Post-Colonialism

 

Jewish Colonialism

 When talk about the Middle East arises there is a widespread myth that Jews from Europe and the US came to ‘colonize’ and ’steal land’ from the ‘native’ Palestinian people to whom it rightfully belongs. This myth gained a lot of legitimacy after 1967 when Israel ‘conquered’ the West Bank. Words like 'occupation' and ‘settlers’ reinforced the concept of Israeli ‘colonization’ of ‘Arab’ land. Many assume that the Palestinians must be the true natives because they look authentically ‘brown’.

 

There is a theory that Jews are not one people but a just a collection of converts. Genetic studies find that Jews from East and West have more in common with each other, and are genetically closer to non-Jews of Middle Eastern origin than they are to the non-Jewish populations they lived amongst.

 In the past President Obama articulated another myth: Israel was created as a penance for the Holocaust. This myth obscures the truth that every Arab state is equally a creation of western colonialism. We almost never hear that 40 percent of Israel’s Jews trace their ancestry from Muslim and Arab lands. The majority of these Jews moved from one corner of the ‘Arab’ world to that Middle Eastern sliver known as Israel.

Until their expulsion Jews had been settled in Iraq. We can this that by when the Babylonians exiled Jews from Jerusalem almost 3,000 years ago. In the early 20th century, Baghdad was the most Jewish city in the world. The Jews can be said to have as legitimate a claim on Baghdad as Palestinians on Jerusalem! By the time the Arabs had conquered land largely inhabited by Jews and Christians in the 7th century, the Jews had been settled there for 1,000 years. People in the West tend to apply a common misconception to all Jews, borrowing the Christian notion that Jews have been punished to wander from land to land with no country to call their own. But not only have Jews always lived in Palestine, there was continuity of Jewish settlement in the Middle East and North Africa for 2,000 years.

That Jewish presence came to an end in the last 50 years. The Arabs said “This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades". The Arab governments declared two wars in 1948. Jews ‘stealing Arab land’ is an offensive inversion of reality. Jews in 10 Arab countries were stripped of their rights and in most cases dispossessed of their property. The World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries estimates that Jews in Arab countries lost many more billions of assets than the Palestinians, and four times as much land as the size of Israel itself.

 

Arab anti-Semitism created Israel no less than the Holocaust. The Arabs owe the Jews big-time. It’s time the world stopped viewing the conflict through a distorted lens.

Persuassive Essay

Arranged Marriages

 

 

 

           I’m here to explain the advantages of arranged marriages over “in love” marriages. Arranged marriages and whether they are beneficial or not has been a question which has been around almost as long as the concept of marriage itself. Arranged marriages are common in Indian, Pakistani and Orthodox Jewish circles. This is NOT to be confused with "forced marriages". 

 

            Arranged marriages are when the parents, or third party such as a matchmaker, research and make a calculated decision. They look into both man and woman to see if values, interests, and goals are compatible. This is somebody you can trust and someone you are open and honest with so they can match you up as accurately as possible. Everyone is solely interested in everyone else’s benefit.

 

          Experts claim that arranged marriages are far more likely to lead to a lasting affection then 'marriage of passion'. Harvard academic Dr. Robert Epstein has studied arranged marriages for over 30 years and interviewed 100 couples. He had found that among 'in love' matches the love begins to fade as much as half in 18 months as opposed to arranged marriages the love tends to grow gradually and surpasses the love of the unarranged marriage around 5 years down the line. Ten years later the affection felt by arranged marriages is twice as strong.

 Brian J. Willoughby, an assistant professor in the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University said that another reason arranged marriages can work “because they remove so much of the anxiety about ‘is this the right person?”. “Arranged marriages start somewhat cold and heat up and boil over time as the couple grows. Non-arranged marriages are expected to start out boiling hot but many eventually find that this heat dissipates and we’re left with a relationship that’s cold.”

 

            The problem in part with love marriages, says Epstein, is that they’re based on a love that is perennially misunderstood, influenced by unrealistic media portrayals that present it as an uncontrollable, spur of the moment force. “We grow up on fairy tales and movies in which magical forces help people find their soul mates, with whom they effortlessly live happily ever after,” wrote Epstein in a cover article for Scientific American MIND. “The fairy tales leave us powerless, putting our love lives into the hands of the Fates.” Such relationships can implode when the characteristic love of the newly married dissipates as time goes on.

 Today the value of marriage to men has declined, and the quality of single life has improved. For men, it has become too easy to lose out socially, sexually, and financially. Men have this idea that once they settle down they loose out on their single social life, being committed to their spouse. They will also now gain so many more financial stressors which can be too much of an added stress for some. We can also see in today's age how the court system sheds a negative light on men's role in marriage; the man is left with child support and many times looses custody over his children. 

 

              In today's society marriage is becoming less common especially within the male population. According to 'Pew Research Center' women ages 18-34 say “having a successful marriage is one of the most important things in their lives.” Since 1997 numbers of how many women value marriage went from 28% to 37%. For men, the opposite occurred! The shared voicing this opinion of men valuing the importance of marriage dropped from 35% to 29%.

                                               

             I’m not here to convince anyone of the importance of marriage. Being raised with extreme family values is something I am thankful for and frankly I have a hard time relating to anyone who tells me "marriage is not necessarily their goal". Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and while not many people truly want to be single forever, the idea to some is becoming more and more appealing. Though in terms of how to go about getting married is something I am strongly in favor of. I believe that finding a relationship these days is hard enough. Every person is their own world and comes with their own interests, personality, and positive and negative traits. Marriage is not something to take lightly. When being set up through an arranged marriage so much of what can be a hardship or future issues that can arise, are filtered out. Nobody is perfect but at least issues are made known to both sides prior to such a commitment. One going into an arranged marriage knows what they are getting in to because research by one they trust has been done.

 

             Imagine you can start off dating someone knowing you won’t come across issues that don’t seem important at the time, though can break or make a relationship. It can be a technical issue, where you see yourself living, or if you would like to have kids or not. It’s interesting, or shall I say ironic how most people research and thoroughly look into any major decision, business deal, or life plan, though when it comes to marriage- a major life decision, this is not the common way to go about it.

 

            Wouldn’t you rather go into a marriage feeling safe and secure and build a strong relationship that will deepen as time goes on, then one that can diminish?

 

 Comedy on Dating; Louis CK