims- but this fact only adds another dimension to the fight. as a nation, we're constantly looking to help cease this struggle, it was not a primary priority for Bush unfortunately, but Clinton was head of the Camp-David Taba negotiations in 2000-01, presidents before him helped immensely, and now Obama assures our country he will do the same, and thus far has kept his word..I hope this helped you out a bit
ReplyDeletebut don't forget that at the same time that America is trying to find peace in the middle east, they taking the natural resources, and killing people in Iraq, destroying dreams, who could a nation(America) be the one that trying to find peace in the middle east ,while they supply Israel with more than 4 billion dollars ayear, most of it goes to the Army. Bush and his group, had a plan in 1997, i forgot the name of it, but this plan's goal, is to control oil since its being the most needed natural resource on earth in any kind of way.
ReplyDeleteI would tend to agree that sometimes censorship in American media waters down the actual news and people do not get to see the whole story. Unfortunately I don't see that changing in our culture anytime soon, but I don't understand how you can pick and choose what people see. The news should be the news, not whatever that station deems appropriate to show the viewers.
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ReplyDeleteI too have taken many history classes but never learned about the conflict in the Middle East. I also never knew that most of the news we receive is “water-down”. It is not first-hand news what so ever. That is something that really got me mad after watching the film. To know that the news I read and listen too on the conflict in the Middle East is sometimes false, bias and far from the truth.
ReplyDeleteIm glade we are all taking a class that is not watered down but an accurate and unbiased account of the history of the Middle East. I think obviously the war in Iraq in the beginning was distorted by the media to make it seem as though the war was going a lot smoother that it was. I think if more people from the start receive the truth a solution to their problems will be resolved quicker.
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