Who will stop Israel?

[Anonymous]

I just don't understand how the US can be one of its biggest allies. Israel continues to decimate its neighbors and help other countries do the same. (They supplied my native government with arms and military training to help decimate the minority there.) Growing up, I thought that Jews deserved the most sympathy because of the Holocaust - that feeling has certainly changed....

[Anonymous]

As others have noted and predicted, US public support for Israel is on the decline.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/07/22/what-russia-and-israel-have-in-common/?hpid=z2

I have no doubt that AIPAC and similar pro-Israel groups can keep buying American politicians, but at some point younger, more politically active and astute voters will demand accountability. We have many needs in this country, so the last thing we need to be doing is writing blank checks to Israel it can cash in to kill Palestinians.

[Anonymous]

The Palestinians have to join the International Criminal Court. I do not understand why the US would stand in the way of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As others have noted and predicted, US public support for Israel is on the decline.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/07/22/what-russia-and-israel-have-in-common/?hpid=z2

I have no doubt that AIPAC and similar pro-Israel groups can keep buying American politicians, but at some point younger, more politically active and astute voters will demand accountability. We have many needs in this country, so the last thing we need to be doing is writing blank checks to Israel it can cash in to kill Palestinians.

You make an interesting point about a generational divide on this issue. One of my former neighbors, a WWII vet, Jewish and a liberal is sheepish and conflicted about his contributions to AIPAC saying he feels an obligation as a Jew to support Israel because that's what he says he's supposed to do, but is uneasy about Israeli policy/treatment of the Palestinians. I do think millennials of all religions (if they have one) have a very different take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As others have noted and predicted, US public support for Israel is on the decline.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/07/22/what-russia-and-israel-have-in-common/?hpid=z2

I have no doubt that AIPAC and similar pro-Israel groups can keep buying American politicians, but at some point younger, more politically active and astute voters will demand accountability. We have many needs in this country, so the last thing we need to be doing is writing blank checks to Israel it can cash in to kill Palestinians.

You make an interesting point about a generational divide on this issue. One of my former neighbors, a WWII vet, Jewish and a liberal is sheepish and conflicted about his contributions to AIPAC saying he feels an obligation as a Jew to support Israel because that's what he says he's supposed to do, but is uneasy about Israeli policy/treatment of the Palestinians. I do think millennials of all religions (if they have one) have a very different take.

There is a lot of guilt because American Jews have a good life here while someone else takes on the job of building Israel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As others have noted and predicted, US public support for Israel is on the decline.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/07/22/what-russia-and-israel-have-in-common/?hpid=z2

I have no doubt that AIPAC and similar pro-Israel groups can keep buying American politicians, but at some point younger, more politically active and astute voters will demand accountability. We have many needs in this country, so the last thing we need to be doing is writing blank checks to Israel it can cash in to kill Palestinians.

You make an interesting point about a generational divide on this issue. One of my former neighbors, a WWII vet, Jewish and a liberal is sheepish and conflicted about his contributions to AIPAC saying he feels an obligation as a Jew to support Israel because that's what he says he's supposed to do, but is uneasy about Israeli policy/treatment of the Palestinians. I do think millennials of all religions (if they have one) have a very different take.

There is a lot of guilt because American Jews have a good life here while someone else takes on the job of building Israel.

Except there are plenty of young Jews who actively condemn the actions Israel is taking in the name of "building". I still maintain that there's a generational divide. Older Americans, Jews and non-Jews alike, feel guilt about the Holocaust and many consider any criticism of Israel to be anti-Semitic. Many younger people seem to see events in a more contemporary context.

[Anonymous]

The airlines. Seriously, this is good news. This will make Israel sit up and take notice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As others have noted and predicted, US public support for Israel is on the decline.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/07/22/what-russia-and-israel-have-in-common/?hpid=z2

I have no doubt that AIPAC and similar pro-Israel groups can keep buying American politicians, but at some point younger, more politically active and astute voters will demand accountability. We have many needs in this country, so the last thing we need to be doing is writing blank checks to Israel it can cash in to kill Palestinians.

You make an interesting point about a generational divide on this issue. One of my former neighbors, a WWII vet, Jewish and a liberal is sheepish and conflicted about his contributions to AIPAC saying he feels an obligation as a Jew to support Israel because that's what he says he's supposed to do, but is uneasy about Israeli policy/treatment of the Palestinians. I do think millennials of all religions (if they have one) have a very different take.

There is a lot of guilt because American Jews have a good life here while someone else takes on the job of building Israel.

I wouldn't say it's guilt, so much as shame on the part of many younger and middle-aged Jews that a country that they were brought up to support have behaved so horribly.

