Take the above quote, substitute Israeli for Christian and Palestinian for Jew, and you have Gaza. Current recent rocketeering scores I last heard of were Israelis 180, Palestinians 9. The match continues with the sympathy being spread in inverse ratio to the body-counts.

Henry VIII > " Take the above quote, substitute Israeli for Christian and Palestinian for Jew, and you have Gaza. Current recent rocketeering scores I last heard of were Israelis 180, Palestinians 9. The match continues with the sympathy being spread in inverse ratio to the body-counts."

What a monumentally shallow analysis. More Germans died during the first and second world wars. Does that make them the victims? If you start a fight and catch a hiding are you the victim? Hamas and their cohorts have been firing literally hundreds of missiles a week at Israeli towns since the IDF unilaterally withdrew. The fact that they haven’t caused as much death is totally beside the point. They would if they could.

Take just one example At least four Islamic Jihad members were among 11 killed when Israel fired two missiles at a yellow van carrying several Katyusha-Grad rockets. Two points to make here. The first is that the blast would have been far more devastating because of the explosives being carried. Secondly, hamas and their brave followers are hiding behind the skirttails of their communities, using women and children as cover for their activities.

If you bothered to listen to what hamas and their ideological bretheren are saying you would see that Israel is fighting a war for their very survival. Hamas declares that it will not stop fighting until all the Jews have been driven from Palestine. In other words, NO Jews in the middle east. They don’t just mean they want their own country with no Jews. They mean one muslim country that encompasses the entire mandate of Palestine. That is called ethnic cleansing or Genocide. We sent Serbs and Croats to The Hague for that kind of behaviour. With soft lefters baying for their blood.

Dear Steven,

I'm back. I've won the fight. The results are looking good.
Now that I have access to a computer I can once again join in the discussions that I have missed so much. Thank you for your support.
It meant a great deal.

Steven, I can identify with the school girls. I refused to sit for an exam at uni once when I thought the questions were 'stupid'
and not a fair assessment of the subject. I accused them of simply re-hashing an old irrelevant exam paper from the past. Silly me. I had to repeat the subject the following year.
But it was important to me to make a protest at that time.

As far as Shakespeare being antisemitic? "The Merchant of Venice" as an example - would appear appaling to modern day folk. The discriminatory language, especially coming from Antonio would shock many young people.

However in Shakespeare's time, both the church and the state considered moneylending at high interest a crime. Shylock was thus a natural object of scorn. On the surface, Shakespeare's view of him reflected the attitudes of the day. But the dramatist treated the moneylender as a very human and even sympathetic person.

For example, Shakespeare provided Shylock with an eloquent statement of how it feels to be part of a harshly treated minority:

"If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"

As I said earlier, I can identify with the girls wanting to make a point by not sitting for their test of "The Tempest." They saw an
opportunity, and took it.

What can we give this beautiful new generation?
The unwanted gift of our experience?
I don't think so.
Perhaps only the right to make the same mistakes,
And afterward not saying, 'I told you so!'

PaulI-more Germans did not die during WW2. They killed 20 000 000 Russians as deliberate policy. A five to one kill ratio in Germany's favour. You would find a similar ratio if you did a Palestinian/Israeli body-count during the last 20 years from the first Intifada. Your lack of knowledge of history shows. Whatever Israel was or is, the Israelis dispossessed bewteen 700 000 and 900 000 Palestiniians of their land in 1947-48 at the point of a gun, raped Palestinian women in the process, and used bulldozers to clear their houses. This has been documented by legitimate Israeli historians, and published. Now, if the Indonesians tried to do that to me, as a loyal Australian I would attempt to stop them using equal or preferably greater violence; it would be my duty to do so. The UN recognises the right of occupied peoples to fight back violently against their occupiers, which is what the Palestinians are doing and, fortuneately for us, the Australian Aborigines are not.

Henry VIII

Similar numbers of Jews were driven out of their homes across the middle east after 1948. Do you think there is a chance any of them will ever be able to go home? One example. During the 1948 war all Israelis in the old city quarter and arab areas of Jerusalem were expelled .5 arab armies invaded Israel in 1948 intent on driving all of its citizens into the sea. In other words attempted genocide. Two of those arab armies took and held the Gaza and the west bank. Instead of using that land for the Palestinians however they kept it for themselves. 19 years later the mad man Nasser decided to have another go at wiping out the Israelis. 6 years later the Arabs were at it again and this time they came even closer to doing it before being decisively repulsed. Three times in less than 30 years Israels neighbours tried to wipe them out.

Israel is the only democracy in the middle east. Israeli arabs are members of parliament. They are students at Israeli Universities. How many jews do you know of who live in Palestine?

In any case 1948 is 60 years ago. The average age of Palestinians in 15.8, do you think perhaps they might have other motivations? Have you ever read the Hamas charter?

Would you go about killing whatever Indonesian you could find, man woman or child, to stop them in your fairy tale of invasion? I bet not and nor would most civilised people including the Israelis.

The UN as an organisation is an absolute joke. The very idea that Libya or Zimbabwe or North Korea deserves the same representation as Australia or the US is ridiculous. For many year the UN has been the primary vehicle through which dictators and despots have attempted to knee cap the US and Nato. In any case you say the UN recognises the right to resist. Well it was also a UN mandate that created Israel and would have created Palestine as well if they hadn’t been so bloody minded.

Welcome back, Paul. Missed you ... glad to see you online

Steven,

You shouldn't have mentioned the "J"- word. You know what some people are like. They go into convulsive paroxysms when they see it -diverting an interesting topic into a anti-Israel harrangue. It's the "J'-word, I tell you. I can only assume that people wait, hands hovering expectantly over their keyboards, waiting ... Such dedication ... stupid ... but dedicated.

King Henry VIII,

If you kept up to date you would know that there are Gazaans murdering many more Gazaans, than Israelis killing them in defence of their country. Check monthly figures online. Read the latest Fatwa issued by the religious leader of the Palestinians.

Many people are floating the idea that Egypt resume control of Gaza, originally a protectorate (albeit parlously administered) and then relinguished with joy. One can't say that Gaza has been an unqualified success. Where is the infrastructure that Arafat was to set in place? With Israel's departure, Gaazans blew up commercial enterprises and structures which Jews left, including agricultural sites. Why?