Reply #35: Thanks for the answer. [View All]

[msmcghee]

As I suspected there are really no Israeli military personnel coming to the US to learn how to kill Arabs as many in this thread have proposed. And in fact it's the other way around.

Israel is our ally in the region. Israel established a homeland for the Jews there primarily as result of US and British efforts to convince the rest of the new UN organization in 1947 and 1948 that this was the best of all the alternatives.

Palestine was not a nation - it was a territory that had harbored many different ethnic groups over the ages. At the time there were many Jews living in the region. WWII killed millions of civilians and displace millions more. Although Palestine was not a state what political structure it had that represented the Arabs living there supported Germany in the war. After the UN declaration establishing israel as a state about 900,000 Jews relocated into Israel from neighboring Arab states where most lost all their property in that process and had to start over. But they were welcomed into Israel. Why were Palestinians who did not want to live in the new Israeli state not accepted as citizens into neighboring states? This crass political decision to place them in refugee camps instead is the primary reason why there is so much strife and hatred 60 years later, IMO.

My personal research on this makes me believe that it was a difficult decision for everyone - but of all the alternatives this was probably the best. Agree or not - but now we must make the best of it in a way that reduces the death and destruction. This current conflict was enabled by the Bush administration by stepping aside and ignoring their responsibility to be an honest broker for both sides - the responsibility that Clinton took on despite the political risks of failure.

If the US had worked with Lebanon we could possibly have prevented Hizbollah from setting up this deadly situation. Instead it festered and grew and now we see the tragic results. And we see Iranian led, virulently violent Shia taking over political power throughout the ME.

This is what we should be focused on - not the nature of Israel's defense from this furious Hizbollah attack. By condemning israel we let Bush off the hook and we make many Americans reluctantly realize that the left has no sense on these things - and no ability to defend America from our true enemies.

/rant