General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWho or what is the biggest enemy to Israel??
It is not Hamas. It is not the Palestinians. After all, these same folks call America the "Great Satan". They don't believe that we have a right to exist either. Sticks and stones are not a threat to our existence. It is our own actions that are a bigger threat.
When a hammer is the only tool that you have, every problem looks like a nail. Diplomacy is never an option.
Understandably so, there is a national insecurity within the country of Israel. For generations, survival has been the primary concern of its citizens. Every word and every action by any of its neighbors is taken as a direct threat to their existence. They react violently to these perceived threats, real or imagined. Israel and its supporters believe them all to be real. Their paranoia is real.
However, the biggest threat to Israel is Israel and their supporters in the US Government. So long as every action is justified and legitimized by our Government, Israel will never look for any other tool but their hammer.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Rwing governments are a bane on humanity.
rurallib
(62,451 posts)MisterP
(23,730 posts)darndest to flush him
Fawke Em
(11,366 posts)The truth got out there this time.
pipoman
(16,038 posts)Sticks and stones may apply here where we are not being bombed and rocketed. Israel is being 'sticked and stoned' regularly.
Is that question never asked?
pipoman
(16,038 posts)Civilian populations where absolutely no threat exists. Or how about for launching rockets from the midst of civilian populations.
You ask that question?
pipoman
(16,038 posts)sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)of your citizens BLAMING YOU for something you didn't do.
I think that is a reasonable justification for any people to retaliate.
Iow, Netanyahu lied, invaded Gaza and the rockets were fired in retaliation.
Much like our Cheney/Bush gang re Iraq. THEY lied, then invaded, and Iraqis retaliated.
When you have liars in power, bad things happen.
pipoman
(16,038 posts)I have been around this long enough to not care which came first.
Supposing your response is, as it sounds, a one side is more to blame than the other statement that is...
shall we compile a list of broken cease fires and truces and see how that shakes out?
4now
(1,596 posts)Netanyahu is as bad for Israel as George Bush was for the U.S.
Iggo
(47,571 posts)Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, but left behind death and destruction. Israeli sociologist Eva Illouz tells SPIEGEL that her country is gripped by fear and is becoming increasingly suspicious of democracy.
Illouz: Israel is a colonial military power, a militarized society and a democracy all folded into one. The army, for example, controls the Palestinians through a wide network of colonial tools, such as checkpoints, military courts (governed by a legal system different from the Israeli system), the arbitrary granting of work permits, house demolitions and economic sanctions. It is a militarized civil society because almost every family has a father, son or brother in the army and because the military plays an enormous role in the ordinary mentality of ordinary Israelis and is crucial in both political decisions and in the public sphere. In fact, I would say that "security" is the paramount concept guiding Israeli society and politics. But it is also a democracy, which grants rights to gays and makes it possible for a citizen to sue the state.
Illouz: Israelis and Palestinians used to be mixed. They worked as construction workers and as cheap, underpaid labor. Then the wall was built. Then the road blocks came, which hampered the Palestinians' freedom of movement. The massive reduction in work permits followed. And in a few years Palestinians disappeared from Israeli society. The Second Intifada put the nail in that coffin, so to speak. The nature of Israeli leadership has also changed. The messianic right has progressively gained power in Israel. It used to be marginal and illegitimate; it is now increasingly mainstream. This radical right sits in Parliament, controls budgets and has changed the nature of discourse. Many Israelis do not understand the radical nature of the right in Israel. It successfully disguises itself as "patriotic" or "Jewish."
Illouz: Entire generations have been raised with the territories, with Israel being a colonial power. They do not know anything else. You have the settlements which are highly ideological. They expanded and entered Israeli mainstream political life. Settlements were strengthened by systematic government policies: They got tax breaks; they had soldiers to protect them; they built roads and infrastructure which are much better than those inside the country. There are entire segments of the population that have never met a secular person and have been educated religiously. Some of these religious segments are also very nationalist. The reality we are faced with in Israel is that we must choose between liberalism and Jewishness, and if we choose Jewishness, we are condemned to become a religious Sparta which will not be sustainable. Whereas in the 1960s, you could be both socialist and Zionist, today it is not possible because of the policies and identity of Israel. Then you have the role which Jews who live outside Israel play in Israel. Many of these Jews have very right-wing views and contribute money to newspapers, think tanks and religious institutions inside Israel. Let's face it: the right has been more systematic and more mobilized, both inside and outside Israel.