Can someone tell me why Israel continues to settle in Palestinian lands? I would think that if Israel wanted the Suicide bombings to stop that they would not settle in those places that are most sensitive to Palestinian's.
If the Americans thought like that, the U.S. would never have extended past the Appalachians. Some call it Manifest Destiny, some call it Mare Nostrum, some call it Lebensraum, some call it Zionism. It's a small world after all.
Why cede into the demands of a bunch of terrorists? Because some Israeli's may die? Keep expanding as far as I am concerned. The bombs will come regardless. The core issue is that Palestinians won't stop until the Jews in Israel all drown in the sea. Israel won't stop expanding until all of Israel is full with Jewish settlments. The bombs will come, the helicopters will raid Palestinian camps, middle east countries will support the Palestinians and blame the jews and their US backing. Why am I too think this will end anytime soon? Especially since the young Palestinians are brainwashed into thinking that they are going to spend eternity in heaven for their martyrdom. At least in Ireland, they knew better.
Re: Re: Israel Lebensraum? How is the Nazi policy of annihilating 'untermenchen' to make way for Germanic settlement like that of the Zionists? They live alongside a wide strata of people today, There is no concerted effort to commit genocide.
Re: Re: Re: Israel It's all a matter of proportion and whose ox is being gored. However, I will grant you that the analogy to Lebensraum does not fit as well as the analogy to, say, Manifest Destiny or Mare Nostrum. Still, the literal translation of Lebensraum, is living space and isn't that what settlements and Zionism boils down to?
They tried that, and they were constantly invaded by neighboring countries. Israel under its pre-1967 borders would be only about 40 miles wide at its narrowest point, so they took over some Palestenian lands i order to provide a buffer zone between them and their Arab neighbors, making it more difficult for the country to be divided in 2 at the middle should they be invaded again.
As such an invasion would come from Jordan, isn't keeping good relations with them to prevent invasion better than occupying lands with a hostile people to make invasion, when they happen, a little more difficult?
If these Muslims around the world don't stop terrorism, I say the Israelis should just ethnic cleanse the entire area. You know, now that I think of it, all but one of the countries that spoke against Taiwan at the WHO was Muslim (Pakistan, Algeria, Sudan, Libya). I have no sympathy for the Palestinians or Muslims in general at this point.
To say that the problem is palestinians willing to destroy Israel is half the truth. There's also who wants the Great Israel. Settlements policy has nothing to do with israel security. Settlements policy is the conquest of the west (bank). What's the use of splitting a town of over 150.000 inhabitants in two to defend a settlement of some hundreds jewish fundamentalists (dangerous ones)? - Hebron - Any arab country around knows that a direct war against Israel is suicide. Anyone knows Israel have nukes (even in submarines). You will find many ppl scandalized by the idea that many palestinians dream about the destruction of israel (and it can be only a dream given the situation) but usually the same persons simply ignore the settlements policy which is the exact counterpart. The only difference is that one is a dream the other is reality and it is going on and on and on despite the rest of the world (also US) said and says it should not. Now settlements already control almost half occupied territories. I guess someone can understand this all doesn't make palestinians exactly happy. But what can you say to ppl happy with the idea of an ethnic cleansing? Remember them history? Remember them that there's no human being who's more human being than others? It's sad even to think that in 2003 you must convince and remind ppl that ethnic cleansing is a crime against humanity. Being it done by turks against armenians, by serbs in kosovo, by arabs or by israelis. 2 ppls 2 states in +- 1967 borders, there's no other solution. And it is the fairest thing to do, one can understand it if he just try to see things with the eyes of israelis and then with the eyes of palestinians without any prejudice.
Re: Re: Israel On one level, Israel is very strong. But they are also a micro country that is always but one second away from complete annihilation. As has been mentioned before on this board, if Israel is attempting ethnic cleansing, they need a better brand of detergent. It's not working.
that would normally work in a country with a large strategic depth (such as US or Russia or China) ... in a country which can be invaded and overrun in a few hours - but in a such a strategically small country (Israel), that strategy doesn't typically hold water - so they choose to arm themselves for security and occupy lands you would hope they would share "peacefully" with Palestinians and others.
Re: Re: Re: Israel Yes the second level is better called "useful propaganda". Even if USA attacked israel be sure that some US towns would vanish under some nuclear mushrooms. It's ok for me that IDF is a military superpower i just can't bear endless whining about unrealistic sci-fi scenarioes. I mean we all know israel has won all the wars even if attacked by all the arab countries around. And the gap now is much much wider. I was referring to who actually asks for ethnic cleansing (for example Israeli tourism minister). Anyway yes settlements policy can be seen as a slow motion ethnic cleansing. Perform some google search and compare the extensions of settlemntes in 1967 and now. I will help you Peace Now - Settlements Watch http://peacenow.org.il/English.asp?Redirect=4&CategoryID=45 Interesting article. http://peacenow.org.il/English.asp?Redirect=4&CategoryID=6&ReportID=450 Settlements Corrode Democracy - los angeles times.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Israel Or perhaps math, history, geography, and demography. Since the Palestinians have scared away all the tourists, the Tourism Minister has to do something. Meanwhile, the Arab population grows geometrically in Israel.
Re: Re: Israel Sardinia, As you can see, I agree with you on this subject. Have you been avoiding me out of some misplaced sense of political correctness? "Now, the only hope against the amoral plutocrats is communism." --Benito Mussolini, in his last newspaper interview, April 1945.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Israel Oh, I guess Sardinians, Sicilians and Italians are not entitled to discuss an honestly held opinion-- expecially when it comes to sacred cows like Israel.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Israel The point was that the Israel Tourism Minister is irrelevant, especially now that Israeli tourism is as dead as the former tourism minister. Though I'm happy that he's giving Italians something to talk about. That should count for something.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Israel The Palestinian population in Israel is growing steadily. Explain how this jives with your theory that Israel is comitting ethnic cleansing.