hatam_soferet (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hatam_soferet) wrote2004-07-15 05:42 pm
hatam_soferet) wrote2004-07-15 05:42 pm
(no subject)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3878891.stm
Exerpt: "Central to the Republicans' campaign is the message that the interests of Israel will be better looked after by a re-elected President Bush. In post-9/11 America, their argument goes that the US government and Israel now face a common enemy and must approach it in the same way."
We were in Barnes&Noble yesterday with friends, and took a photo - and immediately some little jobsworth came bustling up and told us not to take pictures inside the shop (politely telling us that we were welcome to leave and take pictures) and then a woman at the next table said something along the lines of "You're obvioulsy not New Yorkers; if your city had been attacked you'd be paranoid too."
Well, Will is a New Yorker and doesn't have a problem with pictures, and the rest of us had been in Jerusalem for two years. Now, call me unfeeling, but Jerusalem gets attacked rather more often than does New York, and if Jerusalem bookshop owners don't have problems with people taking pictures, there's no reason at all for New York bookshop owners to have problems. Compared to Israel, New York is just playing at being under terrorist threat. Granted 9/11 was nasty, but try living somewhere where every single day your bus is liable to explode. New York ain't got nuffin on Israel.
Which brings us to this article. The US and Israel *so* do not need to approach terrorism in the same way. When every New York restaurant installs guards and metal detectors, then maybe I'll believe that.
Grr.
Exerpt: "Central to the Republicans' campaign is the message that the interests of Israel will be better looked after by a re-elected President Bush. In post-9/11 America, their argument goes that the US government and Israel now face a common enemy and must approach it in the same way."
We were in Barnes&Noble yesterday with friends, and took a photo - and immediately some little jobsworth came bustling up and told us not to take pictures inside the shop (politely telling us that we were welcome to leave and take pictures) and then a woman at the next table said something along the lines of "You're obvioulsy not New Yorkers; if your city had been attacked you'd be paranoid too."
Well, Will is a New Yorker and doesn't have a problem with pictures, and the rest of us had been in Jerusalem for two years. Now, call me unfeeling, but Jerusalem gets attacked rather more often than does New York, and if Jerusalem bookshop owners don't have problems with people taking pictures, there's no reason at all for New York bookshop owners to have problems. Compared to Israel, New York is just playing at being under terrorist threat. Granted 9/11 was nasty, but try living somewhere where every single day your bus is liable to explode. New York ain't got nuffin on Israel.
Which brings us to this article. The US and Israel *so* do not need to approach terrorism in the same way. When every New York restaurant installs guards and metal detectors, then maybe I'll believe that.
Grr.