...Israel has many human rights organizations. Although most of them are entirely secular, they diligently protect Arab rights and the freedom of ritual at every religious site. To the best of my recollection, they have not demanded this freedom for Jews as well. Not on the Temple Mount, where Jews are forbidden to pray and the Waqf upholds the prohibition, not at Joseph's Tomb, and not at the Shalom al Yisrael synagogue in Jericho. Naturally, no such organization issued a denunciation of the murder at Joseph's Tomb.
In contrast, representatives of such organizations came to Awarta, to the homes of the Fogel family's murderers, hugged the family members and condemned the IDF's barbarism during the searches in the village. When their shame was revealed, the Israeli media hastened to clear them, saying the visit was held two days before the official announcement came that the murder had been solved, so the visitors "did not know for a fact" that the families they visited were the murderers' families.
They obviously did not go to console the Fogel family. Nor did they find another way to express their sympathy. Maybe because they didn't feel any.
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Hi there, Yisrael.
I grew up in Turkey and have recently started getting really interested in the debate over Israel and Palestine.
I am not very knowledgable on the subject at all and so was wondering if you would be able to answer some of my questions?
I am not anti-israel in the slightest but my questions will have a sceptical slant in order to be as challenging as possible.
1) If you were speaking to an atheist in 1945, what secular reasons would you give him/her for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine?
2) If a Paletinian family had been living on their farm for, say, 10 generations and completely owned the land, would it be legitimate for it to be taken away from them and given to a Polish Jewish family who wanted to live there? (By all means I am NOT saying this happened, I'm simply asking a hypothetical question.)
3) Do you think it is practically possible for there to be genuine peace in the ME?
4) If so, would this require a one-state or a two state solution? Or something else?
5) What do you think of Arab Christians and Muslims being thrown out of their properties and being replaced with Jewish families in the settlements?
That's all for now. I honestly am looking for reasons. When I talk to my pro-palestinian friends I question them from a Zionist perspective in order to challenge them as much as possible. I hope you understand!
Thanks, in advance, for all your help in answering my questions.
Michael
1) If you were speaking to an atheist in 1945, what secular reasons would you give him/her for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine?
Just like the Armenians, just like the Irish, just like the French, the Jews are a people with a unique culture, a shared history, a nationalist ethos, a consciousness as a community, its own language, literature and a connection to a certain territory for almost 4000 years.
2) If a Paletinian family had been living on their farm for, say, 10 generations and completely owned the land, would it be legitimate for it to be taken away from them and given to a Polish Jewish family who wanted to live there? (By all means I am NOT saying this happened, I'm simply asking a hypothetical question.)
No. That's why the Jews are the only people in history that preferred (and had to) buy back its own land from a conquering people who invaded and occupied it.
3) Do you think it is practically possible for there to be genuine peace in the ME?
Sure. Why can't Arabs accept the fact that they have around two dozen states and Jews want only one?
4) If so, would this require a one-state or a two state solution? Or something else?
Why can't Arabs accept the reality that in just one state in the ME, they are not the dominating national group? That they tried for 90 years all sorts of violence, whittled away by partition the original territory that was top become the Jewish national home and still refused all compromise and went to war to eliminate Israel and violate a UN recommendation?
5) What do you think of Arab Christians and Muslims being thrown out of their properties and being replaced with Jewish families in the settlements?
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