Quote:
Originally Posted by Nage Waza
I am glad you are the judge of if Israel is more beneficial to a jew than another country. Glad it is you making that decision. Israel is not an increasingly religious state. There are many political parties representing many different ideas. Most of the governments spend much of their time figuring out ways to stay alive in the region.
The Jewish religion has little in the way of the current situation, which is a predominantly Jewish state (could have been any religion) plunked in the middle of the region. Had, IMO, the surrounding nations not been infiltrated my Muslim extremists, I would think the issue would have been resolved. Instead there has been to much war and too much terrorism. There are many ideas we can talk about to bring about peace, but the number one issue is to eliminate the current version of Hamas, Hezbollah and whatever you want to call Iran.
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You really have a hard time restraining your emotions in this debate, don't you? Your arguments would be more convincing absent the unnecessary sarcasm.
There are many political parties in Israel, as you indicated. I imagine this incursion into Gaza is as much a political gambit by the present government to appeal to the Israeli population - a population which is likely tired of being shelled and a portion of which has no sympathy for the situation of the Palestinians - as it is an attempt to injure Hamas. They can't possibly believe that it's going to bring actual and long lasting security, because it clearly won't, particularly when a rather ham-fisted approach with large numbers of casualties is employed, and simply perpetuates yet another generation of angry hopeless youth. But the fact there are numerous parties only indicates there are various interests at play in Israel, as one might expect. It changes nothing about the power structure of Israeli politics, or the general nature of the population. And while the peace process would clearly be aided by the elimination of combative and extremist groups like Hamas, blowing them up isn't going to accomplish that. It's just going to lead to more eye-for-an-eye thinking and a continuation of violence.
Israel is in a difficult situation, no doubt about it. It has been since its creation, and it will be for the foreseeable future. But part of the problem is the result of Israel's mandate as a Jewish state - one that makes second class non-citizens of individuals who happened to be living there when the state was created, and who don't happen to share certain religious beliefs. If people of all religions could move to Israel and share equally in its promise, that would give some hope to the situation. But the fact is, Israel's entire raison d'etre is to be a homeland for Jewish people, and this by necessity means the exclusion of others. Israel's survival relies upon excluding people on the basis of their ethnicity and religion. This is inherently problematic, particularly given the ethnic and religious makeup of the people who were there when Israel was formed.
As for the state becoming more extreme, it's absolutely inevitable given their situation in the world: a state whose reason for being is no longer as valuable as it once was, which contains all sorts of important religious holy sites, and which is subject to constant stress and attack from outside and within its borders. The result is an attitude more conducive to fighting for survival than mending fences and doling out olive branches. But fighting will only beget more fighting, that much has been pretty well demonstrated.