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2006-08-02 10:30:53 · 11 answers · asked by rain_man176 1 in Politics & Government Civic Participation

11 answers

I can honestly say that I am 'on the fence' concerning Israel even though I have Jewish heritage.

I believe that both sides are right and both sides are wrong. I'll explain:
- 2000 years ago the Jewish ppl had control of Jerusalem; some believe that gives them the right to own it no
- BUT then the Palestinians had control for many many years; some believe that gives them the land
- 1948 countries outside of either the Jewish ppl or the Palestinians stepped in and created Israel; thereby, giving it to Jewish ppl and settling the dispute
- Ever since that occurred, the Palestinians have felt as though the land was stolen from them... much like the Jewish ppl felt it was stolen from them before.

So you see, neither is right and neither is wrong.

-This also applies to the violence. Both sides have committed atrocities. Israel goes into Lebanon with aerial bombs kililng many civilians when they know Lebanon has no air force. That seems cowardly and unfair to me.

-But on the other side, you have the Palestinians and Hezbollah that constantly use suicide bombers to kill Israeli civilians.

Once again, neither is right and neither is wrong.

2006-08-02 15:12:24 · answer #1 · answered by BeachBum 7 · 1 1

American people are all different. I'm an American: As a Christian I support Israel. There are many others in America who disapprove of Israel. From the looks of it our Government will support Israel for the time being.

2006-08-02 17:37:10 · answer #2 · answered by mikemike1974 1 · 0 0

As with any diverse society, some Americans love Israel and some hate Israel.

2006-08-02 17:37:18 · answer #3 · answered by My Evil Twin 7 · 0 0

I like Israel!

2006-08-02 17:34:30 · answer #4 · answered by Leelee 2 · 0 0

I would love to go to Israel someday.

2006-08-02 17:34:46 · answer #5 · answered by A* 4 · 0 0

Israel is our ONLY real friend over there.

2006-08-02 17:35:08 · answer #6 · answered by Archer Christifori 6 · 0 0

Go Israel! Kick Hezbollah cowards butt!!!!!

2006-08-02 21:35:44 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Please be patient. Please be brave. Please be resolved to defend the land that God gave you.

Americans are a fickle lot. Some despise you and every politician that is not against you. But you have many friends who very much want you to survive and flourish.

(Side note for a previous comment, if you tried to answer in modern Hebrew, I bet your answer would look worse.)

2006-08-02 17:38:47 · answer #8 · answered by Rabbit 7 · 0 0

Senator John McCain's brother on The Jews & Israel.


There is a lot of worry popping up in the media just now -- "Can
Israel Survive?" Don't worry about it. It relates to something that
Palestinians, the Arabs, and perhaps most Americans don't realize -- the Jews are never going quietly again. Never. And if the world doesn't come to understand that, then millions of Arabs are going to die. It's as simple as that.


Throughout the history of the world, the most abused, kicked-around race of people have been the Jews. Not just during the holocaust of World War II, but for thousands of years. They have truly been "The Chosen People" in a terrible and tragic sense.


The Bible story of Egypt's enslavement of the Jews is not just a
story, it is history, if festooned with theological legend and
heroic epics. In 70 A.D. the Romans, which had for a long time
tolerated the Jews -- even admired them as 'superior' to other
vassals -- tired of their truculent demands for independence and decided on an early "Solution" to the Jewish problem. Jerusalem was sacked and reduced to near rubble, Jewish resistance was pursued and crushed by the implacable Roman War Machine -- see 'Masada'. And thus began The Diaspora, the dispersal of Jews throughout the rest of the world.


Their homeland destroyed, their culture crushed, they looked
desperately for the few niches in a hostile world where they could be safe. That safety was fragile, and often subject to the whims of moody hosts. The words 'pogrom', 'ghetto', and 'anti-Semitism' come from this treatment of the first mono-theistic people. Throughout Europe, changing times meant sometimes tolerance, sometimes even warmth for the Jews, but eventually it meant hostility, then malevolence. There is not a country in Europe or Western Asia that at one time or another has not decided to lash out against the children of Moses, sometimes by whim, sometimes by manipulation.


Winston Churchill calls Edward I one of England's very greatest kings. It was under his rule in the late 1200's that Wales and Cornwall were hammered into the British crown, and Scotland and Ireland were invaded and occupied. He was also the first European monarch to set up a really effective administrative bureaucracy, surveyed and censused his kingdom, established laws and political divisions. But he also embraced the Jews.


