Time to cut Israel off

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's so sad to me. Can you imagine if that happened in the U.S.?

that did happen in the US. The native americans had to suffer
and the Japanese Americans were put in internment camps. I know there are lots of civil war battlefieds that have been preserved, but I have not heard of internment camps that have been preserved. Somehow that seems a part of history nobody wants to remember.
Just think, we have a holocaust museum even though it did not happen on US soil, but there is not museum for Hiroshima or Nagasaki even though those bombs were gifts from the Americans.
At least we still have the cherry blossoms that the Japanese sent before world war 2.

Can you give an example of the US doing this in the last 50 years? We don't do it because it's WRONG.

Guantanamo. But I think you are correct that we don't do it because it's wrong, we do it because it's convenient.

Sorry about exploiting the ambiguity of your statement; word-play is a weakness of mine. And I am not prepared to argue the intricacies of Guantanamo, but at least to many throughout the world, it has a reputation similar to the internment camps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reason the U.S. should support Israel is because it is a democratic country in the Middle East who contributes to the greater good. What other democratic country in that region is there?

Not. Israeli citizens do not have equal rights.
Let us treat Jews in the US the way that Israel treats non-Jews.
For starters, no Jewish immigration to the US, and no Jews allowed to serve in the US military.

Israeli Arabs are permitted to serve in the IDF. There is an exemption for them if they choose not to, but they are certainly allowed to. Israeli arabs have more freedom in Israel than the majority of arabs do in any other arab country.

Unless Jews want to live where your house is standing. In which case you may be moved and your house bulldozed. Or if you are an arab child and your school gets minimal funding, same for housing, same for health care. Separate but Equal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's so sad to me. Can you imagine if that happened in the U.S.?

that did happen in the US. The native americans had to suffer
and the Japanese Americans were put in internment camps. I know there are lots of civil war battlefieds that have been preserved, but I have not heard of internment camps that have been preserved. Somehow that seems a part of history nobody wants to remember.
Just think, we have a holocaust museum even though it did not happen on US soil, but there is not museum for Hiroshima or Nagasaki even though those bombs were gifts from the Americans.
At least we still have the cherry blossoms that the Japanese sent before world war 2.

Can you give an example of the US doing this in the last 50 years? We don't do it because it's WRONG.

Guantanamo. But I think you are correct that we don't do it because it's wrong, we do it because it's convenient.

Sorry about exploiting the ambiguity of your statement; word-play is a weakness of mine. And I am not prepared to argue the intricacies of Guantanamo, but at least to many throughout the world, it has a reputation similar to the internment camps.

We are not holding our own citizens there simply because they're a different color or religion.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like all the Upper NW AIPAC employees are hard at work spinning on this thread. After all that house in Spring Valley is not going to pay for itself. Typical to try and change the narrative from what Israel does and whether they still deserve our dollars to what OTHERS do. Get off the track and get lost talking about other things.

[Anonymous]

OK, back in track. Can someone divide that total aid package in dollars by the Israeli population. That would tell us how much they would have to cough up on their own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK, back in track. Can someone divide that total aid package in dollars by the Israeli population. That would tell us how much they would have to cough up on their own.

It was already done earlier in this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's so sad to me. Can you imagine if that happened in the U.S.?

that did happen in the US. The native americans had to suffer
and the Japanese Americans were put in internment camps. I know there are lots of civil war battlefieds that have been preserved, but I have not heard of internment camps that have been preserved. Somehow that seems a part of history nobody wants to remember.
Just think, we have a holocaust museum even though it did not happen on US soil, but there is not museum for Hiroshima or Nagasaki even though those bombs were gifts from the Americans.
At least we still have the cherry blossoms that the Japanese sent before world war 2.

Can you give an example of the US doing this in the last 50 years? We don't do it because it's WRONG.

Guantanamo. But I think you are correct that we don't do it because it's wrong, we do it because it's convenient.

Sorry about exploiting the ambiguity of your statement; word-play is a weakness of mine. And I am not prepared to argue the intricacies of Guantanamo, but at least to many throughout the world, it has a reputation similar to the internment camps.

We are not holding our own citizens there simply because they're a different color or religion.

You mean "we no longer" are holding our own citizens there. Of course, we were holding several US citizens there because of their color and religion after 9/11. Now - back to your arguments.

By the way, can someone please define who the Palastinian people are? It seem they were just a made up people - and I'd love to find out where they came from.

[Anonymous]

Israel has a little over 6,000,000 people, and the largest per capita military expenditure in the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You mean "we no longer" are holding our own citizens there. Of course, we were holding several US citizens there because of their color and religion after 9/11. Now - back to your arguments.

