Redheat wrote:The issue of the US support of Israel crosses into both Parties. The Bush administration in it's effort to woe Jewish voters if very Pro-Israel and has allowed Sharon great lattitude. So confusion swirls around me when I see someone trying to make this a strictly Democratic issue.
I think the US has erred in it's staunch alligence to Israel while ignoring Palistine. This is one of the major reasons we fight terrorism today. It's not about them not "liking our freedoms" that's so simplistic, it's about our stance in the ME over several years. Those years included both Republican and Democratic administration so no one party is totally at fault. They both are equally to blame.
Clinton came close to bringing peace, Bush ignored the ME until he could no longer hide from it. Now he has went the other way and allowed Sharon freedom to do whatever he wants which in turn puts the US in even more danger with terrorist.
So what do we do? Fact is that BOTH parties will be more Pro-Israel because there is too large of a voting block there. The Jewish community VOTES! and that is where the power comes from (when the votes are actually counted)
I think Kerry shouldn't be so concerned with the Jewish vote but the reality is that he needs to be in order to win in Nov.
As far as the wall is concerned it's wrong. It was wrong when Germany did it and it's wrong now. It will only incite more hate and do nothing to help heal the wounds. We need to start looking at the ME through objective eyes and until we do there will never be peace, anywhere. What happens in the ME does influence what happens to us now. I understand the need for the Jewish side to secure themselves granted there are some who wish to wipe them off the face of the earth. However I think if you asked the people what they wanted it would be peace and they could live beside each other. It's the politicans and the leaders of the far right side of the spectrum that dictate what happens and that doesn't help anyone.
Any wall between people will only keep them apart and I don't think the goal is to keep Palestine and Israel apart. Plus there doesn't seem to be any consideration for the people who may not have taken up arms but will now. You can't keep a people oppressed and expect peace, sooner or later that pot is going to boil over. You can't also keep one side so much more powerful and expect things to level out. There has to be a give and take.
It's a complicated issue no doubt with no easy answers. However nothing will be accomplished until people do what's best for the region rather then whats best for their own self interest. That goes here for both parties, it goes for the Arab world as well. Fact is we will proably never see a resolution to this and we will only be dragged deeper and deeper into this war.
Redheat,
I suggest you do some serious study of Palestine, Islam, and Israel.
The reason we fight Islamic Fascist terror today has very little to do with Israel and everything to do with Islam.
I highlighted those parts of your post that are simply incorrect.
The wall is a useful tool, nothing more.
But as far as the source of violence, I offer you the following thoughts:
Israel and any problems related to it, in spite of what you might read or hear in the world media, is not the central issue, and has never been the central issue in the upheaval in the region. Yes, there is a 100 year-old Israeli-Arab conflict, but it is not where the main show is.
The millions who died in the Iran-Iraq war had nothing to do with Israel. The mass murder happening right now in Sudan, where the Arab Moslem regime is massacring its black Christian citizens, has nothing to do with Israel.
The frequent reports from Algeria about the murders of hundreds of civilian in one village or another by other Algerians have nothing to do with Israel.
Saddam Hussein did not invade Kuwait, endangered Saudi Arabia and butchered his own people because of Israel.
Egypt did not use poison gas against Yemen in the 60's because of Israel. Assad the Father did not kill tens of thousands of his own citizens in one week in El Hamma in Syria because of Israel.
The Taliban control of Afghanistan and the civil war there had nothing to do with Israel.
The Libyan blowing up of the Pan-Am flight had nothing to do with Israel, and I could go on and on and on.
The root of the trouble is that this entire Moslem region is totally dysfunctional, by any standard of the word, and would have been so even if Israel would have joined the Arab league and an independent Palestine would have existed for 100 years.
The 22 member countries of the Arab league, from Mauritania to the Gulf States, have a total population of 300 millions, larger than the US and almost as large as the EU before its expansion.
They have a land area larger than either the US or all of Europe.
These 22 countries, with all their oil and natural resources, have a combined GDP smaller than that of Netherlands plus Belgium and equal to half of the GDP of California alone.
Within this meager GDP, the gaps between rich and poor are beyond belief and too many of the rich made their money not by succeeding in business, but by being corrupt rulers.
The social status of women is far below what it was in the Western World 150 years ago.
Human rights are below any reasonable standard, in spite of the grotesque fact that Libya was elected Chair of the UN Human Rights commission.
According to a report prepared by a committee of Arab intellectuals and published under the auspices of the U.N., the number of books translated by the entire Arab world is much smaller than what little Greece alone translates.
The total number of scientific publications of 300 million Arabs is less than that of 6 million Israelis.
Birth rates in the region are very high, increasing the poverty, the social gaps and the cultural decline.
And all of this is happening in a region, which only 30 years ago, was believed to be the next wealthy part of the world, and in a Moslem area, which developed, at some point in history, one of the most advanced cultures in the world.
It is fair to say that this creates an unprecedented breeding ground for cruel dictators, terror networks, fanaticism, incitement, suicide murders and general decline.
It is also a fact that almost everybody in the region blames this situation on the United States, on Israel, on Western Civilization, on Judaism and Christianity, on anyone and anything, except themselves.
I should also say a word about the millions of decent, honest, good people who are either devout Moslems or are not very religious but grew up in Moslem families. They are double victims of an outside world, which now develops Islamophobia and of their own environment, which breaks their heart by being totally dysfunctional.
The problem is that the vast silent majority of these Moslems are not part of the terror and of the incitement but they also do not stand up against it. They become accomplices, by omission, and this applies to political leaders, intellectuals, business people and many others.
Many of them can certainly tell right from wrong, but are afraid to express their views.
The above is partially excerpted from
A View from the Eye of the Storm by Haim Harari.
The problem is not the fence.
The problem is the neighbors.
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