But Israel has a right to defend itself with Nuclear weapons, large armed forces and a universal draft for men and Women. This distorts Israeli society and thinking making Israel intolerant of Arabs and just about everyone else.

This includes Australians, who are lumped in with the British former occupiers of Israel/Palestine and with the UN forces Israel dislikes.

In that regard newly promoted General, Prince Harry, has been secretly employed as a Royal Mercenary for Israel (an RMI). Harry the self-described eliminator of 25 "Chess pieces...from the board" shows promise in the tradition of politician-military leaders Menachem Begin* and Ariel Sharon** in defending Israel with excess.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menachem_Begin#Jewish_underground

** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Sharon

Those Jews who were slaughtered by inhuman Nazi fanatics. Will be turning in their graves as the current Israeli PM, does his best to emulate their Nazi persecutors. All one can add is, I believe, Seig Heil, Seig Heil, Seig Heil mine Fuher, Netanyahu.
Alan B.

It's just as well that Israel "grew and prospered and became a formidable military power", giving the constant threats from its neighbours, and the bad mouthing it gets from armchair warriors and anti-Semites; Alon Ben-Meir's "revulsion" - very much drama queenish - is his problem not Israel's.

And Netanyahu is back because he is the man for the job - not the weak characters who've had a go and fluffed it.

Israel will do what it has to do; and the usual drivel that this long-time critic of the bravest, toughest little country on Earth, will be ignored - if Israelis have even heard of him, that is.

We could take a few tips from Israel and Netanyahu.

Some early Zionists such as Ahad Ha'am and Max Nordau were not political Zionists. They did not want a Jewish state but Israel to be a centre of Jewish culture. The problem with a Jewish state or any state formed as representative of part of its citizens is that those citizens of the state not part of those in whose image the state was formed are liable to be second-class citizens. It is an inevitable result of a state formed by self-determination of part of its population that the other part are second-class citizens. Israel can be either a Jewish state or a democracy. It cannot be both. Civil marriage, an integrated public school system and separation of religion and state would do a great deal to transform Israel to a democracy. The problem with a Jewish state is that it is not a state that can be fair to its non-Jewish citizens. The present government of Israel is a logical outcome of Israel being a Jewish state.

I can only agree with Alan B 100%. The current government in Israel has grown to be the perfect re-incarnation of the state that persecuted them all those years ago. Now sit back and wait for the chorus from those who simply parrot that old, cheap, lazy and inaccurate charge that because I criticise or even dare to question the actions of the Israeli government, I am being antisemitic.

"Netanyahu is dangerous"
That has been apparent for many years.

This article made me want to cry - but I have no more tears.

While Israel's founders are rolling in their graves, they do have a significant share in the responsibility for what Israel is becoming:

Historically, Israel's founders did not seek a Jewish state, but rather a free modern state in which modern Jews could live close to the land and in freedom from Jewish-diasporic attitudes, anti-Semitism and Rabbinical oppression.

Then came Hitler and the holocaust, following which the world took pity on the surviving Jews and supported them having a state of their own (not necessarily in Israel).

Israel's founders, who were then bitterly struggling against both the British and the Arabs and needed any bit of help, opportunistically said: "Yes please, we are this Jewish state, look no further, help us, help us".

Having told that lie, they could not go back and the seed for a truly Jewish state was sewn.

Later in 1967, while taking over the lands from which Israel was attacked on three sides and clearing it from enemy armies was a must, remaining in these lands for more than a few weeks, was not militarily required. it was not the Jews as such which decided to remain there, not any Bible-believers who considered being there as their Godly duty, but rather the socialist Israeli government of the time (and for completely inappropriate reasons).

The ideological Jews, who are now in government, only came later, not before 1975. Had the Israeli government withdrew from these cursed territories earlier, then many of these ideological Jews would not have migrated to Israel in the first place, thus wouldn't change its demography so drastically.

And finally, yes, there is plain demography at work. While the liberal descendants of Israel's original founders reasonably used contraceptives and had only 2-3 children, the ideological Jews observed the commandment to be-fruitful-and-multiply in full and overtook them.

And we see the results with our tearful eyes.

Well stated Yuyutsu. The dangerous power of religion.

Chaim Weizmann, a principal organizer of the Balfour Declaration, and Israel’s first President, warned in his memoirs of the “menace” of the rabbi who will “make a heavy bid for power by parading his religious convictions.” Weizmann continued, “It is useless to point out to such people that they transgress a fundamental principle which has been laid down by our sages: ‘Thou shalt not make of the Torah a crown to glory in, or a spade to dig with.’ ”

Dear Ateday,

«Well stated Yuyutsu. The dangerous power of religion.»

Care to explain this strange statement? I have not mentioned religion, where does it come in?

---

Dear David F.,

Well said!

