tkr4lf wrote: PLAYER57832 wrote:tkr4lf wrote:I should clarify. I am not speaking of Israel itself when talking about the lands "stolen" from the Arabs. I am speaking mainly of the West Bank, Golan Heights, Sinai and Gaza, which were taken from Jordan, Syria and Egypt during the Six-Day War of June 1967. Apparently Jordan, Syria and Egypt decided to attack Israel, which defeated the Arab forces in, go figure, 6 days.
The whole creation of Israel violated most legal standards for countries. I mean, a group of religious folks decide they want this territory.. never mind anyone who is there before, never mind any ties except religion... and takes it.
Well, while it was rather unusual, it's not like the Jews simply took it.
In fact, it pretty much was.
tkr4lf wrote: I think the whole thing was largely a response to WW2 and the holocaust.
No, zionism was a force prior to that, but WWII gave the excuse for the west to allow it/encourage it.
tkr4lf wrote:Britian was instrumental in the creation of Israel.
The Balfor declaration is often cited as the "legal" basis, yes.
tkr4lf wrote:And besides, it's not like religion was the sole claim they had to the land, they were the ancient inhabitants of the land, so that could be construed as a legitimate claim. Of course, that claim is sort of based on the Old Testament, but still, not really having to do with religion.
Oh no? IN reality, the Palestiniens were not only descendents of ancient inhabitants, but they continued to reside there. Jews, by contrast, largely fled, adopted cultures from Europe, etc.
tkr4lf wrote:I should also note, that I am rather sympathetic to Israel. Not on any religious grounds or anything like that. My father believes we should support Israel because they are God's chosen people and our brother faith. I say hogwash on that. I am sympathetic to them because they are surrounded by people who want their total destruction, have been in quite a number of wars, and yet have done an admirable job in defending their country and in developing their country. Not to mention, they have like the third best military technology in the world. Granted, much of it comes from the American government, but not all of it. Take the main battle tanks for example. The Americans come in first, with the M1A2 Abrams(if they havent come out with a newer one yet...not sure on that), then the Russians with the T-90, then the Israelis with the Merkava Mk 3. The first two countries make sense, being rather large and powerful nations. But then Israel, a rather small and unimportant country on the world scale, comes in third...it's interesting to say the least.
True, but irrelevant. Who knows what the Palestiniens themselves could have done had they the same help that Israel received. At any rate, while Israel is not going to go away, none of that gives excuse for them to continue, even today, to steal lands that were owned by Palestiniens only 40, even 10 years ago and for which the Palestiniens were never truly paid... and which no Israeli is even considering necessary to pay for.
tkr4lf wrote:Anyway, you do bring up a good point about the previous inhabitants, and I'm not sure that there is a good solution. However, I would say that it only seems fair that the Jewish people should have a homeland of their own. This may not be the fairest solution, but why can't the palestinians go live in the other Arab/Muslim countries? It wouldn't be the perfect solution, but at least then Israel wouldn't have a lot of the problems that it now has, and the Palestinians would be somewhat more content, being surrounded by fellow Muslims and Arabs. Like I said, not a perfect solution, maybe not even a viable one, but just my suggestion. Thoughts?
They have homelands.. many of them. They have homes in whatever nation they reside, where they were born, where often their grandfathers were born, etc.
Why do the Jews have any more right to a "homeland" than any other religious or ethnic group? Why do they have the right to their land, but not the Palestiniens who occupied that land for 2000 years. Israel has a right because Israel chose to irrigate instead of relying on a nomadic lifestyle? Who says that the nomadic lifestyle is inferior? Westerners, yes, but is that truth? It is arrogance.
If Jews have the right to their land, they why isn't the US ceding all of its lands to the Native Americans who have an even more legitimate, more recent claim to these lands. Or, how about South AFrica? The Kurds? ... etc, etc. ,etc. We really ought to turn Hawaii back to the Hawaiin monarchy.
No, these questions only seem "legitimate" when it comes to the jews and Israel. There is no objective sense there, only religion and the fact that 6,000,000 jews were killed .. NOT by Palestiniens, but by Germans. Yet.. no one suggested Germany give up their lands so the Jews could have a nice homeland. It was the Palestinien people, people who had no part in any prior conflict with the Jews (at least for several hundred years), people who simply were not white, who lacked set land titles such as was common in much of Europe, etc. THAT is why Israel exists.
And.. even if it was OK originally, the crime is that instead of stopping and being glad they got their land, tehy insist that they must have more. FURTHER, they insist that any act by Palestiniens to defend themselves means "terrorism". But, Israelis are free to take land, steal it outright or through the courts. They are allowed to build where international courts say they should not with almost no recourse. They make the nation of Israel a fact, no matter any right or wrong of it. And simply push the Palestiniens out, then try to claim "victim" when a few Palestiniens have the "audacity" to complain or fight back.
This is most definitely NOT about religion. It is about greed, ignorance and insanity, but mostly plain old-fashioned greed with religion as the excuse.