--- Steve Sloan II <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The same goes for Israel. Shortly after WWII, the > least > unfair solution probably would have been taking a > good-sized chunk of land from Germany to form a > Jewish > homeland, while negotiating with the Middle East > world to > get them visitation rights to their holy sites. > Instead, > Europe decided to pay its debt by giving the Jews > somebody > else's land. It's too late to change that decision > now. The > best we can do now is try to get a decent two-state > solution > to work.
OK, this is one of those irritating cliches that people keep repeating. How _did_ Europe "pay its debt by giving the Jews somebody else's land." Did European troops do any fighting in the Israeli War of Indpendence? No. Did European countries give diplomatic support? No - Harry Truman forced the European countries to recognize Israel. Arms and weapons? Not really - Ben-Gurion had to go through phenomenal hoops to smuggle weapons into what would become Israel. Israel was established in pretty much the same way that most countries are established - a local population fought a war of independence. In many ways it wasn't that different from us in 1776 - except, of course, that the British didn't intend to kill every American colonist, as the Arabs _did_ and _do_. Israel doesn't depend on Europe for protection. It doesn't even depend on the US for protection, although the US doesn't hurt. Israel is an independent state because the people of Israel are willing to do whatever it takes to make it and keep it that way. ===== Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM). http://calendar.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
