The post would agree with your first link, perhaps even moreso: http://exilestreet.com/?p=670
I don't think an extended exposition of the history of the region really converts any opinions, and it does always tend to devolve into hair splitting and excruciating examination of citation and bias filter, which is why the topic is a hand grenade. With that stated, understanding that no conversions will occur, and thus, none should be attempted by inflamed or incensed respondents, and that should flame wars begin, appropriate measures will be taken to extinguish them, I'll offer my opinion, disclaimed as solely that, and acknowledged as pretty solidly unchangeable based on my research and understanding: 1. The Jews in Israel are indeed a mixture of a continuous population of Jews who have been there the entire time, and immigrants who have traveled back to the region during the first and second Aliyahs. It is often argued as a point of contention that these Jews are not descendants of the original Jews of Israel. This is unsupported by their genetic makeup. The Jews of the diaspora are indeed the descendants of the Israelites driven out of that land, and carry a cultural identity tied to the land of Israel. http://www.pnas.org/content/97/12/6769.abstract "The results support the hypothesis that the paternal gene pools of Jewish communities from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East descended from a common Middle Eastern ancestral population, and suggest that most Jewish communities have remained relatively isolated from neighboring non-Jewish communities during and after the Diaspora." 2. During the the first Aliyah, it was a rare exception for there to be an issue between the returning Jews and their Arabic neighbors. Land was bought legally by the immigrants, and the Arabic workers in the area were often hired on at fair wage to work the area. Although there were some conflicts in those arrangements, those were isolated cases which were no more common than in any other segment of society. There is no record of any sort of "Zionist apartheid" at play, merely a legal immigration of Jews to their cultural homeland, ahead of European persecution. The foundation of the Muslim Brotherhood occurred during this time, essentially an Arabic version of the KKK, which resented the sudden increase in wealthy Jewish population, and began raising popular ire against the moneyed interlopers. This shift in the social consciousness began to result in violence, straining the British control of the mandate, which had been contemplating both granting the Jewish people autonomous space, and returning control of the Palestinian Mandate to the mixed population of Syrian, Jordanian, Egyptian, and Lebanese peoples who had populated the area. As the ambiguity of the British governance began to become clear, these hate groups began to cause riots, first in 1921, and then in a series of skirmishes and attacks culminating with slaughters in Sapphed and Hebron, a town which had held an indigenous Jewish population since the time of Christ. Lacking any effective protection against these attacks, and treated with ambivalence by the British, factions formed within the Jewish settlers including the Stern Gang, Irgun, and Haganah. This is when it stopped being black and white. All three of these groups, at one point or another, engaged in acts, which according to our understanding of the word, constitute terrorism. Deir Yassan signaled the end of a true Israeli moral high ground. Not that it's not higher than Hamas, but that's when it began to crumble. In 1947, when the UN Resolution made it official, the surrounding nations immediately banded together, spawning Israel's war for Independence. Every man with a gun immediately was pressed into service. Groups already well armed and trained in combat were particularly useful. In this manner were these three groups legitimized. 3. The Palestinian Leadership is in shambles, its ranks corrupt, its house divided between impotent bureaucrats and cowardly madmen armed with suicidal devotees who line up their people like sheep for the slaughter, in order to capture the attention of the world media. Yassir Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize after founding Fatah and being declared the "Leader of the Palestinian People" in 1967, after sneaking into the West Bank to setup recruiting stations for fresh terrorist bombers and hijackers. He engineered attack after attack around the world until his death, all the while sitting with world leaders, proclaiming his lack of connection to those events, and "negotiating for peace". The new breed there goes one step further, manipulating the media with much more finesse, drawing fire into civilian areas, and using complicit local media to create the shots they want broadcast to a global media hungry to root for the underdog. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_B1H-1opys 4. Someone suggested recently what I think is a terribly good idea. Fold Gaza under Egyptian protection, and the West Bank under Jordanian protection. That will instantly provide infrastructure, security, economy, trade, medicine, education, government, law enforcement, food, power, water, and existing treaties Israel which are rock solid. It will also completely remove the corrupt government of extremists there. In fact, the only loss at all is a haphazard and ever shifting gang of thugs who resolves issues of government loyalty with ad hoc executions: WARNING: NSFW and graphic - Hamas grabbing Fatah members and summarily executing them. Filmed by Hamas members. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cec_1181855341 There almost 1.5 Million Arab-Israelis, almost twice the ratio of Arabic Israelis to Jew Israelis as there are Caucasian Americans to African Americans, an apt comparison, given some of the terms I hear being thrown around describing the circumstances there. Arab-Israelis are free to move to the Palestinian territories any time they like. They do not. Nor do they riot in the streets in protest of Israel's actions, rise up in some never ending flood of condemning human judgement. There is no 'V for Vendetta' moment in Israel where 1.5 Million Arab-Israelis show up with masks on. For all the propaganda you may hear, and for all their verbal loyalty, an Arab-Israeli, much like an Arab-American, has a far better quality of life than the average Arab in any country controlled by extremists. Arab-Israelis are also at risk when missiles are fired in Sderot, and if the longer range rockets come, into Tel Aviv. Israeli-Arabs will lose that quality of life if Hamas and Hezbollah win, and they do not want that. Selfishness, as mentioned in the other thread, is also an indicator of truth. Fear will overcome selfishness, but when you have the IDF fighting your fears for you, selfishness can reassert. 1.5 Million Arab-Israelis. How many are rioting in the streets? On Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 11:53 AM, frantheman <[email protected]>wrote: > > Ok, I'm probably being hopelessly optimistic. I take Chris's tongue-in- > cheek warning about forum grenades seriously - and the Arab-Israeli > issue IS a grenade - an atomic grenade! > > I see and recognise the validity of the arguments from both sides. I'd > like to read some of what the people who post here (whose opinions and > intellects I really respect) think. I do have one request - if anyone > feels the urge to flame on the usual themes of holocaust denial, the > Jews are responsible for everything wrong with the world, etc., please > do it somewhere else. > > I'm posting this link (even though I wouldn't agree with everything > the writer states) because I think it's not badly argued - just to get > the ball rolling: > > http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/kevin-myers/hamas-is-one-version-of-an-islamicist-spectrum-that-seeks-to-destroy-the-entire-western-world-1600540.html > > Francis > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
