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The Forum > General Discussion > Was Israel a mistake?

Was Israel a mistake?

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We may as well tackle the big one.

Was Israel a mistake?

Richard Cohen, Op Ed columnist for the Washington Post thinks so. Here are excerpts from his column of 18 July 2006.

"The greatest mistake Israel could make at the moment is to forget that Israel itself is a mistake….

"This is why the Israeli-Arab war, now transformed into the Israeli-Muslim war …. persists and widens. ….The underlying, subterranean hatred of the Jewish state in the Islamic world just keeps bubbling to the surface. The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and some other Arab countries may condemn Hezbollah, but I doubt the proverbial man in their street shares that view.

"There is no point in condemning Hezbollah. Zealots are not amenable to reason. And there's not much point, either, in condemning Hamas. It is a fetid, anti-Semitic outfit whose organizing principle is hatred of Israel…."

See:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-yn/content/article/2006/07/17/AR2006071701154.html

Well, was Israel a mistake?

And has what was once an Israeli-Arab conflict morphed into, not merely an Israeli—Muslim conflict but a Muslim-Jewish conflict?

One issue that is often raised is the issue of Palestinian refugees. The UN defines a Palestinian refugee as:

"…persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict.

"….UNRWA's definition of a refugee also covers the descendants of persons who became refugees in 1948. The number of registered Palestine refugees has subsequently grown from 914,000 in 1950 to more than 4.4 million in 2005, and continues to rise…"

See:

http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/whois.html

To the best of my knowledge the passing on of refugee status to descendants in perpetuity is unique to Palestinians.

MOST IMPORTANT

What now?
Posted by stevenlmeyer, Monday, 4 August 2008 3:46:01 PM
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Correction.

The last part of the original post should read:

MOST IMPORTANT

Whatever your answer to the question, what now?
Posted by stevenlmeyer, Monday, 4 August 2008 6:53:46 PM
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Of course it was - just look what happened.
Posted by CJ Morgan, Monday, 4 August 2008 8:11:51 PM
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Robert Manne, professor of politics
at La Trobe University rarely tackles
the Israel question in his public
writings.

He has supported Israel throughout his life.
He argues for a two-state solution, questions
the need of Jews for a homeland of their own,
"Since World War II, the place of Jews in
all Western societies has been unproblematic"
and charges Israel with greed and arrogance for
not returning all of the occupied territories.

"It's a betrayal of my belief in liberal
democracy to believe that Jews are still under
threat and therefore need a homeland of their own,"
he says.

Alex Dafner, who runs the Yiddish show on SBS Radio is
more outspoken. He believes that a state is central to the
Jewish people. Dafner is highly critical of Israel in its
current form: "It's not socialist; there is real bigotry,
religious intolerance and a lack of respect... My friends
in Israel say there is a need for two or three states in
Israel; one for the religious, one for the secular and one
for the in-between..."

Finally, Ami Eden, national editor of the US Jewish
newspaper "Forward" challenged the establishment
Jewish organisations in the New York Times in 2005,
"It is time Jews recognise that the old strategies no
longer work," he wrote.

"Jewish organisations and advocates fail to grasp that
they are no longer viewed as the voice of the
disenfranchised. Rather, they are seen as the global
Goliath, close to the seats of power and capable of
influencing policies and damaging reputations. As such,
their efforts to raise the alarm increasingly appear
as bullying..."

Personally, Steven, I agree with Dafner who says,
"People often talk about antisemitism and I think
its largely the result of that notion of total
support for Israel, right or wrong. It's hard
to defend policies which in the long term will be
disastrous..."

Like a concrete wall, with Jews on one side and as many
Arabs as possible on the other.
Posted by Foxy, Monday, 4 August 2008 9:21:35 PM
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CONT'D

What now?

I agree with Antony Loewenstein when he writes,
"Sooner or later Israel and the Palestinians
will have to meet face-to-face, listen to
each other's grievances and negotiate with
honesty. Only then - and on the condition that
both Israel and the Palestinian state achieve
safety and security will this conflict be
resolved. Neither side has a monopoly on
suffering...but only one has the power to
end the occupation and to recognise that
Israel and Palestine are historically destined to
share the same homeland."
Posted by Foxy, Monday, 4 August 2008 9:40:07 PM
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Of course Israel was a disaster! The fact that no Jews in the west wants to live there (apart from the Jewish versions of Osama Bin Laden) speaks volumes for what a stupid idea it was. More Jews are moving to Australia then Australians moving to Israel! The same goes for South Africa! With the Choices of either Australia or Israel the Jewish South Africans pick Australia. What does that tell you!

What Now? It obvious! ALL of Israel staying power is with it political lobbyist in places like Australia and the US with out them Israel would not be able to survive! So one of two thing need to happen!

1. European Australians/Americans etc need to take back the political initiative with regards to Israel polices! They are the elephant in the room and if they cared a tenth as much as the Jews did about middle east policy things would change very quickly. But sadly for both the Jews and the Muslims, Europeans care as much about the middle east as they do about Burma or Zimbabwe. All you get is “Its so terrible what is happening there” or “Somebody should do something” but no action.

While people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and the plethora of other Europeans who have money to burn are more concerned with AIDS in Africa (which is a lot more important and effects many more people) and other things then the conflict in Israel, nothing will happen and the slack will be taken up by nasty Jews like Sheldon Adelson who does not care about making peace and only wants to further the interest of extremist Jews.

2. The second option and the more obvious one is the Jews in the west take action themselves against Israel. Sir Isaac Isaac was the first aussie to speak out against Israel and as time goes on more and more are doing so. After all if the Jews in the west really cared about the Jews in Israel they would see what a predicament Israel is heading into and try to help out
Posted by EasyTimes, Monday, 4 August 2008 10:28:54 PM
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