#pal

Suppose that a man leaps out of a burning building—as my dear friend and colleague Jeff Goldberg sat and said to my face over a table at La Tomate in Washington not two years ago—and lands on a bystander in the street below. Now, make the burning building be Europe, and the luckless man underneath be the Palestinian Arabs. Is this a historical injustice? Has the man below been made a victim, with infinite cause of complaint and indefinite justification for violent retaliation? My own reply would be a provisional 'no,' but only on these conditions. The man leaping from the burning building must still make such restitution as he can to the man who broke his fall, and must not pretend that he never even landed on him. And he must base his case on the singularity and uniqueness of the original leap. It can't, in other words, be 'leap, leap, leap' for four generations and more. The people underneath cannot be expected to tolerate leaping on this scale and of this duration, if you catch my drift. In Palestine, tread softly, for you tread on their dreams. And do not tell the Palestinians that they were never fallen upon and bruised in the first place. Do not shame yourself with the cheap lie that they were told by their leaders to run away. Also, stop saying that nobody knew how to cultivate oranges in Jaffa until the Jews showed them how. 'Making the desert bloom'—one of Yvonne's stock phrases—makes desert dwellers out of people who were the agricultural superiors of the Crusaders. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#analogies #arabs #colonialism #crusades #europe

It is sufficient to say, what everybody knows to be true, that the Irish population is Catholic, and that the Protestants, whether of the Episcopalian or Presbyterian Church, or of both united, are a small minority of the Irish people. ↗

— John Bright

#both #catholic #church #episcopalian #everybody

I find it shameful that in nearly all the universities of Europe, Palestinian students sponsor and nurture anti-Semitism. ↗

— Oriana Fallaci

#europe #find #i #nearly #nurture

The profoundest thoughts of the philosophers have something trickle about them. A lot disappears in order for something to suddenly appear in the palm of the hand. ↗

— Elias Canetti

#appear #disappears #hand #lot #order

British chancellor is telling the rest of Europe it must abandon democracy. It's appalling. ↗

— Nigel Farage

#appalling #british #chancellor #democracy #europe

Sarah Palin may have chosen to not answer the call for the presidency, but make no mistake, the principles that garnered her the unique support she enjoyed continue to inform and drive the base that lifted her. ↗

— Tammy Bruce

#base #call #chosen #continue #drive

I was never OJ's closest pal, and the media would say that over and over, but I wasn't his enemy either. ↗

— Kato Kaelin

#either #enemy #his #i #media

I naturally wanted to be saved, so when I came home I told my mom I wanted to be confirmed. That's the way I related to it, being raised an Episcopalian. I went to Dallas and got confirmed. ↗

— T-Bone Burnett

#came #confirmed #dallas #episcopalian #got

My school reports always used to point out that my concentration levels were appalling. I never listened in class because I was always daydreaming about racing. I never thought for a moment about doing anything else. There was no guarantee that I'd make a career in it but I never had any plan B. ↗

— Jenson Button

#always #any #anything #appalling #because

My most useful acting tip came from my pal John Wayne. Talk low, talk slow, and don't say too much. ↗

— Michael Caine

#came #john #john wayne #low #most