The Jews specifically wanted Israel rather than some other place. Besides, there weren't many unpopulated livable regions so settling them in their ancestral home made some sense. ...Though the fighting that came because of it does make it seem like putting them in some place Alaska or something might have been better choice.
It's partly because there was already a lot of Jewish settlement and infrastructure in the region, which stretched back decades. So there were legitimately practical reasons.
Four or five hundred Jews in 1850, sure. They should have gone and lived in Morocco or Iraq by this logic.
The Jews specifically wanted Israel rather than some other place. Besides, there weren't many unpopulated livable regions so settling them in their ancestral home made some sense. ...Though the fighting that came because of it does make it seem like putting them in some place Alaska or something might have been better choice.
It's partly because there was already a lot of Jewish settlement and infrastructure in the region, which stretched back decades. So there were legitimately practical reasons.
I'd say give 'em part of the Yukon or an area in South America that doesn't suck. Some place other than the middle of a sand-blasted desert surrounded by likely hostile natives. They could bitch all they want about their "ancestral home," but it doesn't change the fact that people kinda lived there already and had been doing so for generations and, thus, have more claim to the land itself than a bunch of guys coming back there after what had to have been, at least, a few hundred years, if not thousands.
It'd be kinda like me going back to my house in Little Rock and being surprised when the people that already live there get pissed off when I start living there and eating their food.
The Jews never left the Holy Land since their return from the Babylonian exile. All that was different this time was that there were Jews from elsewhere in the world and they had genuine sovereignty over themselves.
I know none of this changes the current political climate, but damn it, its a peeve of mine. Israel is kind of a MASSIVE peeve of mine. Mostly because their pathetic dick-waving wouldn't mean shit if it weren't for big bro America backing them up even when they're being massive cunts. Again, because we got ourselves a doomsday prophecy to fulfill!
Israel won the Six-Day War without America in their corner. And there are more reasons for our support than that prophecy.
Well thats quite the apologia for ethnic cleansing. I accept the existance of Israel now but its origins were a massive injuztice to the people who lived there.
Fun fact: Jews were driven to Israel from all over the Middle East, starting at about the same time. And even before that, they suffered persecution.
Largely by the Zionist movement. Those guys were assholes. They also forcibly drafted Holocaust survivors after telling them they were headed to America. The Zionist movement greatly encouraged that flight, and were the key cause of it.
Besides, do you know who started the fight that led to the Palestinian exodus? The Arabs, not the Israelis. Not that it justifies the response, but it helps to put things in perspective.
Complete crap, as usual. The Israelis were mostly responsible - the war and ethnic cleansing started long before the Arab invasion in 1948.
Do you accept that Palestinians are not responsible for their own ethnic cleansing?
The Jews never left the Holy Land since their return from the Babylonian exile. All that was different this time was that there were Jews from elsewhere in the world and they had genuine sovereignty over themselves.
The Jewish population of Palestine was insignificant. The European Jewish population was zero. They had no legal claim whatsoever to an inch of land.
The logical way to do Zionism, if it needed to be done, was as a one-state multi-ethnic nation like Lebanon. If Ben Gurion couldn't accept that, he could instead make a nice homeland in hell, I think.
UP, ya do know that there's just the teensiest, tiniest power differential between the Palestinians and the Israeli's?
Like, Israel is a modern western industrialized state and Palestine is it's shooting range.
As if that makes a difference. And if Palestine was "Israel's shooting range," you'd expect far more casualties.
Can't round them up these days. Bad PR.
But Hamas has no problem rounding up and murdering dissidents within Gaza.
That is, fighting a years long civil war with Israel-backed Fatah.
Gotta love that spin. Why are you defending extrajudicial executions of suspected collaborators?
Look, obviously it's bad and the people involved should be prosecuted. One more consequence of the Israeli occupation you support.
Because it's Israel's fault Hamas brutalizes people who dare to criticize it.
Indeed. Israel started and maintains the civil war and is therefore responsible for every consequence. Others are also responsible, but the primary guilty party is Israel, and her apologists like yourself.
UP, ya do know that there's just the teensiest, tiniest power differential between the Palestinians and the Israeli's?
Like, Israel is a modern western industrialized state and Palestine is it's shooting range.
As if that makes a difference. And if Palestine was "Israel's shooting range," you'd expect far more casualties.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure there's a difference between being a stable industrialised state and a series of bomb craters populated by desperate refugees, hostile Israeli settlers and breakaway factions who won't do what they're told. Kinda.
And...do you think the number of Palestinian casualties are insufficient? Not enough kids oven baked with white phosphorus yet or something?
Last told the ratio of Palestinians to Israeli's killed since 2000 was 8/1. Too small?
Many of those deaths can be attributed to Hamas' casual disregard for the lives of its own citizenry.
You can also attribute the blame for many rapes to the victims, too.
Did you seriously just compare my statement of objective fact to rape apologism? I should have expected you couldn't debate this in good faith.
It is indeed blaming the victim, yes. I shell your city, kill your citizens and blame you for not protecting them somehow.
You talk as though Hamas doesn't have the resources to protect its citizens. It does, it just chooses not to. Gaza is honeycombed with underground structures, from the tunnels it uses for smuggling to the bomb shelters it uses to protect its fighters and leaders. [/quote]
Absolutely foul. The US has many miles of tunnels and bunkers. Therefore, the US government is responsible for 9/11, because Americans live on the surface.
I sympathize with the people of Gaza, I really do. And that's part of why I'm so angry at your support of Hamas.
Self-serving crocodile tears. I've yet to hear you demand Israel end their opposition to peace, which is the only thing that matters. Indeed I've watched you defend Israel's continued refusal to permit peace.
