Israeli Army is committing war crimes (Page 2)

Isreal needs the US, we don't need Isreal, narrow minded people think we need Isreal but there are other options that are very doable.

totally.. i agree with ya 🙂

I think Muslims are going to rule the world like they claim

Muslims can NEVER rule the world... jeeez the only religon i dont like is islam... i cant help it... they are just the meanest people around... IMO.. atleast the ones i've met...

Well, like most conflicts that arise, not so much as a result of competition for resources necessarily (i.e, jobs, land, a wo/man), but more so as a result of differences in perspective/world view, this topic's responses have sort of reflected the same. The side most people on this site have supported (Israel or Palestine) seems to be, by and large, a reflection of their own world views; generally those with a more hard-lined, conservative view on politics and state sovereignty, lean more in favor of Israel, whereas, those with more liberal/amenable views on the relations between state sovereignty and civil rights, are more on the side of the Palestinian people. Thus, a lot of people's opinions on the situation are very reactionary.

Their is some legitimacy to the perspective of both sides. Was it right for the allied powers to set up a state in the middle of Palestinian territory thus displacing 400,000 Palestinians (according to the BBC)? It would be like Russia deciding to institute a Native American state in Calfornia,where English would no longer be spoken and American customs no longer followed. Obviously not, but nothing can, nor should be done about it now; generations of Jewish people have already lived there and raised families. So then is it right for Palestinian militants to respond to the Israeli government by targeting innocent civilians (even though there currently is no other political avenue open to them)? Obviously not. And the same would apply to the Israeli government which targets innocent people for the misdirected acts of a few Palestinians. Both sides illegitamately use force against innocent civilians; both sides are at fault (though one side is a little more powerless in using diplomacy to make their side heard). The only way of redressing the current conflict is for each side to take a step back and acknowledge the perspective of the other.

And we should care about this conflict as well as the suffering of every human being because we all share the same bond of humanity, remember? Branh, one moment you are saying that humans should not act according to such delineations as culture, ethnicity, gender (I dislike using the term race, b/c biologically it does not exist), while in the next post you are making such statements as 'interracial dating is stupid' and 'why care about what goes on in the rest of the world, let them all kill one another', huh?

The way I remember the Old Testament the Israelites were roaming around for ages before they could settle down in
their Holy Land. Maybe this is because they kept pissing off all the other tribes in the surrounding regions.

And Branh apparently according to a prophecy in the bible all the people will turn on eachother and fight amoung themselves and then the yellow people will rise up and rule over everyone. And the yellow people are supposed to be the oriental Chinese.

'awesome... i think i'll keep my reputation as "the thread killa" for a little longer'

No, I think I have you beat on that one somehow, lol...oh well.

'it's pointless to look at other people and compare ourselves to them.
it's like... God's giving you a test on Physics 3 (electricity, magnetism, and waves, for me.) and if your neighbor is
taking a Russian Literature test, it's kind of pointless to cheat off of him if we are all taking different tests all at the same time.
.. or if you try to use advanced calc answers for a basketweaving course, you're gonna get a pretty shitty grade, regardless of how eloquent
you make yourself sound, or however beautifully you weave your answers'

I like your analogy..very clever..Well, there is no absolute answer as how to go about resolving centuries of animosiy, but one thing is for sure, in order to arrive at peace between two parties, there must first be a balance of power on both sides or else the one side with less leverage politically speaking is not going feel as though their concerns are being taken seriously (and well, they probably are not). You can't resolve a dispute between a husband and a wife, if the husband refues to compromise and is in a position where he doesn't have to, or vice-versa.

They had their colours a bit off back then/ Like the yellow people have more beige coloured skin. The black people are actually brown. And the white people are a pale pink (ie flesh coloured) Maybe they didn't have names for those other secondary colours hiding in the spectrum.

Has anyone ever seen The Life of Brian? If not I strongly recommend it.
Hilarious and a piss take of birth of Christ. It was banned up until the 80's I think
for being blasphemous. But's very funny and very incisive at the same time. Then again humour is often the best way of getting a point across.

