Why is Israel getting such a hard time?

Question

hundreds of people are dying everyday in Iraq, but this is OK as we started it?

If you study the history of the conflict Israel are completely justified in their arguments.- check out a brief synopsis from Nutshells at this link, who are a completely independent organisation-

http://www.conceptwizard.com/nutoo/nutshell3.html

They have consistently had their peace efforts shattered with terrorist attacks, any country would be doing what they are doing now, so why are they getting such a bad press? Is it because they are Jewish?

Answer 1

World opinion seems always to be most sympathetic to those who are oppressed or marginalised members of society, which is why the Palestinians garner such favour. Plus, when you're backed up by the world's one Superpower, who needs to support Israel?

Yet that country seems to be like a lamb surround by a pack of wolves all intent on getting it. No wonder it feels it needs a strong army! Jordan is perhaps the only country reasonable enough on this. Plus, Israel is the most democratic and stable of the entire region, the rest are theocrats and oligarchs. Until the region learns to accept Israel's right to exist fully, how can you expect Israelis to accept the sovereignty of a Palestinian state. I'm not saying that Palestine shouldn't be recognized formally, but both sides must get used to each other first.

I've tried to be objective, but I confess I end up being pro-Israel/Zionist. Just because I figure the Jews have suffered enough, we need to cut them some slack. They been persecuted for centuries enough.

Answer 2

I have seen quite a few incorrect answers to this question and I think some of the writers should indeed study their history books.
This latest conflict started in Gaza where Israel had already withdrawn from there. When they were occupying Gaza they employed hundreds of workers within Israel but then suicide bombers started busing in with the workers so they stopped employing them and as usual their own people stopped the ordinary citizens earn a living. Israel is half the size of Lake Michigan and a lot of people have died because of its existence.
The Jewish people were there long before Islam became a religion which was born approx 630AD the Israelites lived there 3500 years ago. The Dome of the Rock was build next to the old Temple of Jerusalem which still has The Wailing Wall on the site.
Lets just hope there can be a lasting peace in Lebanon as well as Israel so ordinary people can have some hope for their future.
I won't hold my breath thou

Answer 3

Yes! Israel is always held to a higher standard! Israel has accepted *every* serious peace offer ever made. The Palestinians have accepted none. Let's hope the agreement with Lebanon holds. Egypt and Jordan have accepted peace offers. Anyone else?

Compare their attacks of a "disproportionate" response to a police action.
If the attacker has only a knife, then the police must respond with only a knife.
If there are two criminals, then only two officers may respond.
If the attack happens in a home, school, mosque, etc., the police may not respond. Obviously police agencies all over the world must make major changes to protect the innocent!

To HarryBore: Why is it the only nation the U.N. sanctions is Israel. They can sanction Israel in the blink of an eye, but take years to do anything else!

To Tsavill: While you're looking at that map, consider the size of Israel in comparison to the rest of the Arab world. Obviously the neighborhood bully!

To GreekGoddess: and does Britain sit smack dab in the middle of the Arab world? Is she being threatened by ALL her neighbors?

Answer 4

I do not think you should compare deaths in different countries. Iraq and Israel/Lebanon are two separate military (even if not political) actions and should be considered separately.

Leaving aside the question as to whether Israel's arguments are justified, their response to the abduction of two soldiers was disproportionate. A lot of people got killed. Israel did not manage to remove Hizbollah and by demonstrating its limitations Israel has weakened its international position. So even if you agree with Israel's aims you may think they should be criticised because they killed innocent people without achieving the objectives of their action.

Taking the line of my last paragraph, of course Hizbollah should be given a hard time as well for targeting civilian areas with its missiles. Hizbollah has not met its objectives either.

The countries that invaded Iraq are being given a hard time too. Again, they are occupying a country where people are being killed without achieving their aims. And again, it is the people in Iraq doing the killing who should be condemned as much or more than the US, UK and other occupying forces.

The basic problem is that some powerful people in certain Western countries have forgotten the lesson of Vietnam that you cannot beat an ideological uprising by conventional military force alone. You have to win the political battle and the battle of hearts and minds. To be fair, I think that responsible officers in government, the military and intelligence probably know this and hopefully "the establishment" will get things better in a year or two.

Answer 5

Because innocent people are dying.

The prevalence of anti-Sematism will always haunt Jews and, by extension, Israel.

Israel is not entirely in the right, here. They have had a tough row to hoe, to be sure, and I'm not sure what nation could have done better under the circumstances. But Israel has not abided by some of the UN resolutions to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza. Instead they have built settlements and appropriated land that was not theirs. Of course, the Western world appropriated land that was not theirs to create Israel during the great Mea Culpa that followed the revelation of the horrors of the Holocaust.

Its a sticky wicket, and no mistake. But you can't blame people for being critical of naked aggression, no matter how well rationalized.

Answer 6

Israel is getting a hard-time because it is essentially an apartheid country, as evidenced by your own question - Israel is not an exclusively Jewish country, anymore than the USA is an exclusively white country.
Israel currently deprives Palestinian people of clean water and has excluded Arabs who have found work. They also shoot dead children on their way to school. They bulldose hospitals, police stations and other Palestinian institutions. Preventing the Palestinian people from having the kind of political infrastructure that could grow into a legal framework that can crush paramilitary organisations. Israel blames an entire people for a few terrorists, and appears to be trying to exterminate that entire race.
Israeli military tactics target civilians, not terrorists. Their disregard for human life becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy - could you learn to make peace with the people that kill your children? I'd hope you could, but it honestly wouldn't be easy would it?
You'd at least expect them to stop killing civilians first, but they consistently have US support to continue their mass-murder, so they have no reason to stop.
Israel continues, despite UN resolutions, to illegally build settlements on land that is not theirs.

Israel has never seriously made an attempt at peace. Israel gets a bad time because the military tactics are based on the principle of racist mass-murder.

Nothing to do with them being Jewish at all.

Answer 7

I will ask you to look at the Government of Rabin and Perez. Israel had peace and progress under those two. Rabin was killed because his era was described as that time when the lion laid side by side with the lamb. I remeber rabin asking the palestinians to stop their attacks; and they did. all he did was ask.
The majority in israel chose Sharon and war, what did sharon do?
He trespassed on the Al aqsa mosque! If Israel wants peace it can be achieved by dialogue, not invasion, not repression, not wholesale theft of palestinian lands, destruction of palestinian homes, terrorising them on their beaches by lobbing shells, exiling her legitimate Government into perpectual captivity.

Answer 8

Frank, you are misguided.

Israel have never made a single effort towards peace.

Think about it.

When you search the net for an explanation, try to find a map showing all the fresh water sources in the region, and find a map of israeli territories, and compare them, along with maps of all the proposed agreements offered by the Americans in the 90's.

Answer 9

Since the beginning of time war has been a way of life that we have to get used to

Answer 10

They have no oil if moes had turned right instead of left arabs would still be goat and camel herders and Iran would still be Persiaincidentally Iran is not an arab country.