Poll: Do you like Israel?

[stefanbertramlee]

No.
But I have to add that I have never been there and I am a german, so I got bombarded with guilt-inducing propaganda my whole life. Makes it kind of hard to like them.

In addition to that the whole middle-east conflict seems really silly to me. Why did they have to found Isreal there? Why couldn't it be somewhere in Nevada?

I mean Holy Places are one thing, but are they worth this kind of bullshit all the time?

I had an earlier post discussing this.
Let me copy paste. You will be enlightened!
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Remember Zionism? Members believed that Jews are a nation and therefore should receive land for them to live in and become a country.
The reason why the old testament land was chosen is because even though the pioneers of Zionism were mostly secular, the majority of Jews at the time were religious. Plus, people that would immigrate to a desert country with no infrastructure whatsoever (At the time of the Turks) are usually the ones that have nothing to lose. That lot includes folk that have been suffering persecution in the Russian Kingdom (Tzardom?), which are all religious Jews.
---
Any other questions can be directed at me.

Russian Empire. BTW.

 

[Mace Tulio]

I have no strong feelings one way or the other, I just wish Israel and Palestine could learn to get along.

 

[trollnystan]

Er... I plead the Fifth. Can I do that even if I'm not American?

Seriously though; you have a beautiful country, and I know lovely people from there - although the future Israeli fighter pilot I once met who didn't know when WW2 broke out was weird - but some of the policies your government has is shit IMO. I can't say I have any real answers in how to solve the conflict between Israel and Palestine - both sides have done bad things - but the child-minder in me wants to put both of the countries in a time-out. And maybe ground them for a bit.

Oh, if only life was that simple...

 

[TheIronRuler]

-snip-

I wasn't trying to claim that there was no reason for them to found Israel in the Holy LAnd.
My point was that I doubt that reason was a good one/ worth all the trouble.

My knowledge of judaism is farily limited, but I would assume that since they regard themselves as god's chosen people, they won't have to fear repression from god for wanting to live peacefully in the Nevada-Desert.

Did you read the post?
The point was that in order to encourage the poor and suffering lot which was religious, they HAD to have Israel in the old testament land. Else Jews would have never come.
They had many, MANY different offers and places to go, including parts of the Ottoman Empire, A part of Russia in an autonomy and some of the British colonies.

 

[Asti]

I'd love to go there. It's such a rich place, culture wise. Yet I can't approve of the continuing hatred against Palestinians. It's a shame that such a beautiful place should be a neverending war zone.

 

[Hamish Durie]

I know almost nothing about Israel.
EDIT:Save what the news tells me ofcource.

i know even less then this guy

 

[MetroidNut]

I have no problem with the people of Israel, and I believe that after WWII, making a predominantly-Jewish country was entirely necessary. However, I do believe that the government of Israel is...well, sort of a dick to the Palestinians, in my humble opinion.

To be perfectly honest, I don't know enough of the situation to say anything with certainty, but what I do know suggests there's nothing wrong with Israel itself, but the government could treat the Palestinians a lot better.

Oh, and the Israeli military is hilariously awesome. They built liquid-metal-throwing point-defense systems for their tanks.

 

[Kenami]

You guys have some incredibly beautiful women I'll give you that.

 

[Layzor]

I have no strong feelings one way or the other.

 

[LuckyClover95]

I answered 'no' as my way of saying 'not at the moment.'

 

[Corporal Yakob]

I've never visited the nation so I can't have a fair opinion, only the opinion I have based on what I've read about in the news and I must say, I do dislike Israel a bit. Whats ironic is that I strongly support neither side in the Israel-Palestine struggle and (in my opinion) Israel is probably a lot more stable, prosperous and pro-West then a independent Palestine would be, whose extremist factions would probably incite violence against the West for allowing Israel to oppress them for so long but I find myself being more sympathetic towards the Palestinians: a modern, highly trained military force with state of the art equipment and technology against what is effectively a civilian milita just seems unfair (yes I know its "evened" out by guriella tactics). Also something I read once: "The Palestinians are paying for what the Nazis did."

