Can you look at this map and say Israel does not systemically appropriate land?

I said defend themselves against Israel if they are attacked or invaded the same as any other nation. The statement which was a misinterpretation "wipe Israel off the face of the map" is way overused. If Palestine can't defend themselves against Israel, then other nations can come to defense the same as they do when another state is attacked from another state. All I am saying when they become a state, they should be allowed to be militarized the same any other state or nation.

OK George, I apologize for my attack. I reread your post and it dident say what I thought it said. But after reading your posts on this site I wouldent want my kids to work for you or adopt your view of life but my attack THIS time was unwarranted. Oh, dont hold your breath waiting for me to lighten up it aint going to happen.

In this case we is short for prick.

Thank you for that. None (or very few) of us are such that they are universally liked or admired. I do have an unusually broad history running a wide variety of organizations, ranging from fighter squadrons to large ships, nuclear weapons plants, engineering/construction companies and (now) scientific consulting firms. Overall I've been fairly sucessful, though I'm sure that some didn't like my style or manner. What was important however - we met our intended goals, and I enjoyed working with and knowing a broad variety of people doing it.

I also appreciate the trace of humor and irony in your remarks. That's good, and I think you would benefit from more of it. Happiness and joy are choices: make good choices for yourself.

Ionus,

I should have guessed you were Australian. if from nothing else than the clock. I have enjoyed the dialogue with you. We don't always agree, but that makes things more interesting. The last thing I need or want is a clone.

All the best.

I don't know how concerned he is about anti-Semitic boycotts, but he won't be very concerned about the UN resolution in question.

While it is true that Israel is sick of the peace talk farce and has recently voted to take a break from it, if Mr. Netanyahu has to go back to the negotiating table and waste some of his time listening to the Palestinians refuse to make peace, that will hardly be a serious disaster.



There isn't necessarily a contradiction. Just because Mr. Netanyahu goes to the negotiating table and offers the Palestinians a state, that doesn't mean the Palestinians will get one.

Keep in mind that the Palestinians were offered a state in the 14-year period from 2001 to 2014, and they consistently refused to make peace.

Is there any reason to believe that the Palestinians won't again refuse to make peace if it is offered once again?

Nonsense. Israel has for years repeatedly offered the Palestinians roughly 97% of the West Bank.

And if the Palestinians ever made a serious offer to make peace in exchange for 100%, I wouldn't be surprised if Israel agreed.



The demise of 1967 borders will not necessitate a one-state solution. It only means that the Palestinians are going to be forced to accept a few tiny little patches of land to make their "state".

I see that you are still hoping for a better platform with which to harm innocent Israelis.

Not gonna happen.

Your dream of a platform to do greater harm to innocent Israelis isn't going to happen.

Revelette? Facts?

The only thing Revelette has to offer is childish name-calling. Facts must be found elsewhere.

Only with people who have rich parents, like yourself, or a million bucks in the bank. You dont have any idea whats it like to live in the present economy and could care less.

Try some of the Isralie papers.

My parents were secure, but not rich. I worked at after school jobs throughout high school and afterwards.

I do live in the current economy so I likely know as much as you - though we may know different things.

The state of the economy is indeed poor. Businesses aren't investing money in expansion because of uncertainty attendant to the explosion of new regulations that make it very difficult to forecast the future or to calculate a safe return on a new venture. As a result unemployment is very high and many have simply given up looking for work.

College tuitions are exploding following a flood of cheap Federal money into student loans in more or less the same way that cheap, government financed loans from Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac sent housing prices sky high ten years ago followed by the inevitable collapse in 2008. Both processes illustrate the unintended (and unnoticed) side effects of government programs to "improve" the lot of favored groups and reelect the legislative authors of these programs. Unfortunately they are only rarely around or held accountable for the rsults that follow. Now we need "new programs" to bail out mortgage holders and indebted students, Soon we will need "more new programs" to correct the excesses attendant to them.

The reason might be that society needs brains, not brawn today. So, those with brains can live comfortably, or be upwardly mobile. But I still think few ethnics own the land that WASP's own; possibly some German or Irish Catholics own land/farms, but that might just reflect their families have been here the longest of all ethnic groups. I begrudge no one for what they have. The fact that some live extravagently just reflects that the unskilled can get jobs in the service economy.

However, I do not agree that this society being a melting pot, over generations, truly eliminates old divisions. I've heard that man is essentially tribal, and all the distinctions, be they religious/ethnic/racial just correlates to some ancient tribe. So, assuming that is correct to a greater degree, I am fortunate to be living in the U.S.

And, from my perspective, taking an historical view, Jews in Catholic Europe were extraneous, and then expendable, Catholicism being very capable to being the one-game in town. I think Protestantism, being of smaller numbers, must utilize more diverse human resources to be successful. So, American Catholics in their success might just be very Protestant in their thinking, regardless of what church service is attended on Sunday.

