RE: The Israel question.
December 27, 2011 at 2:48 pm
(This post was last modified: December 27, 2011 at 3:05 pm by helmespc.)
(December 27, 2011 at 10:32 am)5thHorseman Wrote: I would like to understand a bit more about Israel from the perspective of Americans. It seems to be a question everytime an election is coming around 'what's your stance on Israel?' Albeit it seems more of a Republican question.
Why does America care so much about Israel? Is it strategic positioning? Sympathy/empathy? Friend in the Middle East?
Why do people like Newt Gingrich hate Palestine? Can they not see that Israel insane right wing Zionists are themselves a major problem?
I used to be a supporter of Israel but have come to dislike its politics and aparteid style treatment of Palestinians, who although they don't do themselves any favours by voting in terrorists like Hamas, do not deserve to be treated like prisoners in their own land.
Why the love for a country that is oppresive to millions of Palestinians?
I'd like to know your views.
I think there's a wide discrepancy between what the US government thinks about Israel and what the US people think. Don't look at people like Newt Gingrich as a representation of what anyone in the US thinks. Politicians here tend to be very out of touch with the general public, as they are everywhere.
The reason why the government likes Israel is that it is a "friendly" presence in an otherwise hostile area of the world. The US, also has the largest jewish population in the world, outside of Israel itself. On top of that, there's a sense of governmental empathy toward the jewish population, still, from the whole genocide thing.
As far as the US population, there's just as many opinions as there are people. Me personally, I tend to agree that it was probably a bad idea to establish a state in an already volatile area of the world. It is more frustrating that there is so much conflict over a piece of land, and that conflict is 100% driven by religious and "racial" intolerance. It is all so avoidable by taking religion out of the picture. That being said, to me, the jews always seem like the lesser of two evils in that region, as the jewish religion has a reputation as being uninterested in making everyone a part of their religion and killing you if you're not.
