In A Word - Hate: Strange how one emotion fosters death and destruction as in todays Middle East.
Gerald Eisman
July 13, 2006
Hate: To feel hostility or animosity toward. To detest. To feel dislike or distaste for
It can appear in a flash and dissipate as quickly. It can generate over an extended period of time and continue forever. It can be all consuming and life altering. It is an emotion called hate. It surrounds us, inculcates our mind and alters our psyche. It can precipitate war, murder, and many other crimes of passion. Moreover, nobody is immune from its ravages.
In the Middle East, hate reigns over all other emotions. Hamas, the recently elected Palestinian governing party, will not recognize Israel's right to exist. Hamas members harbor a hatred that dates back to the foundation of Israel in 1948. Hezbollah is another organization in the Middle East whose prime motivation is the extinction of the Jewish state. Among both organizations there cannot be less than 80 percent of their membership that was born when the nation of Israel was born.
Hatred isn't inherited, nor is it genetic. As the words to a show tune from South Pacific so succinctly state, you've got to be carefully taught. And so it is with the citizens of the region. They are taught to hate from the time they are able to understand their language and take their first steps. Children take to the streets, stones in their hands, waiting for a chance to toss them at an Israeli soldier, civilian or farm animal. They grow up willing to die taking the life of another with the promise of a reward of virgins in their next life.
Nor are the Israelis innocent of personal hatreds. Theirs is a history of wars and incarcerations, victims of jihads and suicide bombings and their own continued reprisals, all fostering hatreds of their own. They too could benefit from a change in attitude but each side is waiting for the other to capitulate.
Hatreds destroyed Yugoslavia. Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina were recognized as independent states in 1992. The remaining republics of Serbia and Montenegro declared a new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) in April 1992. Under its elected president, Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia led various incursions and interventions into the neighboring states to unite ethnic Serbs into a greater Serbia. These actions led to Yugoslavia's ousting from the UN in 1992. Serbia, however, continued its campaign until signing the Dayton Peace Accords in 1995. In 1998 and 1999, violent expulsions of ethnic Albanians living in Kosovo gave rise to an international response, which included the NATO bombing of Belgrade and the stationing of a NATO led force in Kosovo.
The Darfur conflict is an ongoing battle in the Darfur region of western Sudan. It is an apparent attempt at ethnic cleansing between the Janjaweed, a militia group composed of members of the local Baggara tribes and non-Baggara tribesmen of the region. The Sudanese government, while denying culpability and complicity with the Janjaweed publicly, have tacitly allowed the massacre of some estimate hundreds of thousands of Darfur natives and often participated in the battles. Here too, hatred has assisted in the killing of humans for no other obvious reasons.
Genocide is defined as the intentional extermination of a specific ethnic, racial, or religious group. Compared with war crimes and crimes against humanity, genocide is generally regarded as the most offensive crime. At its worst, genocide pits neighbor against neighbor and husband against wife. Unlike war, where the attack is general and the object is often the control of a geographical or political region, genocide attacks an individual, his identity, and his very life and the object is control, or complete elimination, of a group of people. There is a history of genocide in the 20th century which includes the 1915 genocide of Armenians by Turks, the widespread genocide in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo by the Serbs in the 1990s and the killing of Tutsis by Hutus in 1994
By far, however, was the attempt to eliminate the European Jews by the Nazis in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Led by the infamous Adolph Hitler, Germany managed to conquer all of Europe except for Great Britain. His armies had even invaded Russia and marched through the country as far as Stalingrad before the tides of war turned and the United States entered the fray. Before Germany was defeated, more than six million souls were exterminated in the Nazi concentration camps, most of them Jews. Hitler also targeted Gypsies and the infirm in his attempt to create a master race.
Hatred, the basest of emotions, can erupt in an instant though that isn't the normal way. Usually, it is anger that erupts. Hatred is a learned emotion that has become the bane of man. If every man woman and child learned to practice the attitude of LALL (live and let live), the world would be a far better place.
It can appear in a flash and dissipate as quickly. It can generate over an extended period of time and continue forever. It can be all consuming and life altering. It is an emotion called hate. It surrounds us, inculcates our mind and alters our psyche. It can precipitate war, murder, and many other crimes of passion. Moreover, nobody is immune from its ravages.
In the Middle East, hate reigns over all other emotions. Hamas, the recently elected Palestinian governing party, will not recognize Israel's right to exist. Hamas members harbor a hatred that dates back to the foundation of Israel in 1948. Hezbollah is another organization in the Middle East whose prime motivation is the extinction of the Jewish state. Among both organizations there cannot be less than 80 percent of their membership that was born when the nation of Israel was born.
Hatred isn't inherited, nor is it genetic. As the words to a show tune from South Pacific so succinctly state, you've got to be carefully taught. And so it is with the citizens of the region. They are taught to hate from the time they are able to understand their language and take their first steps. Children take to the streets, stones in their hands, waiting for a chance to toss them at an Israeli soldier, civilian or farm animal. They grow up willing to die taking the life of another with the promise of a reward of virgins in their next life.
Nor are the Israelis innocent of personal hatreds. Theirs is a history of wars and incarcerations, victims of jihads and suicide bombings and their own continued reprisals, all fostering hatreds of their own. They too could benefit from a change in attitude but each side is waiting for the other to capitulate.
Hatreds destroyed Yugoslavia. Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina were recognized as independent states in 1992. The remaining republics of Serbia and Montenegro declared a new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) in April 1992. Under its elected president, Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia led various incursions and interventions into the neighboring states to unite ethnic Serbs into a greater Serbia. These actions led to Yugoslavia's ousting from the UN in 1992. Serbia, however, continued its campaign until signing the Dayton Peace Accords in 1995. In 1998 and 1999, violent expulsions of ethnic Albanians living in Kosovo gave rise to an international response, which included the NATO bombing of Belgrade and the stationing of a NATO led force in Kosovo.
The Darfur conflict is an ongoing battle in the Darfur region of western Sudan. It is an apparent attempt at ethnic cleansing between the Janjaweed, a militia group composed of members of the local Baggara tribes and non-Baggara tribesmen of the region. The Sudanese government, while denying culpability and complicity with the Janjaweed publicly, have tacitly allowed the massacre of some estimate hundreds of thousands of Darfur natives and often participated in the battles. Here too, hatred has assisted in the killing of humans for no other obvious reasons.
Genocide is defined as the intentional extermination of a specific ethnic, racial, or religious group. Compared with war crimes and crimes against humanity, genocide is generally regarded as the most offensive crime. At its worst, genocide pits neighbor against neighbor and husband against wife. Unlike war, where the attack is general and the object is often the control of a geographical or political region, genocide attacks an individual, his identity, and his very life and the object is control, or complete elimination, of a group of people. There is a history of genocide in the 20th century which includes the 1915 genocide of Armenians by Turks, the widespread genocide in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo by the Serbs in the 1990s and the killing of Tutsis by Hutus in 1994
By far, however, was the attempt to eliminate the European Jews by the Nazis in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Led by the infamous Adolph Hitler, Germany managed to conquer all of Europe except for Great Britain. His armies had even invaded Russia and marched through the country as far as Stalingrad before the tides of war turned and the United States entered the fray. Before Germany was defeated, more than six million souls were exterminated in the Nazi concentration camps, most of them Jews. Hitler also targeted Gypsies and the infirm in his attempt to create a master race.
Hatred, the basest of emotions, can erupt in an instant though that isn't the normal way. Usually, it is anger that erupts. Hatred is a learned emotion that has become the bane of man. If every man woman and child learned to practice the attitude of LALL (live and let live), the world would be a far better place.
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