Sigh, I'll elaborate on what I just said. I know that if I don't, I'll be instantly labeled as some kind of nazi jew-hating anti-semite, simply because I don't approved of every single action that Israel has ever made, ever.
Israel and the Jews have suffered hugely through history. They've been persecuted, and been dominated and oppressed by a series of foreign empires and peoples through much of their history. (Though, I should point own, their own holy book, and mine, says that it was God himself who directed this to happen, because they were unfaithful in their worship to him.)
However, that doesn't excuse them from civil behavior. Many Arab and Palestinian extremist groups might be their enemies, yes. But that doesn't imply that they have license to act with impunity against all Arabs or Palestinians, nor excuse the Airstrikes & Tanks employed in retaliatory strikes against the home neighborhoods of suspected suicide bombers. (Which, by the way, was done *before* the current advent of the PGM, a technology which might, just barely, make something justifiable. Israel didn't have PGMs for the longest time, and they did it anyway.)
What I'm basically saying is that two wrongs don't make a right. Just because Israel has been treated badly doesn't excuse them turning around and treating others (who might not even be related or responsible at all for the first incidents) badly. Not any more than the United States was justified in rounding up Japanese-American civilians and putting them in camps during World War 2 just because Japan had attacked us..
I'm afraid that you show your ignorance of Israeli history with this ill-informed attempt at being even-handed. In 1948, the stated object of the five-army alliance which invaded Palestine, armed to its teeth by Britain, was to "carry out a massacre like the Mongols" and not to leave a single Jew alive. They had sufficient precedent: before Hitler had ever been heard of, genocidal feelings had been running riot in Palestine. In 1929, the whole Hebrew community of Hebron, the most ancient in Palestine, had been wiped out. The Arab intent to destroy the Jews of Palestine informed the foreign policy of the whole region during World War Two, when the Mufti of Jerusalem went into exile in Berlin and encouraged the Nazis in their most genocidal enterprise, repeatedly visiting death camps and approving, and helped raise Muslim SS troops including a whole division. At the same time, Iraq rose in arms against Britain; when defeated, it indulged in wholesale massacre of its own native Jews - and Britain, showing its nastily anti-hebraic face, stood by and let it happen. Egypt, repeatedly invaded by Italy and Germany, never once acted as an invaded country is expected to, and clearly showed that it only waited for an excuse to go to war against Britain. The British were glad enough to raise large amounts of soldiers among the Jews of Palestine, but they did nothing for them in return, and in effect encouraged their enemies to attempt massacre in 1948; and it was only pure Jewish courage, plus the skills acquired during the world war, that allowed the outnumbered, outgunned and surrounded Jews to survive. You speak like a man with no idea of the history of the region beyond the distorted trash spouted by contemporary mass media.
Dirigibletrance, I strongly disagree with your attempt to draw moral equivalence between Israeli and Palestinian actions.
The Israelis settled on land that they purchased from the Turks. It is true that the Turks had, in some cases, stolen this land from the Arabs via confiscatory taxes. But it is also rather notably true that the Palestinian Arabs, after helping the British drive out the Turks in World War I, did not focus their wrath on the Turks, but rather on the Jews, who had purchased the lands in good faith from what had been the legitimate government of the area.
The Israelis attempted to live at peace with the Arabs. The Arabs repeatedly spurned these offers of peace and continued to launch lethal and unprovoked attacks on the Israelis. During World War II, they allied with Hitler, and did so not in spite of, but BECAUSE THEIR LEADERS KNEW AND APPROVED (!!!) OF THE HOLOCAUST.
The British, despite this, did not favor the Israelis over the Jews. Led by a pro-Arab faction in their own government, they armed the Arabs and tried to prevent arms and men from reaching the Israelis.
The Arabs then invaded Israel in 1948. Their declared intent was the annihilation of the country and the massacre of its inhabitants. In the course of this fighting, many Palestinians fled and some (even some civilians) were killed by the Israelis. (This is when the Deira Massacre occurred). This is, however, in the context of many more massacres by the Arabs against Israeli civilians whenever they were victorious.
