Beit HanounFollow

Not quite. But close....



"We killed your family, and we're gonna have one of our technicians look at the widget, and that should make sure that the next time, we only shell the folk we're aiming at! M'kay!"

Meanwhile.....


Its their perspective you know? 'Cos they don't speak like us or look like us, it doesn't really matter so much.......

Alrighty, the "modern" Israel/Palestine question, then. I don't want to upset the hardcore Zionists, but what happened 2000 years ago doesn't matter for the present situation. This whole argument of "Greater Israel" based on the Old Testament is a nasty joke, and one that the hardcore Muslmis use as well when talking of the Caliphate from Morrocco to Indonesia. International Relations and old fairy stories should not be mixed.

Not only that, but 2000 years ago Israelis were nothing like the Israelis today. "Semite" was used to refer to all the people of that region, mostly arabs. Not just "Jews". So those Russian Jews, for exemple, claiming to be the descendants and righteous heirs to David is a bit of a joke. It's like me saying I'm really African because the first man came from Africa. It might be true in some stupidly long-term view, but practically it's as useful as square wheel.

But still, I take your point that it's a historically charged conflict.

Edited, Nov 9th 2006 at 2:51am PST by RedPhoenixxxxxx

Exactly. The History of that region is so muddled that both can claim that it is their "spiritual homelands". Not only that, but during all the time that the different tribes lived there, they all got conquered and reconquered. The Hebrwesw, the Caanans, the Philistines, the Semites, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, all of those conquered bits and pieces of what we call Israel/Palestine today. And we can be pretty sure that with the conquering came rapings, and offsprings.

And then the Romans came.

So claiming a pure and direct line of ancestry from one of these ancient people, is laughable. It's like modern greeks claiming that they are descended from the Ancient Greeks. 2000 years of wars, conquest, raping, pillaging, and migration have ensured that there is no pure and direct descendents from these times.

So, both Israelis and Palestinians can claim a spiritual belonging to that place. Palestinians can even claim that they stayed there, or thereabouts, the whole time.

And the worst, in all this stupid conflict, is that 99% of the details on how to partition Israel and Palestine has been agreed by both sides. Everyone knows what the likely outcome will be, how the borders will be drawn. It is not even that contentious.

All that's missing is the daddy to tell the squabbling siblings to get their shIt together and stop fUcking around.