Foofie wrote:I had to look up the meaning of "perspicacity." In my opinion, you used a big five dollar word, where "mentally perceptive" would have saved me a trip to the big dictionary.
The limits of your vocabulary are certainly no fault of mine, and of no interest to me. The suggestion that "mentally perceptive" is a superior way of saying perspicacity, however, is rather amusing--you would prefer to substitute two words for one, and six syllables for five. Suit yourself.
Quote:Your judgement of Israel's policies as "bloody stupid" reflects your ability to empathize with a nation that is only 60 years old, and was born out of the Final Solution? Perhaps, the cognitive dissonance you feel towards Israel's thinking abilities in different arenas has to do with the fact that as Jews, there is a very long history of talent in the applied physical sciences; not so with managing a nation - a two thousand year hiatus. Remember that Diaspora with the Romans, circa 60 AD, or thereabouts.
The nation of Israel was not remotely "born out of the Final Solution." Zionists began to immigrate in earnest in Palestine from 1882 onward, although the Jewish population of Palestine had tripled between 1800 and 1880 through a trickle of immigration. About 30,000 Jews arrived in Palestine between 1882 and 1900, more than doubling the Jewish population of Palestine. If anything were "born out of the Final Solution," it was the leverage which Zionists needed to obtain recognition for a state of Israel.
I suffer no cognitive dissonance with regard to the policies of Israel. I suspect that you don't really know what cognitive dissonance means--your further remarks suggest this. Cognitive dissonance is the feeling one has when they realize that something which they have believed to be true is not in fact true; alternatively, it is used to describe the state of believing in two disparate, conflicting views at the same time. Nothing you have written convinces me that my remark is not true. There is no inherent conflict in believing that Israel, or any one or any group, may be adept at solving small problems, and maladroit at solving large problems.
As for your references to empathy, i have none for the Israeli polity, for however much i may deplore the suffering of Israelis. I also deplore the suffering of the Palestinians. United Nations General Assembly 181, passed at the end of November, 1947, outlined the terms for the creation of a state of Israel. Among a great many other things, it called for a customs and economic union of an Israeli state and an Arab state within Palestine, for the compensation of anyone removed from their traditional lands and for the recognition of traditional property claims. The state of Israel has ignored or violated all the engagements embodied in G.A. Resolution 181 with regard to the Arab population of Palestine. In 1956, they attempted to take the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, but were warned off by Eisenhower. In 1967, they did take the Sinai, as well as the Golan Heights and the west bank of the Jordan River. They have repeatedly occupied southern Lebanon, and have supported the right-wing Christian militias of the Maronites, most notoriously in the Shabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camp massacres.
The Israeli government has made the bed in which the people of Israel have been obliged to lie. Israeli government policies for 60 years have assured nearly constant warfare and the continuous threat of terrorist attack. I consider those policies to be gross stupidity, verging on the criminal. You are free not to agree, but that does not make me cognitively dissonant.
