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Subject: 
Re: Babies who threaten to topple Israel?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Fri, 16 Jan 2004 09:56:19 GMT
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Harro de Jong wrote:
   orrex@excite.com (Dave Schuler) wrote in HrHx8H.1zHJ@lugnet.com:

   In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Harro de Jong wrote:
   drscottarthur@yahoo.co.uk (Scott A) wrote in HrHJ6M.1F4I@lugnet.com:

  
   Israeli nationalists (not Jews) break international law, oppresses a people, murder civilians and then acts like a petulant child when criticised. WW2 justifies none of that.

All of this seems to be par for the course for the region. If you’re going to criticise the Israelis, why not apply the same standards to the entire Middle East?

One reason is that the US provides massive funding and military support for Israel but not for other Middle Eastern nations.

So those other Middle Eastern nations can do whatever they want, because they’re not on Uncle Sam’s payroll?

It is pretty clear that Isreal does whatever it wants because it is “on Uncle Sam’s payroll”. It is Isreal which has broken countless UN resolutions.

  


   Additionally, Israel is after all, the only nation in the region confirmed to possess nuclear weapons, but the US hasn’t undertaken any pre-emptive invasions of Israel.

Israel is also the only democracy in the region...

It is a democracy in the same sense that apartheid South Africa was a democracy. The basis of democracy is social equality. It is clear that that does not exist is Israel.

See: “Israel is the only country in the world that gives members of a particular religion (including converts) automatic rights (citizenship, land, homes, subsidies) that supercede and mostly replace those of its own “citizens” and native people who belong to other religions. Israel grants automatic citizenship to any individual who has one Jewish grandparent while denying citizenship to people born and raised in the country simply for not being Jewish.”

  
   Another reason is that when the Israeli military kills Palestinian civilians, it’s considered acceptable casualties of legitimate, self-protecting action, but when Palestinian bombers kill Israeli civilians, it’s called terrorism.

Surely you see the difference between targeting criminals/terrorists, and random killings?

Tell that to the parents of the 250+ kids killed in the current intifada.

See: “There is Sami Jazzar, shot in the head by an Israeli soldier on the eve of his 12th birthday in Gaza, 11-year-old Khalil Mughrabi, killed by an Israeli sniper in Gaza – one of his friends survived after being shot in the testicles by a high-velocity round – and 10-year-old Riham al-Ward, killed in her Jenin schoolyard by an Israeli tank shell... ...Despite repeated claims to the contrary: “No judicial investigation is known to have been carried out into any of the killings of children by members of the IDF in the occupied territories, even in cases where Israeli government officials have stated publicly that investigations would be carried out.” None of the Israeli soldiers responsible for these crimes is known to have been brought to justice, Amnesty says.”

  


   A related reason is that, when Israeli civilians are killed, it makes headlines in the US and UK, but when Palestinian civilians are killed, they barely qualify for a footnote.

In the same way that citizens of the Arab nations getting killed by their own government (for crimes like voicing an opinion, or failing to comply to medieval Sharia laws, or being a member of the wrong tribe) hardly gets any attention, let alone results in that government being put under pressure by the rest of the world?


   To be sure, none of these reasons justifies bloodshed by either side, but these and many other reasons may contribute to the sense that Israel is held to a standard diffferent from that applied to its neighbors in the region.

I agree that there’s a double standard. But in many respects, it’s Israel that’s being judged more harshly than the Arab nations.

That’s just not true. Studies have shown that the media is biased towards Isreal. That’s not my opionion, that is a fact:

“There is a second, perhaps more crucial reason why the TV newsrooms do not dwell on the history and origins of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. This is that to explain these or to refer to them as underlying the violence could be very controversial. Israel is closely allied to the United States and there are very strong pro-Israel lobbies in the US and to some extent in Britain. It is clear that a lack of discussion of the origins of the conflict and of the controversial aspects of the occupation would operate in favour of Israel.”

Scott A



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Babies who threaten to topple Israel?
 
dr_scott_arthur@yahoo.co.uk (Scott A) wrote in <HrKu9v.2Jw@lugnet.com>: (...) The situation in continental Europe (where I live) is rather different. (20 years ago, 19-Jan-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Babies who threaten to topple Israel?
 
orrex@excite.com (Dave Schuler) wrote in <HrHx8H.1zHJ@lugnet.com>: (...) So those other Middle Eastern nations can do whatever they want, because they're not on Uncle Sam's payroll? (...) Israel is also the only democracy in the region... (...) (...) (20 years ago, 15-Jan-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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