Good morning. Now my turn to tackle this piece by piece.
Reread. I said initially. Things didn't get really ugly until later on although there were attacks on the Jews, such as the Hebron Massacre, before this. The Jews at the time were a much weaker and smaller force and a far more threatened minority. This is what led to the beginning of the Haganah and Jewish defense extremism and atrocities were eventually committed on both sides. But they initially organized against attacks by Arabs. Nonetheless, as WW2 rolled in the entire world began to shift. There was never a Palestinian country but I guess the Grand Mufti at the time would be considered the closest thing to its leader and he, along with the Arabs, chose to align with Hitler and to help achieve the final solution. Sorry, but if you're going to try and wipe out my family I'm going to fight back by any means that I can. Of course, not all Arabs wanted this and innocent ones got swept up in the aftermath but this is what happens in war. The same with the entire axis and the innocent people in Japan and Germany.
Were the Arabs forcibly expelled? Did they flee? Depends on what you read. The ones who stayed became Israeli Arabs and I imagine to this day prefer living in, rather than outside of, Israel. It was probably a little over 700,000 Arabs who left one way or another. Not that it makes it right but still less than the ~900,000 Jews who left or were expelled from Muslim lands beginning around the same time and who make up the majority of Israelis today. Why is this rarely ever mentioned? Perhaps because Israel absorbed them and didn't use them as pawns, unlike their neighbors.
Not a false comparison at all. I'm asking you to consider the US response to rockets fired from a hostile nation at civilians, including children. Let's make it an even more accurate description. Let's say you're New Jersey and New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, etc are threatening you with missiles. I think your opinion might change. I don't think the US military is going to sit there and think about whether or not the rocket attacks are justified. They need to first stop it. Bush didn't think about the justification for the bombing of the twin towers.
I'm also going to ask you again to take it one step further and ask why these policies are in place? What forces were in place that helped lead to this? Do you honestly think any country wants to be bogged down enforcing these awful policies? You may not be surprised of a person's act of desperation but I'm not surprised by the Israeli response in doing these things. In fact, I would expect and demand my government to do the same if the situation called for it. The primary job of a government and its military is to protect its citizens.
The dynamics there are completely different than here. Israel is a speck surrounded by a sea of hatred and hostility you and I can't imagine. There's not much room for error.
You're right, most suicide bombings occurred before and the only thing that slowed the tide was the building of the separation barrier. This is a clear example of how things tend to evolve there and an example of how Israel is acting in self-defense. Another example is the disengagement from gaza. This was perceived as Israeli weakness and attacks have increased since that time, not decreased. You would think that the Palestinians would have used this opportunity to help make more gains and not by attacking Israel and forcing it to respond. This is why Israel needs to show strength. Otherwise, it will not survive. When they let up on the gas, the attacks tend to increase, not decrease.
Maybe, maybe not. You're assuming you know how Gazans think. While you can sit there and make your assumptions, the reality is that Hamas rules Gaza and sets the rules through its leadership. It is literally in their charter to destroy Israel. How can you negotiate peace with this organization? This is the main problem. You cannot fix anything there until this is changed. It doesn't matter what happened in the past or who is right or wrong. There really is no right or wrong as each group is going to do what's in its own best interest. The reality, which must be dealt with, is that the Jewish people living there are not going anywhere just as no one here is going back to Africa, Europe, Asia, whatever. The Palestinians must understand and accept this. If they choose not to, they'll continue with the tit for tat violence and continue to lose land and dig themselves into a deeper and deeper hole.
If the situation was reversed, there would be no middle east problem or land encroachment issue as Hamas would simply kill every single Israeli. Naturally, Israel won't allow this to happen.
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These settlers who behave this way are few and far between. I bet most Israelis are distressed when anyone other than a militant is killed. Hard to say that most Palestinians feel this way, especially when they're sending their young children to the front lines. I don't think Palestinians are inherently evil people and I'm sure most of them, along with most Arabs and people in general, are good people. Most likely very caring, inviting, and generous. They're doing what they feel is right but when you indoctrinate children in school at an early age that the Jews are going to kill you and your family, they're evil, they must be killed, etc. I'm not sure what other response you can expect or how you can expect this population to want peace.
The IDF has done more than any other army to prevent civilian deaths. They send knock-knock bombs, make phone calls, drop flyers, etc. What other country does this? In turn, Hamas launches rockets at kindergartens.
Exactly my point. The earlier poster mentioned Apartheid as a critique against Israel compared to the Palestinians when in fact Palestine, as in many Muslim nations (i.e. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Sudan) is far closer to Apartheid than Israel is. Sorry, but you don't get to levy this charge against someone when you yourself are more like what you are accusing others of being.
Apartheid, colonization, racism - these are all buzz words used to garner favor with public opinion to make it seem like a wealthy white country taking advantage of a poor indigenous brown population. This is far from the case and not that it matters, but many Israelis have far more melanin content than their Palestinian neighbors.
Muslims and Arabs control much land. No one is arguing against this but sorry, they can't have the entire middle east and surrounding area as other groups of people also have ties to this land. There are so many Muslim countries. Don't the Jews deserve just one?
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