Letter to the Editor
A lot of people have been talking about Israel's right to exist as if Israel has some special rights that other countries don't have. Israel has no more of a right to exist than any other country in the world has. There is nothing special about Israel as compared to any other country in the world. Nor is there anything special about the rights of Jews as compared to any other religion. Judaism like Islam and Christianity is just another religion. Lebanon has the same right to exists as Israel does. The right to exist is an earned right and it is based on a country's ability to respect the rights of others and to work towards peace and oppose war.
Posted by marc at July 31, 2006 04:51 PMRightly said, and as a further note one can't help but question the scores of people that died during WW2 for the sake of the jews and subsequent creation of Israel. Did they die in vain? Would they have been as willing to sacrifice their lives had they known the monster that would ultimately emerge from all that?
If Israel's existence means this much death and destruction to others then does Israel still have the right to exist?
There is now an oil slick in the Mediterranean that covers a huge area; the environmental damage from this act alone is disastrous. The depleted Uranium fumes and gases floating around the air for hundreds of kilometers will guarantee fatal illnesses and birth defects for decades. Are these calamities also covered by Israel's "special rights"?
Posted by: marios polycarpou at August 1, 2006 04:15 PMMarc:
You are right.
Let's say that for 1500 Years your family owned "the Thompson Farm" You raised crops, cattle, nasty tasting sheep, whatever. Then the UN (world) sez oh we are going to give the Jew's 500 acres of your farm because we screwed up and allowed Hitler to kill about 4 million of them.
Now we are going to forget other atrocities, like Stalin killing about 6 million Russians during collectivization, and Mao killing about 10 million Chinese. But the Jewish people deserve to remind us for eternity what Hitler did and some real estate to live on ?
Now if you were a Thompson of the "Thompson Thompson farm" folks wouldn't you be pissed ?
Posted by: David Atkins at August 5, 2006 03:54 AMI have an 'add on' to David's post:
Now imagine that whoever was incharge of 'divying up' the Thompson farm gives the new tennents unlimited access to resources and weapons to make sure that they not only keep the 500 acres they were given but can pretty much do whatever they want inorder to take or do anything else they believe they are entitled to. Thus leaving the Thompsons to resort to things like suicide bombing and homemade bombs. Yeesh!
Posted by: Carla at August 8, 2006 10:14 AMDavid and Carla,
How can you say, "Marc, you are right" and then completely contradict him. Marc's post explained how Israel has a right to exist just like any other country. Your post explained why the Thompson family (an example) had the right to be pissed about Israel gaining their territory.
Furthermore, let's not forget the millions of native americans from hundreds of tribes that lived in America before we came waltzing in with our guns and disease.
And lastly, a world consensus after World War II didn't just say that Israel had a right to exist, but also stated that no other state previously existed in that territory. So maybe your "Thompson" family should have established themselves to the world. That land had been fought over by Romans, Mallukes, Ottomans, you name it. Since most people with your argument talk about Palestinians as being the natives to that land, I'm going to assume when you say the "Thompson" family, you're talking about Palestine. I'd like to point out that for over 1800 years, no map of the world or middle east ever had a nation called "Palestine" anywhere on it. Long before that, the Hebrews were perhaps the first group of people to ever lay claim to the territory now known as Israel.
Yeesh! is right.
Jake
Posted by: Jake at August 17, 2006 09:27 AM