Actually Edward didn't embrace Jews so much as he embraced their money. For the English Jews had acquired wealth -- understandable, because this people that could not own land or office, could not join most of the trades and professions, soon found out that money was a very good thing to accumulate. Much harder to take away than land or a store, was a hidden sock of gold and silver coins.


Ever resourceful, Edward found a way -- he borrowed money from the Jews to finance imperial ambitions in Europe, especially France. The loans were almost certainly not made gladly, but how do you refuse your King? Especially when he is 'Edward the Hammer'. Then, rather than pay back the debt, Edward simply expelled the Jews. Edward was especially inventive -- he did this twice. After a time, he invited the Jews back to their English homeland, borrowed more money, then expelled them again.


Most people do not know that Spain was one of the early entrants into The Renaissance. People from all over the world came to Spain in the late medieval period. All were welcome -- Arabs, Jews, other Europeans. The University of Salamanca was one of the great centers of learning in the world -- scholars of all nations, all fields came to Salamanca to share their knowledge and their ideas. But in 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella, having driven the last of Moors from the Spanish Shield, were persuaded by the righteous fundamentalists of the time to announce "The Act of Purification". A series of steps were taken in which all Jews and Arabs and other non-Christians were expelled from the country, or would face the tools and the torches of The Inquisition. From this 'cleansing' come the Sephardic Jews -- as opposed to the Ashkenazis of Eastern Europe. In Eastern Europe, the sporadic violence and brutality against Jews are common knowledge. 'Fiddler' without the music and the folksy humor. At times of fury, no accommodation by the Jew was good enough, no profile low enough, no village poor enough or distant enough.


From these come the near-steady flow of Jews to the United States. And despite the disdain of the Jews by most 'American' Americans, they came to grab the American Dream with both hands, and contributed everything from new ideas of enterprise in retail and entertainment to becoming some of our finest physicians and lawyers. The modern United States, in spite of itself, IS The United States in part because of its Jewish blood.


Then the Nazi Holocaust -- the corralling, sorting, orderly
eradication of millions of the people of Moses. Not something that other realms in other times didn't try to do, by the way, the
Germans were just more organized and had better murder technology.


I stood in the center of Dachau for an entire day, about 15 years ago, trying to comprehend how this could have happened. I had gone there on a side trip from Munich, vaguely curious about this
Dachau. I soon became engulfed in the enormity of what had occurred there nestled in this middle and working class neighborhood.


How could human beings do this to other human beings, hear their cries, their pleas, their terror, their pain, and continue without
apparently even wincing? I no longer wonder. At some times, some places, ANY sect of the human race is capable of horrors against their fellow man, whether a member of the Waffen SS, a Serbian sniper, a Turkish policeman in 1920's Armenia, a Mississippi Klansman. Because even in the United States not all was a Rose Garden. For a long time Jews had quotas in our universities and graduate schools. Only so many Jews could be in a medical or law school at one time. Jews were disparaged widely. I remember as a kid Jewish jokes told without a wince - "Why do Jews have such big noses?"


Well, now the Jews have a homeland again. A place that is theirs. And that's the point. It doesn't matter how many times the United States and European powers try to rein in Israel, if it comes down to survival of its nation, its people, they will fight like no lioness has ever fought to save her cubs. They will fight with a ferocity, a determination, and a skill, that will astound us.


And many will die, mostly their attackers, I believe. If there were a macabre historical betting parlor, my money would be on the Israelis to be standing at the end. As we killed the kamikazes and the Wehrmacht soldaten of World War II, so will the Israelis kill their suicidal attackers, until there are not enough to torment them.


The irony goes unnoticed -- while we are hammering away to punish those who brought the horrors of last September here, we restrain the Israelis from the same retaliation. Not the same thing, of course -- We are We, They are They. While we mourn and seethe at September 11th, we don't notice that Israel has a September 11th sometimes every day.


We may not notice, but it doesn't make any difference. And it doesn't make any difference whether you are pro-Israeli or you think Israelis the bully of the Middle East. If it comes to where a new holocaust looms -- with or without the concurrence of the United States and Europe--Israel will lash out without pause or restraint at those who would try to annihilate their country.


The Jews will not go quietly again.


Joe McCain

2006-08-02 17:35:14 · answer #9 · answered by Cheesie M 4 · 0 0

they have a right to exist, so stop attacking them.
when you attack them and start a freakin war, don't act surprised when inocent people get killed.
that is what we think.

2006-08-02 17:34:48 · answer #10 · answered by ScarMan 5 · 0 0

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