Iraq is falling apart. Iran is developing Nuclear Weapons. Afghanistan is ruled by Warlords. Pakistan and India are halting talks after terrorist bombings.
And now.. the coup de Grace..
Israel’s gone Batsh*t.
Well, of course they have. Wouldn’t you? They’ve been bombed on buses and cafes and they’ve felt like the neigbors are supporting it. On the other hand. they levelled Hezbollah, and then just kept firing away. Roads, evacuating buses, everything.
Now, okay.. my Mom called me and asked how I felt on the first day of WW3. I disagree with her. Either this will not become WW3, or WW3 started awhile ago. But I gotta wonder about the US position on this. Am I wrong, or has the whole world basically said, “Israel, dude.. we know you’re pissed, but, c’mon, chill out” – and America vetoed that and said “Hey, we can’t tell them what to do?”
I dig that we’ve supported Israel all this time.. but isn’t our current precarious situation in the MidEast a byproduct of supporting Israel?
On the other hand.. can we bail on them? We said we’d be their pal, they struck back against terrorists.. they are our only real friend in the region.
ACK!! See.. I don’t know what to feel. So, I thought I’d drop this out there and see if anyone can help me here.
A lot of thinking…
I’ve done a lot of thinking and reading on this. The state of Israel, from conception to the current fiasco, was a mistake. It was a relic of colonial, imperial thinking. There was a very healthy population of Jews in Israel prior to the formation of the state there who coexisted (as a minority) with their Arab neighbors. I think that, should the US now withdraw its support, those same Arab neighbors would rapidly depopulate the nation of its Jewish population with the same fervor with which Israel is currently depopulating Gaza.
There is no graceful way out of this mess which can minimize loss of life and face. I’m not suggesting that we cease supporting Israel, but I am suggesting we stop routinely exercising our veto power on their behalf. Allow them to suffer the international consequences of their behavior.
I used to be a big Israel supporter. Their actions over the past decade have changed my opinion.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Go on…
I agree that it was a bad idea in the beginning. Displacing existing populations to create new nation-states just screws things up for generations. (Unless you really slaughter them, like we did coming to the New World. Of course, for a lot of Native Americans, things are still rough.)
But now we’re stuck, and I think the preservation of a democratic ally is the better choice in this dilemma. Arabs in Israel participate in government, for example–can the same be said for Jews in Tehran?
The only way out of this over the long haul is for the surrounding nations to begin to economically prosper through the support of self-evident human rights and capitalism (which follows). This is best accomplished through the establishment and protection of democratic republics. It remains an observed fact (though lacking in sufficient sociological explanation) that no democracy has ever started a war with another democracy.
As for the Middle East, I’m not sure we’ll get there in my lifetime, unfortunately.
Poor = Extremist
It’s funny to read how a lot of Islamic Arabs HATE the US because we support Israel. They don’t realize we would love to step in and suipport them as well. We practically forced our way in to support Iraq.
The problem is that Islamic extremists use religion to produce hatred of America. These extremists know their power rests on keeping the populace poor and downtrodden, so that they have ripe conditions to breed hate towards the latest enemy of Islam.
If you’re comfortable in life, you don’t strap bombs to yourself and blow up buses. It just ain’t worth it. If you’re life is sh*t and you really think there’s 77 virgins waiting for you in heaven, what have you got to lose by strapping up?
Raise the standard of living, and terrorism goes away, for the most part…there will always be the Timothy McVeighs of the world. Some people are just plain crazy.
C’mon, when’s the last time you saw a riot in the Hamptons?
My $.02 Weed
Reason #49382
Weed… make that reason #49382 to be an atheist and one more religion I’ll never join.