For those that have a wrong idea about Israel

Simple for you perhaps, but not morally defensible, and certainly not consistent with the morals under which we wish to rule ourselves in Western Europe and the US.

You also blatantly contradicted yourself; calling Israel civil in one post, while in the one just quoted, likening them to an animal and comparing them directly to a population you described as barbarian. You can't seem to make up your mind.

 

Don't be ridiculous. The Palestinian Israel's are citizens of Israel. They are an ethnic minority and are not subject to the same rights and opportunities as Jewish citizens. Together with the Palestinians of the occupied territories, who even more lack human and civic rights and opportunities, they make up the indigenous population.

Who exactly does Israel try to align herself to? The West is the answer and she is losing support fast because she does not have our humanitarian values and treats people differently because of their ethnicity.

Israel's prime rulers, that is those who exert the most power are the Nationalistic Religious. There is nothing in common with anyone there apart from those who have a bit in common with Al Qaeda.

Now, due to Israel's inability to see all people as having equal value and treating likewise she is moving towards a situation in which she will be committing suicide.

(apart from that it wasn't me who was saying Israel was beautiful. Notice you have changed your mind. )

 

But it's an oasis of democracy, don't you know?

 

Good post. I too am all for an equal treatment and against profiling, especially at the airports, where 90 years old white granny is searched just as vigorously as a 20 years old middle eastern man

 

Please someone explain the point of that video..A travel guide in World news? Much of the video shows views and buildings that were built or created well before Israel existed but somehow the OP wants to credit the current Israelies...........

 

The translation of Dutch's proverb - when in Rome do as the Romans do. Israel's opponents understand the language of force only. Examples:

1. withdrawal from Lebanon -> years of Katyusha attacks. The 2nd Lebanese war -> 6.5 years of perfect quiet and counting and Hezbollah is patrolling the area making sure that god forbid some rogues fire a rocket at Israel.

2. withdrawal from Gaza -> years of Kassam attacks. The Cast Lead - years of calm and Hamas is patrolling the area making sure that god forbid some rogues fire a rocket at Israel.

Same with Egypt, Jordan, Syria....at the end of the day all of them understood the language of force and nothing else. But you know what, when (god forbid) your neighbors want to murder you and your family and they mean business - you show your morality, reason with them, meet their absurd demands, perhaps file a complaint with the UN, I bet they will protect you. Israel does what it takes to survive and it could not care if you prefer them to be highly moral corpses.

 

Thanks HB a great video showing the beauty of Israel. I hope it inspires people to visit.

 

probably the last place on earth I would bother to visit

 

Don't let your bigotry and ignorance blind you, it is a truly beautiful country.

 

It's the inhabitants of a country that most interest me

 

I think that your examples represent a very overly simplistic view of things. Take your first one here: Hezbollah clearly violated the blue line in order to provoke Israel. Why? Because they were becoming irrelevant and would soon otherwise disappear. Instead of that happening though we got the 2006 invasion which didn't result in their defeat, but in Hezbollah's promotion to the head of a coalition government within Lebanon. The conflict didn't make things better, it made them worse, and it gravely violated human rights laws in the process; particularly nasty was the use of cluster munitions by Israel, and the launching of rockets into civilian areas by Hezbollah. (among other more specific events). Hezbollah is a little more quiet now because Israel gave them exactly what they wanted: power.

This is a little dishonest as well as being overly simplistic. First and foremost because Israel's withdrawal from Gaza had nothing to do with an attempt at peace; in fact, it was publicly admitted to be a move made to deliberately derail the peace process and that's exactly what it did. Since the Gaza Pullout was also a unilateral action by Israel and not coordinated with Fatah, it resulted in a security void and instability which is exactly what allowed Hamas to come into power in Gaza in the first place. Israel had a direct hand in creating the mess that is Gaza now, and they enhance Hamas' position by refusing to have any sort of meaningful peace process with Fatah in the West Bank. Israel has every capability to marginalize Hamas should they seek too, but they are more interested in holding onto the West Bank than they are in ending the violence (aka a two state solution).

You're also wrong. If all has been quiet then why did Israel need their Pillar of Defense Operation? Israel isn't more secure because of its Gaza policy, evidence has shown the exact opposite actually.

Also, the notion that they need to do these things to "survive" is ridiculous. Israel has the strongest military in the entire Middle East (and Africa for that matter), and has nuclear weapons. It is dishonest to paint a picture of Israel barely clinging to life. That era is long over and has always been over exaggerated anyway. It isn't going anywhere, and none of its neighbors have anywhere near the power to even effectively invade it let alone destroy it. The "for the sake of survival" argument is a false one.

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It has great historical significance both in terms of secular and religious history; It would be a fascinating place to visit; I simply wouldn't want to spend my tourist dollars there.

 

The last place on earth you will visit will be your grave. And while you rot in it rest assured that Israel will be there, even more beautiful, strong, free, jewish, democratic and prosperous than it is in the OP's video.

 

Because they are quite simple indeed. Your comparison with Western Europe is utterly dishonest though. Perhaps you can name a Western country occupying 0.2% of the land, surrounded by 23 hostile countries outnumbering it 75 to 1, refusing to recognize its right to exist and fully committed to eventually wiping it off the map.

As far as the simplicity is concerned, yes, the message is simple, Israel's enemies understand force only and force they get. Not a single Israel's unilateral concession has gone unpunished. On the other hand Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, the West Bank, Gaza, Syria....they all stopped attacking Israel after they experienced Israel's force. The time of highly moral Jews marching merrily into ovens has long past, sorry to disappoint.

 

More dishonesty here. For starters, the amount of land they have isn't directly correlated to their military power. You're being a sensationalist here. Israel is quite strong and isn't in any danger of being wiped out. Nor are all Arab states hostile to Israel; that's another direct falsehood. You're reaching here.

And yet I noticed that you weren't able to refute or even address a single one of my counter arguments. Rather demonstrates the weakness of your own rhetoric here.

Israel hasn't really made any. In fact, they were never even able to live up to the most basic one: the halting of settlement expansion, or even the right of return which they promised to allow but never did.

 

I have no use for graves

 

Dunno, by you can see this one as like a sort of cyber circumcisation...[video=youtube;ezXm9jkukBo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpag e&v=ezXm9jkukBo[/video]