Why do you think that “settlements” are “stolen”, but Yaffo or Akko aren’t?
That is a brilliant, thoughtful response which shows a very nuanced understanding of the situation as opposed to an understanding based on propoganda and knee jerk responses base on prejudice and ignorance.
That said, please answer my questions.
Thanks.
Because I am being magnanimous to Israel in order to stop the bloodshed.
Apropos of nothing:
Israel: Still not doing Gandhi very well
There is no worst blind than the one that does not want to see.
Malthus, wind speed keeps picking up:
Thanks for nothing. Hamas, though, is not willing to make this distinction. That’s why the rockets and that’s why the retaliation. Hope this makes all this clearer for you.
I am a little late to the party so forgive me if I’m completely wrong.
My reading and research on this issue tells me that Jewish people began buying land in Palestine in 1880 as part of the nascent Zionist movement. That process continued over the next 60 years. Arab (Palestinian) land owners sold to people they believed were naive immigrants.
When the state of Israel was declared in 1948 it was immediately attacked by 3 million Arab soldiers. The Palestinian people were told to get out of the way while “the Jews are driven into the sea” and willingly moved out. Their belief was they would return home and share the spoils of war.
Unfortunately for them that didn’t work out.
We should have compassion for the Palestinians of today because they deserve a peaceful life like anyone else but while their leaders preach war and hatred, their situation can only get worse.
Hamas =/= Palestinians. That said, a whole lot of good it’s done Abbas to play the peacemaker.
Gaza Crisis Poses Threat to Faction Favored by U.S.
Hope that clears things up for you. And no need to thank me. Really.
Well what needs to happen is for them to be absorbed by their host countries just like Israel absorbed the hundreds of thousands of Jews who were chased out of the Arab world. Just like Germany absorbed the hundreds of thousands of ethnic Germans who were expelled from Eastern Europe after World War II.
I’m not aware of any other group where “refugee” status is passed down from parent to child without end.
People are still biased agianst Jews, wow, is it Tuesday already?
I wo nder why we don’t see similarly huge demonstrations against the Syrian regime, which has killed more Syrians than one cares to count. Well, because they aren’t world-conquering Jews, I suspect.
[QUOTE=Ken001]
When the state of Israel was declared in 1948 it was immediately attacked by 3 million Arab soldiers.
[/QUOTE]
While it is true the country was immediately attacked, it is certainly not true that their opponents mustered three million soldiers to do it. That’s a presposterously high number. That would have been one of the largest armies ever assembled for a single campaign and thre’s no possible way those countries could have raised such a gigantic army. I doubt the Arab forces numbered 100,000.
Aditionally, the old saw about how the Palestinians just “got out of the way” is, as you can probably guess, a little silly. Many of them were driven from their homes by Israeli forces. If they simply left as a matter of convenience, to step out of the way of the fighting, they would be the only people in the history of the world I can think of who have ever done that. They ran from killing and explosions, as people tend to do, and in many cases were expelled by force.
This is true. Especially since the members of Hamas are willing to shoot their Palestinian brothers if they go against the party line.
It also seems, from what I have read, that Hamas has no interest in peace with Israel at all, ever. Where, may I ask, is your condemnation for the intransigent Hamas position?
From the Hamas charter:
This is an organization that will not seek peace, and will not accept a “2 state solution”, and says so very clearly. Yet you only condemn Israel, with no harsh words for Hamas, ever.
You have no harsh words for the host nations, who refuse to take in refugees.
You, sir, are ideologically blinded.
First, I’m not an American - I’m Canadian. I’ll assume the term “American” means “North American” for this purpose. 
Second, the vast majority of posters here (and worldwide) who actually care about this issue and are not from the ME itself are either European or North American.
There are serious cultural and historical differences between the European and North American experiences that explain why NAs generally (but of course not universally) support Israel, while the reverse is true in Europe.
