Fluerette,

Similarly, on your analysis of the issues, Australia should be condemned for invading Turkey in 1915? Australia most certainly had no business in the Middle East at that stage in History (or even now), and did so on the behalf of the British Empire (so too did the Zion Mule Corps) http://www.answers.com/topic/joseph-trumpeldor & http://www.answers.com/topic/zeev-jabotinsky. Messrs Jabotinski & Trumbledor were influential in setting the scene for the Balfour Declaration, and are seen by many as the reason for it.

Perhaps if you wish to make such ill-informed comments, you should really have the fortitude to protest at the very next ANZAC day parade or dawn service? Perhaps doing so may help you to gain some perspective on the Australian position vis-a-vis Israel.

Perhaps some more history is in order? The spiritual leader of the Palestinians during the second world war, and the leadup to it, was none other than the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (1921-48), Mohammed Amin Al-Husayni [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Amin_al-Husayni] who worked with the Nazi's to ensure a german victory, including causing the insurrection in Iraq. Meanwhile the jews of the yishuv joined up in sufficient quantities to warrant the formation of a Jewish Brigade, which fought in Italy:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Brigade]

Perhaps you should occassionally read something other than novels if you wish to make such sweeping statements, hmmm.

Now, the jews did nothing to warrant the grant of land that was unoccupied, except by miserable, tennant farmers, who had no ownership of the land, and which was sold to the jews from under them by their absentee landlords? The jews have no entitlement to land that they improved, saved from being swamp and desert? What planet are you from, and which planet are you on currently?

Inshallah

2bob

But Marilyn, what if the people trying to set up home in your back yard were the traditional owners of that land? I do hope you would stay true to your principles and you being the offspring of invaders, I hope you would reliquish your land to them without a fight.

My niece asks me “why are they doing this?” I tell her, “I don’t know and I don’t think they do either. When men go to war, their only currency is …..children’s lives".

"They’ll tell you its God, but don’t believe them. God isn’t going to ask anyone to kill what he/she has created, in love. When they tell you its God’s will, it really means someone wants something that someone else has got. The solution is in a willingness to share. But some people believe they are entitled to everything. To hide this fact they ‘blame’ God”

Then they tell you its for their country. Don’t believe them. Its people that make countries, not land. If they cared about their county – they’d care about people. If you only knew how much money they spend on shooting rockets into space and building weapons designed to kill thousands of people. How can they say they care about their country? If they spent the money on healthcare, good food and good education for all, then they would be caring about their countries”.

These same people don’t mind using children in adverts, to sell their products, but they don’t like talking about children when it comes to war. I wonder why?

I wonder what the children really think?

Logic.

I can see your point there and it definitely sounds logical. However there’s a certain clause in the constitution that makes me question how Israel’s ethnic makeup consists primarily of Jews from the Middle East. It goes a little something like this. Anyone in the world who can claim Jewish heritage or Jewish-ness can get immediate citizenship in the country. You don’t have to prove your lineage goes back to Judea (did you know that the word Jew never appears in the Bible?).
Now if only the Palestinians could do that. Prove they are Palestinian and were once on the same land. Do you think they’d let them in again? Or do you think the fact that they are Muslim, Arab and maybe let’s say, not Jewish, might impede on their chances to gain citizenship?

Gosh sounds a little like Israel is crossing over the fine line between the usual racism and the good old apartheid system.
Do you think South Africa is doing well for itself now? Do you think the White Christians had a right to defend themselves? I mean after all they did claim that God instructed them to do what they did with those sub human blacks.
2Bob what does Gallipoli have to do with anything? The British were there because wanted free passage through the Dardanelles to supply their weakened ally Russia. Plus they’d have defeated Germany’s ally. Two birds with one stone.
I don’t think Australia planned on settling its people in Turkey. Somehow I don’t think Australian culture would mélange very well with that of the Turks. Just a hunch. Plus I don’t think Australia can really claim any lineage to the Turks. By planet I assume you mean country. Well I’m currently in England. But I’m born in Australia. My grandparents are Lebanese Christians. And I am a citizen of the Earth. I think that just about sums it up.
Unoccupied land. Miserable tenant farmers. No ownership of the land. The land, improved, swamp and desert. Saved! Ah yes. You must be from the planet of Fox News and/or Tel Aviv.

Fleurette, this reminds me of another country, the monstrous Saudi Arabia, where ONLY Muslims can be citizens - NO other religions permitted at all, publicly or privately. In Israel proper (not the disputed territories) 20% of population are Arab-Israelis who practise Islam without hindrance. Saudi Arabia and other Sharia states must be forced to allow religious freedom. Why doesn't it bother you that Saudi Arabia, the fountain-head of Islam, is so viciously discriminatory towards non-Muslims? Double standards, pehaps? Hypocrisy?

Leigh points out "Religion is the root of all evil in the Middle East". But anyone thinking the situation can be resolved through commonsense ought to consider this, from today's "Australian" :

"Mr Hagee [Reverend John Hagee, a Pentecostal television evangelist from Texas], called the Israeli attacks on Lebanon a "miracle of God" and suggested that a ceasefire would violate "God's foreign policy statement" towards Jews. The evangelist is a leading figure in the so-called Christian-Zionist movement, rooted in a literal interpretation of the Book of Revelations, which predicts a final battle between good and evil in Israel, where two billion people will die before Christ's return ushers in a 1000-year period of grace.

"The end of the world as we know it is rapidly approaching ... Rejoice and be exceeding glad - the best is yet to be," Mr Hagee has written in a book that has sold 700,000 copies.

President George W. Bush sent a message to the gathering praising Mr Hagee and his supporters for "spreading the hope of God's love and the universal gift of freedom". "