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Originally Posted by longsuffering

If you can stop demonizing all things Muslim for a minute, how about commenting on the ethnic cleansing that occured outside the Middle East?

Well if you actually read my posts from start to finish, the point I was trying to make was that happened in the middle east was more akin to population transfer than ethnic cleansing. I've admitted that many Palestinians also lost their homes.

I also don't see how pointing out facts is "demonizing all things muslim". I haven't made any moral judgements here. Just pointing out the fact that many countries in the middle east formerly had Jewish populations. Now they do not. If you have facts to dispute this please point them out. Once again I have not denied that there are any Palestinians and their decendants who were forced out of what is now Israel.

The only reason I am bringing up any of this at all is to counterbalance the arguments brought into this thread that acccused Israel of ethnic cleansing. These anti-Israel arguments were brought up first, despite the fact they did not relate to the original topic. It's only fair I should be allowed to respond.

Originally Posted by longsuffering

Do you hold the Baltic States in the same low regard as the Islamic States? I can't say as I've ever seen you post about that, although I could be mistaken. Surely you're aware their treatment of Jews was arguably worse.

It's ironic that you accuse me of ignoring other problems in the world, in this case the baltic states. It seems like every thing Israel does gets its own thread. This thread is a prime example. How many threads do we have on the organ theft in China and India which is occuring on a much much larger scale?

For the record, I hold the people responsible for the genocide in the baltic states in the lowest possible regard.

Originally Posted by longsuffering

BTW, why, in your scenarios, are the individuals who resettled always driven or forced out under threat of violence or persecution? Just maybe some decided to resettle in the Jewish homeland. Silly me, I thought that was at least part of the attraction of establishing Israel.

I'm sure many Jews did voluntarily chose to leave for a Jewish homeland. However, I have a hard time beliving the porportions would be so high without significant forces driving them out.

Why haven't we witnessed the same occurence in North America then? Many Jews have left for Israel in North America, but many more chose to remain. The reason being they have proper rights.

Originally Posted by longsuffering

And finally, nice dodge of all the points raised by octothorp. When the facts get in the way, generalize. If the last 20 years of history (wrt Iranian Jews) is an inconvenient truth ..... ignore it!

Let me try the same strategy. Israeli rockets and Israeli soldiers have killed more Palestinian civilians that Hamas has killed Israeli civilians. Like you, ergo, ipso facto, Israel is more evil than Hamas.

That strawman argument is as legitimate as the one you are making.

I actually appreciated octothorp's points. Many of the facts he speaks of are true. He is using a narrower definition of ethnic clensing that leans more towards catostrophic events. Mine looks more at final numbers. Their both valid view points. I'm entitled to mine.