If you personally had a choice, would you rather live under Israeli rule or Hamas??
Is It Israel or Palestine??
by minimus 28 Replies latest jw friends
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Phizzy
LUHE said " Israel has existed since 1948 - it also existed thousands of years ago, too."
That is not an argument for anything.
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peacefulpete
Gaza gets aid every year. Hamas should stop spending aid money on rockets and spend it on its citizens instead.
Actually I believe since 2007 when Hamas took control of Gaza all aid was blocked. But....Sure, and the Israelis have received $142 billion from the US in economic and military aid. They are the largest recipient of US foreign aid by far. If they used their resources to provide good homes and medical care for the Palestinians, the wind might have left the war balloon by now. I'm surely not suggesting the Palestinians are faultless, but that the fault is shared to the point that fault becomes a meaningless word. And yes, the Hamas extremists are worsening the cause of the Palestinians but it's hard to convince them that they aren't victims in this debacle. They are at war. The best shot at a solution is not more bombs and more martyrs but some large magnanimous gesture and compromise but everyone is afraid of looking weak so the cycle of violence goes on.
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cofty
If they used their resources to provide good homes and medical care for the Palestinians, the wind might have left the war balloon by now.
Such naivety is incredible.
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peacefulpete
To lighten the mood. But it is on topic. The reasons for fighting begin to fade when opportunity to improve your family's life come. Some minority might want to continue fighting but they will have a much harder time garnering support because they look stupid.
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LetTheTruthBeKnown
There really is no Palestine. It was all part of the Ottoman Empire. The Palestinians are really Egyptians that have been duped into thinking they are a different people.
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LoveUniHateExams
LUHE said " Israel has existed since 1948 - it also existed thousands of years ago, too."
That is not an argument for anything - it's may not be an argument but it is a pretty good point that puts this whole issue into perspective.
Jews were living in the Levant many centuries before Arabs settled the region.
The first Arabs to settle the Levant came from what is now Yemen - they were Christians from the Al Azd tribe, if my memory serves correctly. They started settling in the Levant from the end of the first century CE onwards. Muslim Arabs seeped into traditionally Jewish land from the 7th century onwards.
Jews had already been living in the same area many centuries before (Kingdom of Israel, Kingdom of Judah). So Jews do have a legitimate claim on that part of the Levant. Meanwhile, there has never been an independent Palestine.
I have a few questions for you ...
1. Palestine for the Palestinians?
2. Ireland for the Irish?
3. England for the English?
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peacefulpete
The "Jews" is an ethno/religio concept not a racial one. The origins of the culture are difficult to winnow from the legends and propaganda, but the best evidence from genetics and critical OT scholarship tells us the people who became known as Jews were indigenous Palestinians/Cannanites who adapted to the Egyptian, Assyrian/ Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman occupations in a characteristic way. The distinguishing aspects of Arab from Jew are cultural not genetic. None of this is relevant to the discussion today. Who has dibs on a piece of land. In reality wars for control of this corridor have been fought here for millennia, it belonged to every power in the region at some point. Egypt and Turkey have as much right as Israelis by that measure. What matters is how to resolve the stalemate of tit for tat violence that exists today.
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Phizzy
What PeacefulPete said, " What matters is how to resolve the stalemate of tit for tat violence that exists today." answers LUHE's 3 part last question to me very well.
The rest of his Post, above, explains why we cannot say any group has an overarching right to land, of course we must accept that people live where they do, but Ancient History of the Land or its inhabitants confers no right whatsoever, or you walk along a very rocky road !
I do firmly believe in America for the Native Americans, and Australia for the Aborigines, and the Isle of Wight for the offspring of the people who obviously lived there 8 Thousand years ago........ now I must remove my tongue from within my cheek before it gets stuck there !