I will try hard not to be *too* vociferous here, but:
1) Bob's ancestors had been gone from the site of Bob's house for anywhere from centuries to millenia by the time Bob came back to build his house. A variety of other tenants had lived on the land over those centuries. None of them matter now that Bob's decided to come back?
1a) Those other tenants all built homes and had communities and cultures of their own. They are not inherently inferior just because they're not like Bob's.
2)Not all of Israel's neighbors are their enemies. Egypt is both a de facto and de jure ally, even against the Palestinians. The idea that the entire Arab world is a bloc that responds with some sort of gutteral, unreasoning hatred to the existence of the state of Israel is a counterproductive myth.
3)She answered the question of whether she is against the state of Israel's current existence below, so I'll skip it. I will say that the state of Israel is currently occupied by a totalitarian, racist theocracy and being opposed to its current form is supportive of its people and their liberty.
4)Writing to our Congresspeople would do very little good. Not to give you a long lesson in the working state of the American political system, but a: Israel decides what it spends the aid money we give it upon, not us (we dictate broad categories only, along with saying they have to spend most of it buying US products) and b: since the aid to Israel is also a bailout of various vested US interests, our Congresspeople are already bought and sold. See the wikipedia article on the Iron Triangle for more details on how that process works.
4a)Reflexive cries of anti-semitism whenever someone critiques Israel have ruined all productive dialogue in the United States on this subject. If you write your Congressperson suggesting changes in Israel-US policy that don't fall under 'give them more money to buy more bullets', your letter will get tossed in the crank pile and be politely ignored. Guaranteed. It is considered beyond the pale to even say such things in public. See the Overton Window for more details.
5) It's odd that without the state of Israel, a holocaust is inevitable. For one thing, it's clearly an untested theory. For another, approximately as many Jews live in the United States as Israel, and I don't recall seeing brownshirts in the streets smashing their shopwindows of late. Actually, since your own post puts forth the assertion that Israel does what it does with our full support (largely true)... but the United States would perpetrate another Holocaust if it could.. we hate them?... we love them?... my head hurts.
Yeah.
One final point: stop conflating 'Jew' with 'Israeli', please. For that matter, stop conflating 'Israeli' with being a member of Likud (or Kadima for that matter, or Eris forbid, Yisrael Beiteinu).
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-08-08 05:13 pm (UTC)1) Bob's ancestors had been gone from the site of Bob's house for anywhere from centuries to millenia by the time Bob came back to build his house. A variety of other tenants had lived on the land over those centuries. None of them matter now that Bob's decided to come back?
1a) Those other tenants all built homes and had communities and cultures of their own. They are not inherently inferior just because they're not like Bob's.
2)Not all of Israel's neighbors are their enemies. Egypt is both a de facto and de jure ally, even against the Palestinians. The idea that the entire Arab world is a bloc that responds with some sort of gutteral, unreasoning hatred to the existence of the state of Israel is a counterproductive myth.
3)She answered the question of whether she is against the state of Israel's current existence below, so I'll skip it. I will say that the state of Israel is currently occupied by a totalitarian, racist theocracy and being opposed to its current form is supportive of its people and their liberty.
4)Writing to our Congresspeople would do very little good. Not to give you a long lesson in the working state of the American political system, but a: Israel decides what it spends the aid money we give it upon, not us (we dictate broad categories only, along with saying they have to spend most of it buying US products) and b: since the aid to Israel is also a bailout of various vested US interests, our Congresspeople are already bought and sold. See the wikipedia article on the Iron Triangle for more details on how that process works.
4a)Reflexive cries of anti-semitism whenever someone critiques Israel have ruined all productive dialogue in the United States on this subject. If you write your Congressperson suggesting changes in Israel-US policy that don't fall under 'give them more money to buy more bullets', your letter will get tossed in the crank pile and be politely ignored. Guaranteed. It is considered beyond the pale to even say such things in public. See the Overton Window for more details.
5) It's odd that without the state of Israel, a holocaust is inevitable. For one thing, it's clearly an untested theory. For another, approximately as many Jews live in the United States as Israel, and I don't recall seeing brownshirts in the streets smashing their shopwindows of late. Actually, since your own post puts forth the assertion that Israel does what it does with our full support (largely true)... but the United States would perpetrate another Holocaust if it could.. we hate them?... we love them?... my head hurts.
Yeah.
One final point: stop conflating 'Jew' with 'Israeli', please. For that matter, stop conflating 'Israeli' with being a member of Likud (or Kadima for that matter, or Eris forbid, Yisrael Beiteinu).
Thanks for (not) reading