GENIUS FORUMS

"This insult and display of hatred is not something any fair-minded Australian would approve of,"

brokenhead wrote:

Israel is a schizophrenic country, as Meir Kahane noted about Ben Gurion's declaration of independence that calls for Israel to be Jewish while somehow respecting the rights of other religions.

No more schizophrenic than any other country of any complexity, probably less so. Would it have been more reasonable to proclaim that Israel is a Jewish state and will not respect the rights of any other religion? I think it is eminently sane for the Jews to aspire to build a nation that does not practice the intolerence that has cast the Jews themselves out of their homes and various lands for centuries. It has more or less worked for Americans, who originally were Christians seeking a place where one could practice communion with his God as he understood it and not suffer persecution as a result. The only difference I see is that the US is arguably less Christian in practice than Israel is Jewish. Meaning Americans are tolerant because we really aren't that religious. Most of us, the Bush Right notwithstanding, aren't interested in telling others how to run their religious lives, as long as no one is telling us how to.
When people in their armchairs here compain about unrest in the Middle East, they should remember that any young state fights to assure its survival. It may take a few generations of strife before one of peace arrives.
What I don't get is, why there? You can see why the Palestinians are steaming. Who in this world would relinquish their homes gladly if the powers that be suddenly told us to get out, that there was someone who desreved our homes more than we did? I don't buy any Biblical justification for the location of Israel. Even if you assume the OT is somehow a valid historical document, I will take a bullet to the head before I believe God cares where the Jews live. The God I believe in is everyone's God, we are all his beloved children. He is no respecter of persons or political entities and any claims to the contrary have been words put into His mouth. If God promised any people a free ride, that people would surely have had one. And the Jews have not been oppressed because God is angry with them, but because non-Jews have been intolerably intolerant.
Why there? Why not some uncontested area in the American southwest? There's plenty of desert there. The US has already rounded up the native peoples, so they wouldn't be a problem.
My fear for Israel comes from the duplicitous oil-wealthy surrounding neighbors. The Arabs want American markets, American dollars, American technology. No matter who holds hands for photo ops and treaty-signings, all it takes is one thermonuclear device. The Diaspora might yet be the survival of the Jews.