Option Trader:
I suggest that you read the article below (from an Israeli, a jewish person, an ex-IDF, someone who fought in Israel's wars, a top scholar at a top university).
He reached the conclusion below, which may not be easy for those still on the side of Israel in this war to swallow. It is hard to accept conclusions such as Israel has made itself a rogue state.
We can resume the discussion after you read it.
I also want to say that I sense in you a contributor who is above the cut of the typical supporters of what Israel did recently. So, I want to say that while we can disagree, I feel that you may be someone with whom one can conduct an intellectual debate, free of insults and the like.
"This brief review of Israel's record over the past four decades makes it difficult to resist the conclusion that it has become a rogue state with "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". A rogue state habitually violates international law, possesses weapons of mass destruction and practises terrorism - the use of violence against civilians for political purposes. Israel fulfils all of these three criteria; the cap fits and it must wear it. Israel's real aim is not peaceful coexistence with its Palestinian neighbours but military domination. It keeps compounding the mistakes of the past with new and more disastrous ones. Politicians, like everyone else, are of course free to repeat the lies and mistakes of the past. But it is not mandatory to do so."
Author is Avi Shlaim is a professor of international relations at the University of Oxford and the author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World and of Lion of Jordan: King Hussein's Life in War and Peace.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/07/gaza-israel-palestine
I suggest that you read the article below (from an Israeli, a jewish person, an ex-IDF, someone who fought in Israel's wars, a top scholar at a top university).
He reached the conclusion below, which may not be easy for those still on the side of Israel in this war to swallow. It is hard to accept conclusions such as Israel has made itself a rogue state.
We can resume the discussion after you read it.
I also want to say that I sense in you a contributor who is above the cut of the typical supporters of what Israel did recently. So, I want to say that while we can disagree, I feel that you may be someone with whom one can conduct an intellectual debate, free of insults and the like.
"This brief review of Israel's record over the past four decades makes it difficult to resist the conclusion that it has become a rogue state with "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". A rogue state habitually violates international law, possesses weapons of mass destruction and practises terrorism - the use of violence against civilians for political purposes. Israel fulfils all of these three criteria; the cap fits and it must wear it. Israel's real aim is not peaceful coexistence with its Palestinian neighbours but military domination. It keeps compounding the mistakes of the past with new and more disastrous ones. Politicians, like everyone else, are of course free to repeat the lies and mistakes of the past. But it is not mandatory to do so."
Author is Avi Shlaim is a professor of international relations at the University of Oxford and the author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World and of Lion of Jordan: King Hussein's Life in War and Peace.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/07/gaza-israel-palestine