After 1948, Israel has repeatedly tried to make peace with the Arabs, especially the Palestinian Arabs. Their peace offers have been repeatedly rejected -- or, in some cases, accepted but then treacherously dishonored by the Palestinians. The Palestinian attitude seems to be that no decent person could possibly expect them to stop killing Jews, and as a result no Palestinian regime is willing to treat terrorists as criminals.
This is the reality of the situation. Another reality of the situation is that if the Arabs won, they would exterminate the Israelis -- and then, that affair taken care of, would select another target in the West.
Cowards like to assume tha the problem is Israel, because that makes it easy -- just betray a minor ally to annihilation and live at peace with the Muslim world. But cowardice, denial and dishonor will not save the West from attack: we must fight back, with courage, clarity of vision and honor, and remind the Muslims precisely why they wound up colonized in the first place.
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Israel and the Jews have suffered hugely through history. They've been persecuted, and been dominated and oppressed by a series of foreign empires and peoples through much of their history. (Though, I should point own, their own holy book, and mine, says that it was God himself who directed this to happen, because they were unfaithful in their worship to him.)
However, that doesn't excuse them from civil behavior. Many Arab and Palestinian extremist groups might be their enemies, yes. But that doesn't imply that they have license to act with impunity against all Arabs or Palestinians, nor excuse the Airstrikes & Tanks employed in retaliatory strikes against the home neighborhoods of suspected suicide bombers. (Which, by the way, was done *before* the current advent of the PGM, a technology which might, just barely, make something justifiable. Israel didn't have PGMs for the longest time, and they did it anyway.)
What I'm basically saying is that two wrongs don't make a right. Just because Israel has been treated badly doesn't excuse them turning around and treating others (who might not even be related or responsible at all for the first incidents) badly. Not any more than the United States was justified in rounding up Japanese-American civilians and putting them in camps during World War 2 just because Japan had attacked us..
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And how you'd rather Israel responded?
Realities of the Situation
The Israelis settled on land that they purchased from the Turks. It is true that the Turks had, in some cases, stolen this land from the Arabs via confiscatory taxes. But it is also rather notably true that the Palestinian Arabs, after helping the British drive out the Turks in World War I, did not focus their wrath on the Turks, but rather on the Jews, who had purchased the lands in good faith from what had been the legitimate government of the area.
The Israelis attempted to live at peace with the Arabs. The Arabs repeatedly spurned these offers of peace and continued to launch lethal and unprovoked attacks on the Israelis. During World War II, they allied with Hitler, and did so not in spite of, but BECAUSE THEIR LEADERS KNEW AND APPROVED (!!!) OF THE HOLOCAUST.
The British, despite this, did not favor the Israelis over the Jews. Led by a pro-Arab faction in their own government, they armed the Arabs and tried to prevent arms and men from reaching the Israelis.
The Arabs then invaded Israel in 1948. Their declared intent was the annihilation of the country and the massacre of its inhabitants. In the course of this fighting, many Palestinians fled and some (even some civilians) were killed by the Israelis. (This is when the Deira Massacre occurred). This is, however, in the context of many more massacres by the Arabs against Israeli civilians whenever they were victorious.
After 1948, Israel has repeatedly tried to make peace with the Arabs, especially the Palestinian Arabs. Their peace offers have been repeatedly rejected -- or, in some cases, accepted but then treacherously dishonored by the Palestinians. The Palestinian attitude seems to be that no decent person could possibly expect them to stop killing Jews, and as a result no Palestinian regime is willing to treat terrorists as criminals.
This is the reality of the situation. Another reality of the situation is that if the Arabs won, they would exterminate the Israelis -- and then, that affair taken care of, would select another target in the West.
Cowards like to assume tha the problem is Israel, because that makes it easy -- just betray a minor ally to annihilation and live at peace with the Muslim world. But cowardice, denial and dishonor will not save the West from attack: we must fight back, with courage, clarity of vision and honor, and remind the Muslims precisely why they wound up colonized in the first place.