I'll refute some of the easier ones, or take them to their logical conclusions:
quote:
1. Israel became a nation in 1312 B.C.E., two thousand years before the rise of Islam.
Used as justification for Israel existing. I presume you are also advocating giving North America back to the Native Americans with Mexico back to the Aztecs. Do you agree that Robert Mugabe should be treating whites as inferior citizens in Zimbabwe because they came afterwards?
quote:
2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel.
even if this were true, what exactly does this prove?
Although, while we're on a name-game:
quote:
3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 B.C.E., the Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years.
...that would be
Arab Jews, wouldn't it?
5,6,7 None give justification for a modern Jewish state, any more than the existence of Gisa gives justification for a Pharoanic Egyptian state.
quote:
8. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem.
This is the most bizarre. I don't know where you've copied and pasted this from but this is just plain wrong and your credibility plummets.
Muslims pray towards Mecca. So, take a look at an atlas and draw a line from Jerusalem to Mecca and continue that line along. Once to get past Mecca, every Muslim on that line prays
towards Jerusalem.
Now I'm thinking, give you the benefit of the doubt, maybe you mean that Muslims
in Jerusalem pray with their backs towards Jerusalem. Still wrong, unless you define the centre of Jerusalem to be the point in Jerusalem which is furthest away from Mecca, which is nonsensical.
quote:
9. Arab and Jewish refugees - In 1948 the Arab refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. Sixty eight percent left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier.
This is made up. Like point 8.
quote:
10. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms.
Which is half the story.....you haven't mentioned the Irgun, the Stern gang or the terrorist bombing of the King David hotel.
How is 11 relevant (if true)?
quote:
12. Arab refugees were INTENTIONALLY not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own peoples' lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey.
Because you should never give in to terrorism? Their' own people's lands?? Most of the Israeli jews were European, fleeing after the Holocaust.
That's the points refuted or dismissed as irrelevancies. Now I'm not in favour of the destruction of Israel, or the extermination of Jews as I'm sure you're about to present me as. I'm against the sanctioning of massacres of 1500+ innocents which happened in Sabra and Chatila (and for which Ariel Sharon was found culpable by an Isrraeli commission) and the continued mass killings and heavy handed tactics used against Palestinian civilians which garner worldwide condemnation.
Israel is in breach of more UN resolutions than any other country (including Iraq) - you know that killing innocent civilains is especially wrong when its carried out in the name of a state. Suicide bombing is also wrong, but carried out by wacko extremists who are now moving into the mainstream
as a direct result of Israel's heavy handed policies. Israel has a military machine at its disposal and uses it as an organ of terror - whether the Palestinians attacked first or not is irrelevant in this context. Its men v boys, so to speak.
The best solution IMO is a two state solution, with the Palestinains being granted a
contiguous area of land and Israel promised its security. All this takes is the political will (most people internationally would support this idea).
Its a sad reflection on the world when you have to resort to flag waving to justify the killing of inncent men, women and children.
PE
[This message has been edited by Primordial Egg, 01-27-2003]
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