I am just wary, based on the old adage, "the more things change, the more they stay the same." So, while you enjoy, I'll still sleep with one eye open. I would like to change the bibilical saying, "the meek will inherit the Earth," to "the wary meek will inherit the Earth." Now let's pray for a Republican President in 2016.

I think the real truth here is that all human beings are tribal. Most of the identifiable ethnic or religious groups alive today have at one time or another been both perpetrator and victim of discrimination and such tribal preferences. That goes for Jews as well as Catholics and Protestants.I think there is a potentially significant difference among Moslems in that they have never disavowed the rationalizations for brutal intolerance in their theology. The fact is that at many times and places in their history Moslems have been more tolerant than Christians and Jews, but they are more the exception than the rule. There appear to be no doctrinal prohibitions or limitations on what can be done to suppress or force the conversion of unbelievers as exist in most other religions.

I've spent a good deal of time in Israel and we both know that Palestinians, both citizens of Israel and residents of the former West Bank territories, get a pretty bad social and economic deal in Israel. True it is a good deal better than what Jews would get in Gaza or the West Bank without the active protection of their government, but that isn't an acceptable standard in the modern world. The Christian population of Palestine has almost been wiped out.

Tolerance throughout the Middle East was a good deal better in the Ottoman Era than it has been since the British, French and Russians brought down the Empire in 1918. Oddly they all appear to have succumbed to rather complete forgetfulness of their roles in the continuing crises. and appear to think that history has absolved them for their misdeeds.

With respect to the American melting pot, I don't think we have "wiped out all distinctions" as you put it. I'm not sure that is even desirable. Some such variety adds a great deal to the cultural life of our cities and the country as a whole. Overall I think it is indeed accurate to note that overall we have done a good deal better in this area, with very large numbers of immigrants, than has any other country I know of. Brasil, Canada, and lately Australia are doing well in this area also, but I think by more or less the same process that has existed here. (i.e. no process at all, just economic freedom and the tolerance required to allow newcomers to build their own social structures as they adapt to the whole).Conversely the French "process " of adopting the supposed tramsendental values of French culture hasn't worked very well at all.

We both know that Jews, in their religious and social beliefs, are every bit as diverse and mutually disagreeable as Christians. Over the last century they have had the unifying benefit of serious common enemies, but without that will they do any better staying together and keeping the faith than Christians? I doubt it. The hardest thing to deal with is success and acceptance.

We all share the same common human nature.


Some more from the Bard, Fitzgerald;

Into this Universe, and why not knowing,
Nor whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing:
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing.

What, without asking, hither hurried whence?
And, without asking, whither hurried hence!
Another and another Cup to drown
The Memory of this Impertinence!

And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky,
Whereunder crawling coop't we live and die,
Lift not thy hands to IT for help--for It
Rolls impotently on as Thou or I.

You will undoubtedly disagree with this but if you increased the income tax on the rich to 80 or 90% but gave anyone who created jobs in the U S of A a break of say a 40% in income taxes you would see an instant increase in the job market. As long as the rich can put the money they make here in foreign banks and Obama gets the trade agreement passed we, the working poor will be screwed. In the area in which I live people, who you claim are to lazy to work, fight each other for the 7 dollar jobs people like you claim they will not take.

I made no claims about people being too lazy to work. (though I believe we have stupidly created enough disincentives for taking a job to do great economic harm. The statistical correlation in this country and others of the expiration of jobless government benefits and the timely discovery of a new job is far too great to leave any doubt about this fact.)

The simple fact is we are experiencing the weakest recovery from a recession we have seen since WWII. Corporate profits remain high and corporations are hoarding a lot of cash, but they are not investing it in new ventures because they can't calculate a profitable scenario amidst all the exploding government regulations and proposed new taxes. Progressives, who believe goverrnment managed solutions to perceived social and economic problems are always both better than any other approach and positively necessary for progress, tend to ignore the overall dismal record of such prograns when enacted (consider the "war on poverty" or most affirmative action programs. They usually end up having exactly the opposite of the intended effect.

Why is that so? Human beings aren't stupid, and almost all people are very good at figuring out how to optimize their own short term interests. Unfortunately progressives tend to ignore these basic facts about human nature in the naive plans and programs they create. Examples of this are abundant.

A good post rabbies666, and here I thought you were only good at insults . So you do make sensible posts . Now follow this with an outburst about my parentage and your toilet obsessions, there's a good looney .

You of course are refering to greed as a motavating factor I suppose, although you dont just come out and say it.

Never mentioned your parentage. People can choose their friends, but are stuck with their kids so I wouldent bad mouth your relatives. Have a nice day you lying piece of ****.