http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZprVPKi-W6s
This video is interesting. Some of it I agree with. Israel goes well out of its way to avoid civilian casualties, more than any other army in the world. The UN report charging bothIsrael and the Palestinians with war crimes was grossly unfair, comparing a single use of phosphorous shells with years of deliberate bombardment of civilian centers.
On the other hand, Israel continues to provoke its neighbors by building settlements, and justifying its existence on biblical material not all recognize or even acknowledge is no better than grounding any policy in a particular religious stance.
Palestine has not been ruled by Jews for a large majority of its existence. It has been ruled by Philistines, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Turkish arabs and the British. By right of rulership, I can see why arabs feel it is their land- they have had the longest periods of ownership.
On the whole, I feel there is justification for the existence of Israel, and they were violently attacked by their neighbors, who lost the 1948 war. I would prefer to see settlement activity stop, and see if a real peace can be achieved with the Palestinians. I am not optimistic.
Many people have forgotten about the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, or outremer. Christians ruled Palestine for 110 years. Whole generations were born and died there, rarely or never setting foot in their 'native' countries. And yet, this kingdom is today only a historical footnote. It was conquered by arabs and held by them until 1919, and lived in by them until 1948. When outremer was 62 years old, no one had any thought that it might one day disappear.
While I am supportive of Israel, and it has an international mandate for its existence from the UN, historical comparisons are not promising for its long term survival. Neither are the biblical analogies used in this video. It only took a couple fo generations of kingship for Israel to be destroyed.
Ted
This video is interesting. Some of it I agree with. Israel goes well out of its way to avoid civilian casualties, more than any other army in the world. The UN report charging bothIsrael and the Palestinians with war crimes was grossly unfair, comparing a single use of phosphorous shells with years of deliberate bombardment of civilian centers.
On the other hand, Israel continues to provoke its neighbors by building settlements, and justifying its existence on biblical material not all recognize or even acknowledge is no better than grounding any policy in a particular religious stance.
Palestine has not been ruled by Jews for a large majority of its existence. It has been ruled by Philistines, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Turkish arabs and the British. By right of rulership, I can see why arabs feel it is their land- they have had the longest periods of ownership.
On the whole, I feel there is justification for the existence of Israel, and they were violently attacked by their neighbors, who lost the 1948 war. I would prefer to see settlement activity stop, and see if a real peace can be achieved with the Palestinians. I am not optimistic.
Many people have forgotten about the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, or outremer. Christians ruled Palestine for 110 years. Whole generations were born and died there, rarely or never setting foot in their 'native' countries. And yet, this kingdom is today only a historical footnote. It was conquered by arabs and held by them until 1919, and lived in by them until 1948. When outremer was 62 years old, no one had any thought that it might one day disappear.
While I am supportive of Israel, and it has an international mandate for its existence from the UN, historical comparisons are not promising for its long term survival. Neither are the biblical analogies used in this video. It only took a couple fo generations of kingship for Israel to be destroyed.
Ted
I feel as you do, that Israel does have justification for its existence. However, as you point out, lots of other people have ruled that land in the last 3,000 years, so it's not as though the Jewish people "own" the land...and of course, before the Jews there were other people living in that land, like the Jebusites, from whom King David commandeered Jerusalem.
ReplyDeleteThe video does not point out (of course) the harm done to the many Arabs - both Christians and Muslims - by the Jews over the years, including the loss of whole towns back in 1948.
In any multi-faceted feud of long standing, no party is going to be completely innocent: human nature isn't like that. The Jews in Israel have committed their fair share of injustices over the years (as William Dalrymple's book "From the Holy Mountain" shows). Still, they have taken quite a beating from their neighbors and deserve a place at table of the world's nations.
David Graham