Netanyahu Speech

[urmston]

I look forward to the time when the whole of the middle east is composed of free, fair, democratic countries with freedom of religion and rights for women and minorities.

It seems that some people look forward to the time when the only tiny bit of the region which has reached that happy state is dragged back down to the current standards of the rest of the area, full of bitterness, hate, violence, intolerance and repression.


I can't imagine having a mind full of such negativity and the urge to harm what is good.

which is exactly what Netanyahu's foreign policy in the region is. I hope instead of being dragged down there, which it already has, that actually Israel moves back away from them and helps enable everything in your first line. Your second and third lines are as misguided as your view on video games, only far more sinister.

Oh, so you play those infantile shoot 'em up video games?

Sorry. My mistake. I shouldn't have bothered discussing this matter with you.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

I look forward to the time when the whole of the middle east is composed of free, fair, democratic countries with freedom of religion and rights for women and minorities.

It seems that some people look forward to the time when the only tiny bit of the region which has reached that happy state is dragged back down to the current standards of the rest of the area, full of bitterness, hate, violence, intolerance and repression.


I can't imagine having a mind full of such negativity and the urge to harm what is good.

which is exactly what Netanyahu's foreign policy in the region is. I hope instead of being dragged down there, which it already has, that actually Israel moves back away from them and helps enable everything in your first line. Your second and third lines are as misguided as your view on video games, only far more sinister.

Oh, so you play those infantile shoot 'em up video games?

Sorry. My mistake. I shouldn't have bothered discussing this matter with you.

I'd rather do that than put it into practice on real Palestinian civilians, but that seems to be ok in your world.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

I can patronise, name call and insult who I like on here.

We all can. And do.

It's all part of the fun.

It's my opinion that if all Israelis got on planes and boats and left their tiny, sub 0.5% sliver of the middle east to be taken over by other people from the region, then it would quickly become just as violent, warlike, undemocratic, intolerant and politically and economically backward as the rest of the region.

One thing's for sure. The Tel Aviv Gay Pride March would not happen again.

Maybe, but at least 2,000 civilians wouldn't be murdered by a supposedly model of democracy and peace for the region in the last year alone.

Israel is at least partly responsible for the problems, and people like Netanyahu having things under control is a disaster for peace in the region, and innocent people not created in his own image. Hardly the beacon Israel is meant to be, its miles away from being what it should be. Israel's current regime survives off war and creating more of the same problems that afflict the rest of the Middle East. Gay pride marches are nice, but they're nothing compared to the real change Israel needs to introduce.

Israel is not a disaster for peace in the region because there is very little evidence that there'd be peace if Israel ceased to exist or had never existed.

When a vast region is plagued with war, violence, a lack of democracy, religious intolerance, persecution of women and minorities like gays, and is backward in economic terms, I find it very odd and suspicious that the only and tiny part of it which has free speech, a free press, free elections, freedom of religion, equal rights for women and minorities and a good economy comes in for so much criticism from certain people who claim to be interested in fairness, human rights and other noble causes.

Just what is their agenda?

And why don't they get as vocal about Chinese repression in Tibet? Or the persecution of Christians in places like Pakistan?

Even the two major groups representing the Palestinians can barely get on and have engaged in fratricidal conflict. One is largely secular but corrupt to the core and the other are religious fundamentalists. What sort of a state would it be? Not much better than many African ones I'd guess.

However I wouldn't argue against the notion that Israeli attitudes to and actions against the Palestinians are often horrifying. And you can't ignore them just because things are worse in Syria, Iraq, Libya etc. Their actions are often magnified, I suspect, precisely because they are supposed to be an advanced, open and democratic society, rather than a brutal autocracy, in which such behaviour is commonplace.

Me & Skashion disagreed on most things regarding this subject but one thing we did agree on is that it would be far better if Israel allowed & encouraged significant economic development in the West Bank & Gaza as well-off, well-fed people who seem to have a future are less likely to want to destroy you if that would tip them back into despair and poverty.

 

[Damocles]

Even the two major groups representing the Palestinians can barely get on and have engaged in fratricidal conflict. One is largely secular but corrupt to the core and the other are religious fundamentalists. What sort of a state would it be? Not much better than many African ones I'd guess.

Isn't this the barbarian argument used by every single conquering state since the Akkadian and Assyrians?

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Even the two major groups representing the Palestinians can barely get on and have engaged in fratricidal conflict. One is largely secular but corrupt to the core and the other are religious fundamentalists. What sort of a state would it be? Not much better than many African ones I'd guess.

Isn't this the barbarian argument used by every single conquering state since the Akkadian and Assyrians?

It's not an inappropriate one though when talking about a potential state on your borders where one possible group that could end up running it has threatened to wipe you out. But to be fair to Hamas and the PA, there's little point in seeing eye to eye as no matter what they do, nothing is likely to come out of it.