Oh, and I forgot to add, intergroup conflict (as a result of prejudice, bias, or any other learned behaviour), seems permanent because attitudes are passed on from one generation to the next, but through the means of educating people (to be open to other view points, and more tolerant), the cycle can gradually be broken. Though there will always be conflict because humans will always have divergent perspectives on any given situation and not all of them will be educated enough to look at teh situation objectively (or as objectively as humanly possible).

"The very reason there is a state of Israel is political pull and ethnocentricism. That doesn't really mean it belonged to Palestine either, it clearly wasn't their land during the Ottoman empire, or anytime before that. But really the issue is thousands of years old. This entire conflict is a big waste of time. If they want to continue killing each other for absolutely no reason, then go ahead and let them have at each other, but just keep US foreign AID out of it."

Out of all the comments here, I found this one by Branh to be the most perceptive. It goes right to the core of the absurdity of the war in the middle east and the discourse surrounding it. the use of RACE and RELIGION as a basis for foreign policy: I mean why should the foundation of a nation be justified on a supposed rationale of racial/ethnic identity and religion while other nations cannot use that rationale. I mean why is it acceptable to have a JEWISH (race and/or religion) nation and not an ISLAMIC nation? Both are wrong. I mean, Israel has a right to defend itself as any nation especially if it has the guns to do so: but I am disgusted by the argument that is always put forward to justify that right: that the jews are god's chosen people! Well, I'm sure that Hitler could easily claim that the aryan race were chosen people and thus had the right to massacre every other race/ethnic groups in Europe then. THAT DOESN'T MAKE NAZISM RIGHT.
and Prime, I agree that MD came on too strong with her outrage over the violence of the Israeli army but I don't think that gives you the right to call her a jew hater. I mean, I've seen jews call each other jew hater just because one was willing to be objective about the issues in the middle east and the other not, preferring fanaticism. It just is a way to argue without arguing...a way to close down any sensible opposition to Israeli policy. Why is it so hard to accept that Israel is an IMPERIALIST state? Is it the only one in the world? NO. BUT IT STILL IS AN IMPERIALIST STATE albeit a Eurocentric one. somehow, just because the jews suffered in Europe, people cannot accept them as torturers themselves? It's as stupid as saying that African Americans in Liberia would be all peace loving and non-racist: the reality is that the African Americans who founded Liberia imposed a regime over the natives there that resulted in the current destitution of the country. Does that make me a hater of blacks if I criticize these African Americans in Liberia??

"If they want to continue killing each other for absolutely no reason, then go ahead and let them have at each other, but just keep US foreign AID out of it."

But that's the thing, the US is not keeping out of it. It's siding with Israel no matter what it does. Anyway I don't like the way the US asserts itself in other countries. For example, there is now an established stop over point in Shannon, Co Clare here in Ireland where the US army refuel their jets on their way to Iraq. This was done hush hush in Ireland because there was much opposition from the Irish people to this. But as with a lot of things, it was done anyway and now when an Irish person is getting a flight to the US they have to stop over in Shannon to go through customs. I had to do it recently when I was flying to JFK.

Firstly this is surely a security risk since we had to get off the plane to fill out our green visa forms and did not pass security on this occasion. So in theory any kind of device could have been smuggled in at this time. Anyway when I was there I saw all the soldiers scattered in the waiting lounge. They came across as quite loud and obnoxious, like they commanded respect. The things is that they are not a welcome sight in my country. We don't applaud the fact that America has gone into Iraq and "liberated" it. Because by all appearances they haven't. The sight of any soldier in their kaki uniforms is fear inspiring and we would rather not have to see that here.

The US sides with Israel because most of its strong economy comprises jewish investors. And the US invaded Iraq because of oil and not to end terrorism. That's the way I see it. The US can wave its flag as much as it wants in its own country but outside of that it should show respect to the people of the country who is putting up with them.