Israel

[Levenbreech Vor]

I am Jewish and am pro-israel. Living in a place with few muslims I wanted to ask what you guys thought about Israel. I consider myself open minded and tolerant, and therefore do not want a religion bashing battle but instead a civilized dicusstion of our beliefs.

[Pendragon]

I try to follow peace with all men, as much as possible, but I believe Israel is the chosen people of God, and I am in support of them. http://www.websmileys.com/sm/country/Israel.gif

[IrishCanadian]

Why would anyone be against a nation? I don't happen to know any Isrealese, I know one or two Jews but they only happen to be aquaintences... but I don't get why anyone would be against a nation. Is there some media plan to get rid of Isreal. I wish i watched the news more often, but can you enlighten me?

[bhekti]

I am Jewish and am pro-israel. ... .

So, you are contra-... ?

[Admin]

This thread is a little to close to politics to be allowed, but before I close it I thought I'd explain the Israel issue a little bit for the benefit of people like IrishCanadian.

Jews have been persecuted for a long time. First they were slaves in Egypt, then they did well for awhile until Christians came to power. Many Christians back then (and suprisingly, still some today) hate Jews because the Jews killed Jesus. Their persecution in Christian Europe went on throughout the middle ages and the renaissance and still goes on today, especially in France & Germany (which is odd, considering the history there, but France also has a very large Muslim population so that could be contributing). Anyways it came to a head during WWII when Hitler took it upon himself to wipe out the Jews, killing 6 million of them.

After WWII the displaced Jews, those that survived, had no where to go. Europe didn't want them anymore (they were a walking reminder of Hitler to many). Britain, who had colonized most of the mid-east, had this land that they did not know what do with. So they gave it the UN, who gave it to the Jews, and the country of Israel was born.

This pissed off the Muslim nations in the area. So much so that Israel was invaded during it's first week of existence. Israel responded and eventually won and captured foreign territory. Then the terrorism began. Terrorists sitting across the border would fire rockets/missiles/mortars whatever into Israel, and the neighboring countries weren't happy either. Due to the constant threat of invasion Israel kept these territories as buffer zones. Israel was forced to take a heavy hand against terrorism, and in a way an arms race developed. You bomb us, we bomb you, you suicide bomb us, we bulldoze your parent's house, etc etc. Israel has been relunctant to give their buffer zone land back because many of it's enemies will be happy with nothing more than the destruction of Israel as a whole (including the original land given them by the UN).

Muslims in general see the land as theirs, Jerusalem was ruled by Muslims for a long time before the Jews came back.... but Jews ruled it for thousands of years before that. Its sort of a who was there first type game.

So in short, you have a group of people who have been harassed for thousands of years given a home by a (possibly) shortsighted UN that thus pissed off another group of people. The first group cannot go anywhere, they have no where else to go. The second group has been fighting for so long, they know nothing but hate.

And that is the issue with Israel. Some people hate Israel because of it's heavy handed tactics. Others support Israel because of how hard the Jewish existence has been. Then others hate Israel just because they just hate Jews. One one hand Jews need a country, and the area was their traditional homeland for a long time. On the other hand in the interim Muslims came to call it home.


So, now that thats said. I'm closing this thread as next to abortion a discussion over Israel usually provokes the most fights.