Feel free to disregard this as much as you want, I don't claim to be an expert on Middle Eastern affairs.

 

[wrightguy0]

As much as i like the people and think that he country has a right to exist, i can't help but notice parallels between the country's behavior and the actions of Germany througout the 1930's annexing other countries claiming that you have ethnic and historic right to them, or for National Security, the current attitude of appeasement held by the west, Persecution of another people based upon race, he forced relocation, forcing Palestinians to use separate ID's, hell even Gaza City looks more like Warsaw circa 1941. you would think that if there was any country that would learn the value of tolerance and peace, it would be Israel, but it seems that once again the lessons of history are ignored and hindsight is left blind by xenophobia, the current ministration loves to remind the west of their persecution and pulls the victim card to guilt the UN into getting away with this bullshit.

though no side is clean in this,both are dicks and will continue to e dicks until some one forcibly intervenes, though it's hard not to see Israel as the bigger dicks when watching the way some of their supporters react, I've seen a Palestinian friend of mine get harassed because he as telling people about how he was treated like dirt by Israeli Security Forces, even though he lives in the States and has an American Passport, and the person who was harassing him wasn't even from Israel or Jewish, he just believed everything said by Israel without question, and he was rude to, to the point of racism, i was Disgusted by it.

 

[Zhukov]

No.

I've read too many newspapers and watched too many news broadcasts to ever view Israel with anything other than cold contempt.

The nicest thing I can say is that I respect them for having the strength to establish themselves and hold on like they have.

 

[cainx10a]

When you are done dragging children to jail, murdering your neighbors, and acting like in a dick in the region, maybe I will consider something other than 'no'.

 

[That's Funny]

I'm not going to explain my dislike for Israel's Government, I do think it has some pretty places in it though.

 

[DeathChairOfHell]

Well, even though the Israelis sorta intruded in Palestina, they have done more than enough to earn their right to stay. They defeated all the muslim countries that attacked them, including Jordania, Egypt and Lybia. And not only did they defend their new country, they also conquered new land. That takes some effort, according to me.

 

[Bunnymarn]

Whilst I understand the premise of Israel's creation, the way they and other countries has gone about it has been, and is, appalling. I don't really care if some UN Resolution did decree that Israel could be a nation - accepting them as a member of the UN straight after the massacre of Deir Yassin and the dispossession of 900,000 Palestinians, who weren't allowed to safely return to their homes, is an abhorrent disregard for human rights, which the UN is supposedly meant to be protecting. And let's face it, the only reason they were accepted was because of their strategic position for western powers to gain an ally in the Middle East, and the West would have felt bad about the whole Holocaust. So their creation was flawed from the beginning.

Add to that their continued disregard for the Palestinians and other Arab nations (ie, the taking of more territory in 1967 and the destruction of Lebanon, just so they could push the PLO further from the area), as well as other horrible things, such as the Sabra Shatila massacre, I don't think that Israel has a right to exist in its current form. I'm not condoning the response of Arab nations (they really didn't give a shit about the Palestinians either), but they were so terrible at warfare, it wasn't funny. I understand that Israel was and is paranoid, being surrounded by enemy nations, but adding wood to a fire isn't going to help their 'plight'. And continually treating the Palestinians like refugees in their own land is so wrong it's not even funny. I'm not surprised the Palestinians and other sects turned to 'terrorism' to get their message across, and to be noticed, since many powers completely ignored them. Assassinating just about every mediator that tries to alleviate some of the tension and conflict doesn't help either.

As I said though, Israel isn't the only one that has been in the wrong, but I'd say that proportionately, they've done worse than any other nation in the area. So, I do think that Israel has some right to exist, but not in its current form.

As far as the culture, area and general people go, I'm sure it's all fine (don't really know much about any of these) - as is with any place.

EDIT: Since the big thing was the Jews going through the Holocaust, how is dispossessing an entire peoples showing any sense of development? You'd think that since they went through some horrible stuff, they'd at least be slightly understanding and cautious not to do the same to another group of people...