It was not only Rabbis who made the Torah a spade to dig with:

When Ben Gurion appeared in front of the Peel Commission (which was to determine the fate of the land of Israel), Lord Peel asked him:

"when a man lived in a house for 100's of years and then someone else appears and claims 'this house is mine', doesn't he need to produce some document, some Kushan (Ottoman land deed) to prove his words? Where exactly is your Kushan?"

Ben Gurion lifted the Bible (which was there for swearing-in) and shouted "This is our Kushan", "herein is written that the land was promised to our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: do you believe the scribbles of some clerk in Istanbul more than this book which you respect as well?".

Israel's foreign minister, Abba Eban, later repeated this act in the United-Nations.

They failed to mention that the natives whose lands they claimed, were also the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!
(assuming that trio even existed, but that would digress)

They also failed to mention that the said "Kushan" also contained several conditional-clauses for land-ownership, conditions they did not fulfill (such as observing the Sabbath, respecting one's parents, abstaining from certain foods, wearing certain clothes, etc.).

Yuyutsu

Let’s get to basics.

Wasn’t the intention of a Jewish home State intended to be a refuge for a vulnerable Jewish scattered world diasporas.
As the view of the West after WW2 became sympathetic towards a place for the dispirit groups to gather in a home State resembling any other State world wide.

The argument against this event now pretty much settled, is a bit rich to claim the land belonged to others who filled the vacuum after the Jewish dispersement following the string of defeats through the ages.

Are you also onside to handing back the continent of Australia to Aboriginals.
If you are, I’d consider that particular stand as suicidal.

Your obsession against National States is really difficult to comprehend, outside of a wish for your own self destruction.

I really don’t think Jews generally believe in being in love with that idea.

Dear Diver Dan,

Yes, I always like to go back to basics.

«Wasn’t the intention of a Jewish home State intended to be a refuge for a vulnerable Jewish scattered world diasporas.»

Yes, but the original goals of the Zionist movement that settled Israel during the end of the 19th century and the earlier part of the 20th, were different. That intention you mentioned came later, especially after the holocaust, and by different groups.

While Israel was already suffering from the clash between these two movements, there appeared a third movement whose intention was to settle the whole of Israel for neither of the above reasons but in order to bring the Messiah's coming forward.

«is a bit rich to claim the land belonged to others who filled the vacuum after the Jewish dispersement following the string of defeats through the ages.»

Except that the majority of these "others" was of Jewish descent, whose families never left the land.
(yes, at some stage they converted to Islam in order to avoid the Gizya tax on non-Muslims)

No land anyway belongs to any group, ethnic or otherwise - all lands belong to God.

"The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers." [Leviticus 25:23]

Also there:
"Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land" [Leviticus 25:18]

Had the returning Jews been following the commandments of the Torah, then indeed they could claim an advantage over the "others", but given one group converted to Islam while the other converted to secularism, none of them can claim an advantage over the other.

«Are you also onside to handing back the continent of Australia to Aboriginals.»

One cannot hand to others what is not theirs.

All lands and seas belong to God, and God alone.

«I really don’t think Jews generally believe in being in love with that idea.»

As the saying goes: Two Jews - Three Views!

There is one thing very wrong with the idea that any place in the Christian or Muslim world can be a permanent refuge for Jews. Jew hatred is endemic in many places in the world. If we survive and prosper we become a controlling force to be feared. If we are poor and downtrodden and wish to better our condition we are feared as dangerous radicals and enemies of society.

One reason for our survival is our dispersal. There are places we can go. When we were driven out of Spain and Portugal we went to Poland, Italy and some of the Muslim lands.

There are many who would destroy us. Who can predict where they will take control? I am uneasy at the idea of Jews concentrated in one small area of land in the midst of Muslim countries..

One thing very wrong with the idea of Israel or any place else as a place of refuge for all Jews is that it is easier to destroy us if we are all gathered in one place. The Diaspora was our refuge. If we were slaughtered in one place we survived in another place. Israel will go down fighting, but I can't see it lasting another century.

As long as Christianity and Islam exist some can be driven to destroy us. A possible solution is for Jews to migrate to China, India, Japan and other areas which are neither Christian nor Muslim. Another possible solution is for most people to abandon religion as a relic of a pre-scientific age.

Dear David F.,

«Another possible solution is for most people to abandon religion as a relic of a pre-scientific age.»

Then how do you define Jews and if they are only an ethnic group, then why would you be so keen on preserving them?

If religion (or at least what socially passes for religion) does not matter and Judaism is only a race, then you have millions of Jews already living in Arab lands, mostly as Muslims but does it matter? Also millions of Jews already living in Europe, Australia and America, some as Christians, others as atheists, but does it matter?

Dear Yuyutsu,

If Jews disappear peacefully by becoming voluntarily absorbed in the surrounding population like the Manicheans or Burgundians that's ok with me. If they disappear by being slaughtered that's not ok.

I don't enjoy interacting with you so will not continue this dialog.