We hear a lot about the despicable things that Hamas and Hezbollah heve been saying about the state of Israel. The destruction of the state, expulsion etc. etc. etc. Excellent post by
anotheramerican http://www.dailykos.com/...
We as supporters the state of Israel have to be thankful that they do not have the American supplied power of the IDF.
Here are a few of the quotes by very senior officials in the government of Israel, who sound very much like Mr. Nasarallah and his nasty ilk..... These people had been elected by the people of Israel or have been appointed to the Head of the IDF by the elected people who were elected by the Nation of Israel. And I am not naive or foolish enough to think that the majority of the Israelis agree with their views and thus should be responsible for these quotes.
"I would like Gaza to sink into the sea, but that won't happen, and a solution must be found"
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1992
http://news.bbc.co.uk/...
like drugged cockroaches scurrying in a bottle."
"We have to do everything to make [Palestinians] so miserable they will leave." Eitan believed in ethnic cleansing.. Rafel Eitan, Chief Of Staff, IDF
"They (Palestinians) will be like "poisoned cockroaches in a bottle".- Rafel Eitan, Chief Of Staff, IDF
He (Zeevi) also referred to some Palestinians - those working illegally in Israel - as "lice" who must be stopped like "cancer spreading within us". Rehavam Zeevi, Israeli Tourism Minister http://news.bbc.co.uk/...
It is might my nightmare that if ever the Hezbollah or Hamas ever get parity with the IDF, Israel is going to look like the Gaza, West Bank and the very, very, new Lebanon, collective punishments, walls, sonic booms, blockaded borders, stolen water rights, land and propery confiscation etc etc etc.
And as a student of history, I strongly believe that we must never say never as time and karma will catch up, if not tomorrow, the next day or the next year or the next century.
History has proven time and time again, the only type of peace that will hold is the negotiated peace agreed with mutual respect and trust.
I emphasize mutual respect and trust because, the Jews and the Muslims have lived together for more than a millennium, almost always in peace and in most cases the Jews thriving in Islamic societies more than the western Christian societies.
And of other important thing that we friends of Israel should consider. Israel is not a viable state without the economic, political and yes, military support that we give them.
Agree or disagree, we have given them the political cover to invade and so their thing in Lebanon by not allowing a UN Ceasefire resolution. I doubt any other country in the world other than the 5 veto holding powers would have been able to getaway with Israel is doing . And we are continuing to supply with them with very sophisticated weapons and jet fuel including those devastating bunker busters, even as we speak via the United Kingdom. I doubt if Israel could be doing what it is doing, the level of air bombardment and shelling without our bottomless pockets.
It is a well known fact that the demographics in the US is changing and in about 100 years, the political power will shift from the current chattering classes to a more homogeneous mix. This population, younger and probably more non European, would probably looking to the south and west for economic and cultural ties.
And I suspect that current emotional ties to Israel be diminished and our future feckless leaders will not be as unquestioning supportive of Israel as our current feckless leaders are.
Then Israel would have to enter in to the peace of mutual respect and trust with its neighbors, including the Palestinians. My question is why wait? Why not now?
To quote from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice
I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as
a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not
revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will
resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,
what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian
wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by
Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you
teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I
will better the instruction.
Please interchange the words "Jew", "Christian" and add "Moslem" and read this soliloquy. I hope it opens your eyes.