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The Forum > Article Comments > Israel and the land > Comments

Israel and the land : Comments

By Babu Ranganathan, published 3/8/2006

A biblical perspective: Zionism is fuelling the building and expansion of illegal Israeli settlements on Arab land.

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that might end cultural impediments to progress and modernity — such as tribalism, patriarchy, gender apartheid, polygamy, autocracy, statism and fundamentalism — too many have preferred the reactionary past and the cult of victimization.

At one time or another, they've welcomed all the bankrupt ideologies that traditionally blame others for prior self-induced failure: fascism, communism, Baathism, Pan-Arabism and, most recently, Islamic fundamentalism.

When there is high unemployment, corruption, zero economic growth, endemic illiteracy and no freedom, mullahs, dictators and jihadists of the Middle East always seem to fault the ancient colonial power — Britain, France or Italy (though rarely Islamic Turkey) — that supposedly set them back over a century ago. Or they try blaming the omnipotent United States whose oilmen developed the riches of the Gulf and whose military has saved Muslims from Kosovo to Kuwait.

But above all, for decades leaders like Gamal Nasser, Ayatollah Khomeini, Saddam Hussein, Yasser Arafat and Osama bin Laden have scapegoated tiny Israel.

It is the closest Western bogeyman, and its Holocaust survivors transformed a part of desert into a technologically sophisticated Western state. Israel's astounding success is a constant irritant to many nearby Muslims, representing the infidel's ability to fashion a prosperous Middle Eastern society without oil revenues under democratic auspices.

Victimization turns out to be the real creed of the Middle East, uniting disparate Shiites, Sunnis, dictators, theocrats and terrorists. "They did it to us" offers an easy explanation of why Islamic states are now weak and offer little hope to millions of their poor, who, ironically, emigrate to the much pilloried West by the millions.

American cash aid, Israeli concessions, windfall petrol profits and, most of all, appeasement of radical Islamists can do nothing to alleviate these perceived grievances.

Instead, there will be no peace in the general Middle East until Iranianns, Arabs have true constitutional government, free institutions, open markets and the rule of law. Without these reforms, they will continue to fail, seeking easy refuge in the shreds of mythical ancestral honor — and this pathetic neurosis of blaming nearby Israel for the loss of it. VD Hanson
Posted by Martin Ibn Warriq, Thursday, 3 August 2006 7:55:17 PM
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Everybody is using 2000 year old thinking to solve present day problems. Most people, 2000 years ago, couldn't even read or write - and the ones that could did not have the 2000 years worth of experience humanity has since gained.

Notions of "sharing" rather than notions of "possession" are where the solutions lie. Unfortunately, there are still people in the world (in all countries) who believe that (obviously a la Abraham)sacrificing the lives of their children (which God does not want by the way)is much more acceptable than sacrificing ideas of possessing property and land.

According to Save the Children - more than 45% of victims in this current clash are children.
http://www.savethechildren.net/alliance/what_we_do/emergency_new/middleeast.html
(open the "emergency statement" word document on the above link).

These ideas will never bring peace. Humanity has learned so much in the last 2000 years - but then again, we haven't come very far at all - even though we have witnessed over and over again the most terrible atrocities. History doesn't repeat itself - its people who repeat themselves.

Please, every one, just give up the ghosts.
Posted by K£vin, Thursday, 3 August 2006 9:09:31 PM
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To everyone
just a few points.

1) There are extremists on both sides that have done incalculable harm to innocent civilians on both sides. To keep going on & on about how this side is where all the goodies are & on that side are the badies is infantile.

You cannot just dismiss civilian deaths your side has caused as collateral damage & civilian deaths the other side has caused as a great evil. This is merely looking at the world through prejudice & hatred. Do you really think that either of those will ever end this war?

Now to some of the points of coachie's wierd post.

1. God promised His people (Israel) the land from the river Nile (Egypt) to the Euphrates river (today Iraq). [way to go coachie. If more people talked like this then the whole Arab world would be paranoid & rightly so.]

2. Original Palestinians are non-Arabs. I stand amazed. You're absolutely correct. According to DNA tests both Palestinians & Israelis are Caananites. Yep, that's right people. They both have a hereditary right to the land.

To me that makes the struggle more poiniant. The equivalent of two brothers who dispise each other. Tragic.
Posted by Bosk, Thursday, 3 August 2006 10:50:28 PM
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Well said Bosk - there is only one way to irradiacate the mark of Cain - and that is to stop repeating the behaviour of Cain - all peoples are brothers and sisters - equal in ths sight of God.
Posted by K£vin, Thursday, 3 August 2006 11:00:29 PM
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The author finds himself ranting in this article. Lets face it, the current situation that faces Israel and Lebanon is mainly brought about by Muslim “madness”. These uncivilised souls think they can antagonise and intimidate the rest of the world. It is the terrorist organisation “Hezbollah” that is launching bombs from the rooftops of unit complexes which houses their own people. A justified, legitimate military response is being undertaken by Israel. They must protect themselves, they are surrounded by barbarians.

The tripe that is this article, attempts to establish an historical context for the perceived Israeli occupation based on a bizarre religious diatribe of the Jewish religion. I am not a Jew but I have enough sense that the lifestyle proposed by most of the Muslim world is one that I would never wish to live in. Israel presents a sense of sanity in a region that is marred with horror. Any dominant Muslim community needs to shut their mouth when it comes to talking about human rights abuses. Your religion and culture is one big human rights violation.
Posted by NoSoupForYou, Thursday, 3 August 2006 11:33:51 PM
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I just listened to ABC Radio (yes, I know, leftist twaddle .. unlike the Big Brother Corporation, or BBC) Late Night Live, and it was pointed out that Hezbollah is the 'natural enemy' of Al Queda, as they come from different sides of the Islamic spectrum. So in trying to suppress Hezbolla all the Zionists and those of Sam are doing is actually smoothing the way for a much worse enemy than Hezbollah to come in.

What is the old Arabic saying, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend'? Well Israel is creating a rod for its own back that will smite the West by its attacks on Hezbollah.

And before someone says that Hezbollah started this, how many Lebanese, Jordanians and Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli gaols? Many of whom were 'kidnapped' from outside of Israeli territory. If you doubt that Israel is willing to do this just think of Mordecai Vanunu, who was kidnapped for daring to tell the world about Israels nuclear weapons program. Vanunu was kidnapped from Italian territory, so by Israeli logic the Italian government would have the right to bombard Israel until he was released.....
Posted by Hamlet, Thursday, 3 August 2006 11:54:30 PM
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