the scourge of persecution, racism, intolerance, genocide and the denial of human rights.
This is beyond dispute. Jews have suffered terribly from persecution and genocide. They have been banned from owning property, from voting, from following many professions, have suffered from viscious pogroms in Europe. They have been reviled in literature, ridiculed by Shakespeare and victimised to a horrific degree.
The suffering of Jews throughout the holocaust is possibly the most callous and disgusting display of inhumanity in human history.
With millions of displaced Jews, homeless and stateless after the second world war it was necessary to find a homeland for the Jews and hence the state of Israel was created in 1948.
Most people would agree that what I have written above is true in an albeit very simplistic way. However, it is precisely because the Jews have suffered so much that I find Israel's actions so incomprehensible.
Israel denies Arabs in Palestine all but the most rudimentary of human rights. There is a huge worldwide diaspora of Palestinians who are stateless. They have no passports and their options in life are extremely limited. Palestinians are treated abysmally in Israel and in many cases they don't fare much better outside Israel because no one else wants them. Sound familiar?
When you have nothing to lose, you can afford to be desperate. If Israel treats them as non citizens with little or no rights it is hardly surprising that some of them will become suicide bombers. Israel's cluster bombing of civilians in Lebanon may not have been illegal under the terms of the Geneva Convention but it was certainly immoral and showed nothing but contempt for innocent human life. It puts Israel on the same immoral level as the suicide bombers.
Jews have been subjected to the evils of hatred, murder and genocide for many hundreds of years and Israel should know better and care more than to perpetuate it as they have done in Lebanon.
the scourge of persecution, racism, intolerance, genocide and the denial of human rights.
This is beyond dispute. Jews have suffered terribly from persecution and genocide. They have been banned from owning property, from voting, from following many professions, have suffered from viscious pogroms in Europe. They have been reviled in literature, ridiculed by Shakespeare and victimised to a horrific degree.
The suffering of Jews throughout the holocaust is possibly the most callous and disgusting display of inhumanity in human history.
With millions of displaced Jews, homeless and stateless after the second world war it was necessary to find a homeland for the Jews and hence the state of Israel was created in 1948.
Most people would agree that what I have written above is true in an albeit very simplistic way. However, it is precisely because the Jews have suffered so much that I find Israel's actions so incomprehensible.
Israel denies Arabs in Palestine all but the most rudimentary of human rights. There is a huge worldwide diaspora of Palestinians who are stateless. They have no passports and their options in life are extremely limited. Palestinians are treated abysmally in Israel and in many cases they don't fare much better outside Israel because no one else wants them. Sound familiar?
When you have nothing to lose, you can afford to be desperate. If Israel treats them as non citizens with little or no rights it is hardly surprising that some of them will become suicide bombers. Israel's cluster bombing of civilians in Lebanon may not have been illegal under the terms of the Geneva Convention but it was certainly immoral and showed nothing but contempt for innocent human life. It puts Israel on the same immoral level as the suicide bombers.
Jews have been subjected to the evils of hatred, murder and genocide for many hundreds of years and Israel should know better and care more than to perpetuate it as they have done in Lebanon.