By the way, can someone please define who the Palastinian people are? It seem they were just a made up people - and I'd love to find out where they came from.

Please, get your facts straight. The Americans picked up were actively fighting American forces in Afghanistan. They weren't just picked up for being brown or Muslim. Also, only one American was actually held at Guantanamo, he has since been transferred to Saudi Arabia.

Please look up the state of Palestine and Palestinian territories. Google should be able to provide you with this very basic information.

[Anonymous]

You mean "we no longer" are holding our own citizens there. Of course, we were holding several US citizens there because of their color and religion after 9/11. Now - back to your arguments.

By the way, can someone please define who the Palastinian people are? It seem they were just a made up people - and I'd love to find out where they came from.

Your hatred and bigotry is shining through.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You mean "we no longer" are holding our own citizens there. Of course, we were holding several US citizens there because of their color and religion after 9/11. Now - back to your arguments.

By the way, can someone please define who the Palastinian people are? It seem they were just a made up people - and I'd love to find out where they came from.

Your hatred and bigotry is shining through. Alestinians are largely descendants of Levantine people -- ie people who lived in Palestine and Sinai, during prehistoric times. Jews and palestinians are genetically extremely similar genetically. I don't know what the poster is getting at, but one thing is biologically indisputable. Palestinians and Jews lived in the same place thousands of years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You mean "we no longer" are holding our own citizens there. Of course, we were holding several US citizens there because of their color and religion after 9/11. Now - back to your arguments.

By the way, can someone please define who the Palastinian people are? It seem they were just a made up people - and I'd love to find out where they came from.

Your hatred and bigotry is shining through.

PP forgot to mention stupidity, or maybe they are to nice to say it.

[Anonymous]

Sorry I don't know how that got chopped up but you hopefully can read that.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:
By the way, can someone please define who the Palastinian people are? It seem they were just a made up people - and I'd love to find out where they came from.

The "people" were obviously not made up. They are real, live human beings. People's identities are often complex. One example of a complex identity is the people known as "Jews". Is that a religion, a culture. a nationality, a race, or something else? Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews have little in common -- but an Ashkenazi with roots going back hundreds of years in Russia and a Sephardi with roots going back 100s of years in Tunisia can both be "Israelis" immediately upon setting foot in Israel -- a land which neither may have previously visited. On the other hand, a Palestinian with roots going back 100s of years in Jerusalem cannot become an Israeli citizen. Talk about confusing!

But, back to your question. Palestinians are people who inhabited the lands making up today's Israel, Gaza, and West Bank (but not all the people). Nationalism was a Western invention that did not reach the Middle East until fairly recently. Prior to World War I, "Palestine" was part of the Ottoman Empire. The people living in the cities and towns of Palestine certainly did not identify as Ottomans. Rather, they identified with their village, their tribe or family, their religion, or their culture. With the influx of Jews from Europe and the eventual British occupation, the local people -- primarily but not exclusively Arabs -- started to see themselves differently. While the land was frequently called "Palestine" (it was legally administered by the "British Mandate for Palestine"), the people were more often seen by others as "Palestinian" rather than seeing themselves that way. Some identified with the wider Arab world, some with greater Syria, and so on. But, the issue is not what they were called or what they called themselves. What is important is that they were the people who were living -- and had been living for generations -- on that land. With the creation of Israel and the subsequent war, vast numbers of people with roots in what became Israel were either forced out or fled. The West Bank became what was then known as Transjordan -- a sort of made up country led by a tribe recently displaced from today's Saudi Arabia. Egypt occupied Gaza. Large numbers of people displaced from Israel were housed in camps in Gaza, the West Bank, and other countries.

During this time, the Palestinian national identity arose. Gazans -- not to mention the refuges who came from towns and cities of today's Israel -- were sufficiently different culturally from Egyptians to have little interest in being ruled by them. West Bank Palestinians did not want to be ruled by the Hashemites -- the first Transjordanian king was assassinated in Jerusalem by a Palestinian. Obviously, none of them were interested in being ruled by Israelis. As a result, the distinct Palestinian identity developed.

I know that it is popular in certain circles to suggest there were no Palestinians -- Israel was a land without a people for a people without a land. But, that simply ignores historical reality. But, given that the Palestinian right of return to today's Israel has all but been given up, we really are only discussing the West Bank and Gaza. Can Israel seriously deny the identity of people whom it has governed since 1967?

[Anonymous]

3 billion divided by 6 million is $500 per person, they can afford to fund their efforts on their own. When they start to pay the whole bill, they will ask themselves whether it is worth it, or whether they should walk across the bridge shake hands and make friends.