These aren't people who are anti-Zionist as a matter of principle on either religious or political grounds. They are people who believed in the concept of a Jewish state that would find a way to live with its neighbors, not build massive security barriers, promote illegal settlements, and respond when provoked by killing hundreds of innocent civilians. They are now profoundly disillusioned. It is not guilt that Jews back in Israel are doing their work for them, but horror at what it is being done, at times in their name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The airlines. Seriously, this is good news. This will make Israel sit up and take notice.

This is a big deal. If business travel to Israel becomes unreliable, it hurts the value of their tech industry because most of these companies have a buyout as their exit strategy. Also it means that the missiles are getting enough range that companies will start running out of viable backup locations to offices in tel aviv and Jerusalem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The airlines. Seriously, this is good news. This will make Israel sit up and take notice.

This is a big deal. If business travel to Israel becomes unreliable, it hurts the value of their tech industry because most of these companies have a buyout as their exit strategy. Also it means that the missiles are getting enough range that companies will start running out of viable backup locations to offices in tel aviv and Jerusalem.

It seems Israel thought it could wage a one-sided campaign where all the consequences would be felt by the other side.

Guess not, although there's a hell of a difference between a cancelled flight and hundreds of children killed in Gaza by Israeli missiles.

[Anonymous]

It is fine to talk about the gradual change of heart towards Israel, but what difference has it made to those being massacred in Palestine. The worlds sympathy is not enough. We need action. The world has been silent for too long. We all know about AIPAC and the US, what the hell is the matter with Europe and the UN?

[Anonymous]

My Israeli American friends believe that their military is "doing surgical strikes" in Gaza.

[Anonymous]

I find it wholly amusing that Americans, especially women, are supporting a terrorist group in a part of the world where women are regarded as second class citizens, and little children are routinely raped and sold off as child brides. Let's not even start on honor killings.

While I am never happy about casualties of war, the big picture to me, is much more frightening. So many Middle-Easterners here, who have lived the brutality of their countries, see the benefit of Israel's free society and have expressed grave concerns for her survival.

In typical progressive fashion, it's all about 'the feels', and not about logic.

Ladies, would you like to live in Israel or in Middle-Eastern countries that allow you no freedoms you enjoy today? How about your daughters? Do you consider honor killings and child rapes, sanctioned by the government, appealing?

As for those 'brutal Israelis', a few metro bombings, and suicide bombers in your grocery stores, etc would wake you up real fast, especially if it all came from the same people. You would not feel so benevolent anymore, if a simple trip to Giant could easily result in your death.

There is a reason why Israeli teachers carry weapons; it has become a necessity. If you think Israelis consistently and deliberately target children, you need to do a lot more reading.

[Anonymous]

PP here. Also interesting is that the reaction to gun violence in this country is to demonize everyone who carries a gun, without distinction between good guys and bad guys. Yet you are willing to allow a known terrorist organization to have weaponry, so convinced you are that you know Israel is the bad guy. This, despite terror attacks all over the world, over and over again. Was Israel responsible for September 11th? For bombings in other areas of the world?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find it wholly amusing that Americans, especially women, are supporting a terrorist group in a part of the world where women are regarded as second class citizens, and little children are routinely raped and sold off as child brides. Let's not even start on honor killings.

While I am never happy about casualties of war, the big picture to me, is much more frightening. So many Middle-Easterners here, who have lived the brutality of their countries, see the benefit of Israel's free society and have expressed grave concerns for her survival.

In typical progressive fashion, it's all about 'the feels', and not about logic.

Ladies, would you like to live in Israel or in Middle-Eastern countries that allow you no freedoms you enjoy today? How about your daughters? Do you consider honor killings and child rapes, sanctioned by the government, appealing?

As for those 'brutal Israelis', a few metro bombings, and suicide bombers in your grocery stores, etc would wake you up real fast, especially if it all came from the same people. You would not feel so benevolent anymore, if a simple trip to Giant could easily result in your death.

There is a reason why Israeli teachers carry weapons; it has become a necessity. If you think Israelis consistently and deliberately target children, you need to do a lot more reading.

+1
It is just odd to me how so many draw a moral equivalency between the two sides when it does not even seem close.

One country developed and deploys a defensive missle system to protect it's civilian population. Offensively, it targets the rocket launching sites of its opponents. The other side targets civilian populations intentionally and as a defense, imbeds its rocket launching it's own civilian population. One side employs an "Iron Shield" to protect its citizens. The other side employs "human shields" to protect its rockets.

People want to blame Israel for the death tolls here? How about Hamas (a terrorist group bent on the destruction of Jews) stop launching rockets at Israel and move its rocket launchers away from civilian populations. It is Hamas that puts Palestinian women and children at risk.