This is an excellent show on the post ww2 jewish plight. http://youtu.be/-VQHcuoYreE http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JmxxJwSnVkA
The only thing I find weird is how racism is accepted by the world for this region. The events we are discussing happened like 70 years ago and we still find it acceptable they are murdering each other over it? This is almost equivalent to Blacks and Whites still rioting in America over the Civil Rights movement. People were wronged on both sides over there, but eventually enough is enough. Stop the evil, and stop the fighting.
Serious question....... Historically when has our "relationship" with Israel benefitted the US? Another serious one......when has it hurt us?
all anyone needs to know is: Israel uses its weapons to protect its civilians Hamas uses civilians to protect its weapons Islamists (different than Muslims) are members of a death cult. Their stated goal is to kill all Jews and then kill or forcibly convert all others practicing different faiths. Hamas is comprised of Islamists. Hamas is the de facto governmental body of the Palestinians. Ergo, Hamas is a death cult in which its charter expressly calls for not only the destruction of Israel but the death of all Jews everywhere. How is Israel supposed to negotiate with that? Israel practices the utmost restraint compared to their ability. If they wanted, they could turn Gaza and the West Bank into grease spots within 48 hours using conventional weapons alone; and probably do so without taking a single casualty. Yet Israelis continue to try to mitigate Palestinian civilian collateral damage and strategically strike Hamas militants and stockpiles; all the while Israel continues to take military and civilian casualties of their own. And I don't think anyone of any consequence (including Israel) is calling for American involvement. All we need to do is say is we support all sovereign nations' right to self-defense and secure borders, and hope that civilian casualties are minimal. What's controversial about that?
Aren't you the one that stated we spend the money because they are an ally? If we are spending the money because we need an ally I'd like to understand what our 3 billion a year gets us. Three billion a year would do a lot here in the US and I wonder how many children's lives in Hamas would be saved if we focused on our own problems vs. greasing the palms of "friends" in the Middle East.
That was a response as to why do we back Israel so much. Had nothing to do with money. Why we back Israel stems back to ww2 and even before.(if you have time, watch the 2nd set of video links I posted) As far as spending money, I agree much more could be done at home but most of it doesn't require more money but balls to get a job done without worry of political ramifications. And we are pumping close to 70 billion a month into the market just to keep our economy afloat just for perspective.
Israel has the best human intelligence service network in the world. They have to, or they would cease to exist. They share that with us. Or at least they used to, prior to 2008. I wish it wasn't the case, but $3 billion is a drop in the bucket. As of today, the top 5 wealthiest PEOPLE (not countries) in the world are worth $337.2 billion dollars. According to Forbes, today alone Mark Zuckerberg's net worth increased by $1.6 billion dollars...TODAY. As in since close of business yesterday. In geopolitics; $3 billion is nothing. It's ten bucks from every American citizen. I'll pay ten bucks for Mosad to give the GPS coordinates on some dirtbag Yemeni's tent so our military can plug them into the Garmin on a Predator drone. As to how many children's lives would be saved; all I can think about is how many more would be dead due to starvation, plague, and death cult worship if we cut off our support...
What do you think are the political ramifications of us supporting or not supporting Israel financially? Hove you ever thought that politicians support for Israel May have to do with something other than a needed ally or "what's right"? I'm not really a conspiracy theorist when it comes to most things but I also don't trust US based media in general no matter which political party they align themselves with.
You really think 3 billion a year is anything to us anymore? It won't do anything to effect the us. Politicians would find some other way to spend it inefficiently and have them benefit from it. Israel is one of the most technologically advanced Countries in the world. Necessity being the mother of all inventions, they make alot. Not just for military but agriculturally inventions too. They have to support a burgeoning population in a severely resource constrained environment. Racism has to be enacted over there, simply loving everyone will get them killed. The other side would take advantage and wipe them out. Many Muslims can't get along with each other, they sure as **** are not going to get along with a jew over there on a mass scale.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...live-secretly-in-Israel-as-full-citizens.html There is a lie being propagated that Palestinians are all second class citizens. Much like illegal immigrants in our country, they become protected by the laws of the country they reside in.
As dnoodles pointed out, there are significant reasons to have them as allies in that part of the world, however, our support didn't start out that way. In the beginning, it was purely humanitarian. This is why we are so vested in their success.
Palestine has existed since the Diaspora in the year 135. It was named Syria Palestina by the Romans and remained Palestine until 1948 when, after the Brits handed the area over to the UN because they were tired of trying to deal with the Zionist terrorists attacking them, the UN decided to carve Israel out of the middle of Palestine. Before this happened, there were Jewish settlements in different areas of Palestine that lived in peace with their Palestinian neighbors. Before the Intifada, or the Arab Israeli Wars, Zionists were killing or throwing Palestinians in prison without ever being charged. If a Jew killed a Palestinian, no charges were brought. If a Palestinian was picked up by "law enforcement" they were thrown in prison camps and held for as long as the Israeli's wanted without any charges being filed against them. That somewhat changed in the 70's when 60 Minutes did an expose on the Palestinians held without charges. Many of them when released found their homes had been destroyed and Jewish settlements built upon land their families had lived on for centuries. Israeli and Jewish historian, Ilan Pappe, wrote that Israeli leadership committed many war crimes against the Palestinians. He wrote of Palestinians being forced out of their homes and the homes then razed to the ground. He wrote about Palestinian civilians being sniped by army sharpshooters; and for doing so had his photograph published in local newspapers with a target on his face which resulted in him receiving death threats. Mr. Pappe ended up fleeing Israel and moving to England for his own safety. In 1958, Leon Uris wrote the book Exodus for the purpose of building support in America for Israel. In his book he glorified the Zionist rebels that fought the British and he also vilified Arabs and British. By today's standards, the Zionists that went to Palestine after WWII were terrorists. If a bunch of foreigners attacked your area, threw you off your land and started claiming it as their own, you would fight back anyway you could too. There are atrocities on both sides of this issue as there are tragedies. Zionists started the fight and should be left to fight it out on their own without outside assistance. At the end of the fighting, if war crimes have been committed, hold the criminals responsible.
Well written iowa. But there are things omitted on the Israel side. We can't just leave Israel to fight it out because it won't be Israel vs palestine. It'll be Israel vs the world. I'm not sure if this is true but my friend whose dad is syrian says that though America sides with israel, Europe and most of the other world sides with palestine. You can bet that if we pull out many of the other Arab nations will join palestine to try and rid of israel. I have heard though Saudi Arabia and Egypt and possibly Jordan? May actually support Israel.
Why is this our fight again though? Any other time when Americans are not involved, everyone says we should stay out of it, except with Israel. Just don't see how this is different.
Ironic that the only middle-eastern muslim nations not calling for the destruction of Israel are all the ones that went to war with them back in 1967 and 1973 (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq + Saudia Arabia; but they're a whole other can of worms.) Seems they learned their lesson, or are at least governed by people who are not members of the death cult. Because as big of a monster as Assad is; he is not an Islamist. He's a homicidal maniac, not a genocidal one. Video that shows Palis shooting rockets from an apartment rooftop in a crowded neighborhood, and just how judicious the Israeli response is:
As I noted before, who exactly is saying we should be involved? Not anyone, including Israel. Israel is completely capable of taking care of this on their own, and will continue to be so capable until Iran gets the Bomb...then all bets are off.
I've answered it twice already. The Palestinians weren't the first to settle that land either. Greek Phoenicians, a semite people, were there first and the Romans conquered them and gave it the name Palestine. So the historical "who was there first" argument is moot since neither the current Jewish people nor the Palestinians were actually there first.
