"Israeli girls write messages on shells to be fired into Lebanon."
There are few trouble spots in the world that match the current Israel-Palestinian conflict for intensity or for broad, dangerous implications. In this region we have a simmering local issue, but one that for many reasons seems to pull in much of the rest of the world. Why?
For starters, there is a religious conflict between Jews and Palestinians even though they both share an Abrahamic faith. This conflict has widened into conflict between Jews and Muslim nations in the region who resent what Israel has done and is doing to the Palestinians and, during some wars, to them. Then, these problems have somehow connected with past difficulties between Arabs and the imperialist West which, over centuries, colonized much of the Arab world and still sees it as backward, uncultured and inferior.
Though Jews only make up a handful of the total population of the world, Christians, mistakenly, think they should ally themselves with the Jews because of the Bible. Nothing could be further from the truth as even a cursory examination of the word ‘Christian’ would reveal. Jews do not recognize Christ theologically and their holy book is the Old Testament. Regardless, the Jewish-Christian block is very powerful by virtue of numbers but then, ironically, so is the Muslim block – therein lies a big problem.
Then, as if things weren’t bad enough, we have ‘Christian’ America which, filled with continuing delusions about their ‘manifest destiny’ to remake the world in their ugly, greedy image, have thrown their enormous military support behind the state of Israel simply because they see a militarily and economically strategic advantage for themselves in so doing. Along with their enthusiastic support of Arab despots and Kings, Americans continue to use the ‘We are defending the poor little Israelis’ to further their hegemony in the oil-rich Middle East. To date, this has led to the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, Iraq and, almost certainly in the future, Iran.
Mind you, the ‘Poor Little Israelis’ so-called are nuclear armed and have a military that ranks in the top five or six of the world. They are also as imperialistic as America and, like America, will invade, occupy and kill at the drop of a hat if they think it will advance their fanatical religious ambitions.
For sixty years, the creation of the State of Israel has caused major problems. At first it only affected the Palestinians who were thrown off their land with no compensation and have existed ever since in impoverished refugee camps. Then other Arab nations were drawn in and wars were fought, ones in which Israel, with its massive American military backing, triumphed easily. Now Israel thinks it is kingpin in the region and can do whatever it likes. Because the Arab nations prefer to argue and bicker with each other instead of presenting a united front to Israel and because Israel has America backing, Israel is kingpin, one that is hated by most people across the Middle East.
Currently, the situation in the Middle East is a tinderbox. The cruel blockade of Gaza, the continuing political problems in Lebanon, the growing alliances between Syria and Iran and Iran and Russia, the complete failure of the America occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, a nuclear-armed Muslim Pakistan, the blatant American bias towards Israel, the ineffectiveness of the U.N. to impose its own resolutions on nuclear-armed Israel, and, further afield, the growing oil crisis in the world, the imminent collapse of the American financial system, the pathetic weakness of George Bush, the economic and military emergence of China and India, etc, all seem to be leading us inexorably towards a war that will begin in the Middle East, a war from which there will emerge no winners.
If Israel was quickly relocated somewhere else (perhaps to America or Britain) that would prevent the Judaic red rag from further enraging the Arab bull. Then if the world presented a united military front against American hegemony, many of these volatile problems would quickly disappear and the region and the world might be able to settle down and eventually find peace.
However, if the situation is allowed to fester further, then the creation of Israel to appease the fanatical religious ambitions of a tiny group of Zionists sixty year ago might prove to be the biggest single mistake the world has ever made.
Israel must be relocated elsewhere before its anachronistic, irrational ambitions pull the world beyond the point of no return.
If it refuses to go, stern measures may be needed to change its mind!
If Israel was quickly relocated somewhere else (perhaps to America or Britain)…
(Kvatch dons his famous ‘cloak-o-snark’.)
I volunteer Utah.
[Oh! Goin' to hell for that one.]
(Kvatch slinks away in shame.)
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Now more seriously… In my youth I was an ardent supporter of Isreal, but as I grew older, I found my sympathies shifting. For me, it comes down to this: You simply cannot displace hundreds of thousands natives who’ve occupied a particular place for the better part of 8 centuries.
This was aptly demonstrated in Ulster long before Isreal ever became a problem. Though one can decry British tactics in Norther Ireland, the loyalists have been there for going on four centuries, and you simply cannot come along and tell them to shove off.
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I too was a supporter of Israel in my immature youth!
The whole concept of a group of deranged religious fanatics suddenly appearing in another country and claiming that they are God’s children and God gave it to them is farce enough.
But to actually give them someone else’s land then watch as they take more and more by force while they arm themselves with nukes and brutally crush the legal inhabitants and commit genocide against them defies all logic and justice, Kvatch.
Israel has no legal or moral right to exist. It is a malignant cancer despoiling the whole region and it presents a danger to the whole world.
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I agree wholeheartedly David. Although I bear no ill-will towards Jews in general – and respect their right to practice whatever faith they wish – the state of Israel, however, takes religious fanaticism to disgusting extremes. Ironically, the Jews of Israel have become the exact same monster they used to suffer under in Nazi Germany. Name any relevant difference between the tactics used by Israel against the Palestinians (and the broader Mideast) and those used by the Nazis against the Jews in the 40′s. There are none, save the ovens and gas chambers. The tactics used by Israel may be different from those practiced against them by the Nazis, but the goal and suffering is the same: the genocide and subversion of another group of people that they feel is “inferior” to themselves.
How ironic. The Jews – for all their self-professed “goodness” are, in fact, just as bad as the murderers who used to oppress them half a century ago. The hunted have become the hunters. I agree: Israel and America are the greatest threats to world peace that exist today. The two true Terrorist States in all the world.
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I’m not sure which country is following which, Demon. Sometimes I think America is following Israel but then, at other times, I’m not so sure.
Two true Terrorist States? Yes!
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I hear there’s a ranch in Texas that might be empty.
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First off, there is no way that Israel will be relocated, but things must change.
Israel, with the tacit approval and help of the US and UK is the only country in the World which can ignore UN resolutions and sanctions. It can ignore the NPT, thus refusing entry to weapons inspectors. It can keep the Palestinian people in concentration camp like conditions, controlling their water and power supplies.
The reason why the Palestinians turned to suicide bombings (unthinkable to us in the West, in our very comfortable surroundings), was the lack of concern shown by the rest of the World. They have no army or air force, but continue to be brutalised by a far superior military power.
There has to be a genuine attempt at a two state solution, and not one where Tony Bliar is involved as a “special envoy”, or the US sends Condi to Tel Aviv to reassure her Zionist bosses.
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Andy, the Israelis have enjoyed total power for too long. There is no way they will allow a sovereign Palestinian State to exist alongside them, no matter how fair that might be.
They have created so much hate over sixty years that a Palestinian State would always pose a threat. Sadly, nothing short of the extinction of Palestine will make them happy! Cheers.
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Religion and USA greed put them there. USA has no reason (except oil) to unsettle and dominate that region. Americans can’t see the Forrest for the trees. (or Plains for the Bush in this case). Evidence fabricated, collusion of Powers, it’s all set up.
The play is written, the curtain is drawn, hit the snack bar,
the third act in on.
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