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Different experience re: colonialism. The European political landscape is characterised by reaction against previously-existing colonial empires, and the temptation of Euros is to see Israel as a colonialist hold-over. North Americans have a much different mythology of colonialism, based on pioneers and the frontier, and are more inclined to analogize Israel thus.
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Legacy re: Jews. Half of the Jewish population of Israel, of course, fled from Europe to escape sometimes-murderous European hatred of Jews - from the Nazis, and earlier (and later), from the Russians. Those Euro countries not collaborating in their murder and/or displacement generally (some heroic exceptions aside) did little to help them - and this includes countries that fought against the Nazis. This resonates with many Americans, whose own ancestors also in many cases fled Europe. Euros generally state that this is all history and over and done with, and this is probably true to a great degree, but clearly this shared history has an impact on both Israelis and Euros. It seems a rule in life that if you do someone a bad turn, it is tempting to think badly of them thereafter.
In short, Americans tend to feel more sympathy towards Israel because the set of national myths that most Americans implicitly believe in resonates with the Israeli situation. In this particular case, of course, that sympathy is bonded by a shared set of enemies - the feeling that the same Islamicist types who hate Israelis also hate Americans, and would do so even if Americans did not support Israel.
Which side insists that every one of their citizens has to join the military and puts billions into financing it?
Austria and Switzerland? Those evil bastards!
QFT
As often happens, reality is somewhere in the middle. Arab leaders very definitely did call upon the Palestinians to move out of the way “for a short time until our swift victory” (paraphrasing mine); some Palestinians did, others were driven out for the usual reasons people are displaced during war (including some cases of Israeli forces cowing them into flight, there’s no denial of this fact,) and yet many others never did flee and became the base for the significant minority Arab population still living in Israel.
This latter group has full citizenship and the same de jure rights as Jews and any other citizens. De facto, there deplorably remains plenty of unofficial discrimination against Arabs withtin the Jewish population – although right now I think it’s at least marginally more understandable than discrimination based on race, sexual preference or gender; some Arabs really are fighting us, so significant parts of the population hating all Arabs as a result is an unfortunate but probably unavoidable consequence. it will take a few generations of peace to get this to die out… 
Just like The Final Solution. Oh, glaringly obviously like The Final Solution. So obviously like the Final Solution the Jews themselves don’t even realize the supreme bitter irony that they themselves are implementing The Final Solution. Hiroshima was The Final Solution. Every daily carpet bombing, massacre, isolated murder, civilian death and wounding during every war–let alone the ones that occur daily–but this is The Final Solution. (Actually, out-and-out Genocide, because the Jews don’t have sole use of historic guilt-mongering.) God, that Final Solution was rough, and that’s what the Israelis (the Jews) have been itching to do forever, if they only could, and have been slowly doing so. The Jews’ very existence is based on a Final Solution of the Palestinian problem, and until they fully implement The Final Solution, unless good concerned people throughout the world–who have read History and recognize a Final Solution when they see one–stop them, the unique (except for its horrific, ironic precedent) Final Solution suffered by the Palestinians will continue. I know about The Final Solution, and I’m glad that much of the world has seen the parallels. I’ve read books and seen movies and photos.
I’m tempted to treat this as trolling, but I will settle for instructing you two to tone down your rhetoric and attempt to remain somewhere near any kind of facts. And RedFury and Ibn Warraq, both of you need to stop sniping at each other.
It’s also killed far more Palestinian Arabs than have died in the recent hostilities in Gaza. And yet somehow the “Pro-Palestinians” are strangely silent.
:rolleyes:
“A shared set of enemies?”
The worst part here is that you really seem to beleive thsi tripe :o
They aren’t ‘strangely silent’. They expect no better of violent dictatorships. They do expect better of Israel and other democracies.
The point (which you appear to be missing) is that “tripe” or not many Americans believe (rightly or wrongly) that Islamicists hate them and are their enemies.