[Agamemnon]

Originally Posted by Bleeding Red

That all depends on how you define a few of the points in your post. What do you mean by "technically illegitimate"?

There are millions of people and hundreds of scholars that contend that the creation of Israel displaced an existing population. Whether or not this is true is not what we're debating. Whether or not you believe that Israel is a legal/moral state, or it isn't, does not necessarily have anything to do with opinions on Jewish people. Since the debate still rages across academia, I don't really care to pass judgement here one way or the other.

Do you mean that the State of Israel was created on the map illegally (a political view)? If so, then the facts don't bear you out - Israel (pre-1967 boarders) was created by the people living there on land purchased in the early part of the 1900's and land given to them through the Balfour Declaration, and recognized by the UN in 1948. All quite legal.

I've been pretty careful to suggest that this is a point of view that exists, I have not adressed it as my own. I am not engaging you as an anti-Israeli believer, so these arguments don't interest me. However, to believe it was the illegal creation of a state (and I'm not going to spend hours finding counter-points to yours, though I've no doubt they exist) is not to be a racist, as is my original (and constant) point. It is a political point of view.

Do you mean that the Jews do not have a right to a homeland either in that part of the world or at all? This is an anti-semetic position.

I don't believe any single 'race' or 'religion' 'deserves' their own 'homeland'. I believe every person deserves a home. The two are entirely different things.

I don't see how your religion entitles you to land. I don't see how your colour or race apply to your entitlement to land. Do the Falun Gong deserve their own homeland because there is no Falun Gong state? How about the Mormons? Are you a bigoted anti-Mormon if you do not believe in their right to have their own state?

The first is a political issue, the second is terrorist PR and slang for the destruction of Israel - an anti-semetic issue.

Don't know what the heck you're talking about. Believing that Israel is an illegal state does not make one anti-Semetic. I have Jewish friends. I argue with them till I'm blue in the face about the Israel/Palestine situation. They do not believe (and rightfully so) that I am anti-Semetic. The two are not the same.

While there certainly are people who both disagree with the existence of Israel, AND hate Jewish people, being one does not necessitate being the other, and to imply as such is to be very narrow-minded.

I agree. I did not feel that the original post was anti-semetic but some of the points above could be construed as such.

Only if you're looking to start a witch-hunt. That post had nothing in it that can be called out for being anti-Semetic, and yet it was. Thats my beef. I don't really care to debate the Israel/Palestine situation in detail, it would take hours and would get neither of us anywhere. I just think, as I've said ad nauseum, that it was an innappropriate comment given the wording of the original post.