Sympathy to Israel?

[garric]

Why is there so much sympathy towards Israel? Something I could never understand. They essentially took over a portion of the middle East, knowing full well that this would cause severe tensions. I am not surprized that the Muslims want the Jews out. That being said, people seem to forget that Israel is too a Theocracy. I find it funny when people condemn Iran and other middle Eastern countries for being Islamic theocracies, yet, Israel is also theocratic, just Jewish instead.

 

[newfangle]

Israel is not a theocracy. Now that that's out of the way...

Simply put, Israel embraces many of the cornerstones of modern Western democracies. Is it really a mystery that Westerners are sympathetic?

 

[Tenochtitlan]

The US government needs Israel, strategically, because of its location. America needs a base in the middle of Middle-east and therefore they influence the media to make most Americans sympathize with Israel.

 

[El_Machinae]

I've heard other people with different reasons as to why we support Israel. It starts with sympathy for WWII, and because Christians tend to look at Jews as 'little brothers'.

Doesn't the Bible say something about the "new Israel"?

 

[bhsup]

New Jeruselum, actually, if I remember Revelation correctly here at work without reference. Also a New Earth.

 

[garric]

I can understand why western democracies would support it, since it's one of the few nations friendly to them in the Middle East, however, it gets a lot of sympathy from the average person on the street without a political motive, be it liberal or conservative, both support them.

 

[El_Machinae]

I think that's because we've been supporting them for so long. Kinda 'rooting for the Underdog', maybe.

 

[atreas]

I've heard other people with different reasons as to why we support Israel. It starts with sympathy for WWII, and because Christians tend to look at Jews as 'little brothers'.

Doesn't the Bible say something about the "new Israel"?

For many centuries Christians used the Bible as an excuse to kill Jews ("they crucified Jesus"). Now they use it as an excuse to help them kill others. I can understand both (albeit agree with none), but wouldn't it be more fair to leave the Bible outside? We can very well do our killings even without it.

 

[shadow2k]

Why is there so much sympathy towards Israel? Something I could never understand. They essentially took over a portion of the middle East, knowing full well that this would cause severe tensions. I am not surprized that the Muslims want the Jews out. That being said, people seem to forget that Israel is too a Theocracy. I find it funny when people condemn Iran and other middle Eastern countries for being Islamic theocracies, yet, Israel is also theocratic, just Jewish instead.

Israel is a parliamentary democracy.

Any resentment about the Jews "taking over" a portion of the middle east is understandable. But you must remember that someone took that land from the Jews as well. Of course they want their land back...just as the Jews did.

 

[Tenochtitlan]

I think that's because we've been supporting them for so long. Kinda 'rooting for the Underdog', maybe.

Only they're not the underdog

Also, I believe the media here demonise the Palestinians and paint Israel as the good. Most people don't know that it is not a matter of good or evil.

 

[Enkidu Warrior]

There are many reasons:

1) Their enemies have worse press than they do.

2) They are a parliamentary democracy (certainly not theocratic - in fact they have one of the best democratic systems in the world). This does kind of ignore that the Palestinians are also democratic though.

3) The creation of Israel is seen as "compensation" for the holocaust. Quite why the Palestinians deserved to be the ones making the sacrifice I don't know.

4) Bombing, shelling, shooting, bulldozing and otherwise killing innocent civilians by modern military means is less morally tarnishing than suicide bombing. Why? I don't know. Maybe being poor is bad.

5) Christian fundamentalist weirdos think that Israels existence is a good thing because of some crazy reason or other.

 

[Phlegmak]

Why is there so much sympathy towards Israel? Something I could never understand. They essentially took over a portion of the middle East, knowing full well that this would cause severe tensions. I am not surprized that the Muslims want the Jews out. That being said, people seem to forget that Israel is too a Theocracy. I find it funny when people condemn Iran and other middle Eastern countries for being Islamic theocracies, yet, Israel is also theocratic, just Jewish instead.

Most people on this forum are not sympathetic to Israel at all.

Israel isn't a theocracy. That's like saying the US is a theocracy (it's sure heading that way, but it's still not a theocracy).

Muslims are essentially waging a crusade against the Jews to take back the holy land. This time the holy land is just called Palestine.

One thing I've read in the past is that before the creation of Israel, Palestinians weren't particularly popular in the Muslim Middle Eastern world.

 

[garric]

Most people on this forum are not sympathetic to Israel at all.

Israel isn't a theocracy. That's like saying the US is a theocracy (it's sure heading that way, but it's still not a theocracy).

Muslims are essentially waging a crusade against the Jews to take back the holy land. This time the holy land is just called Palestine.

One thing I've read in the past is that before the creation of Israel, Palestinians weren't particularly popular in the Muslim Middle Eastern world.

Israel isn't a theocracy? Perhaps not in the traditional sense, but it's an offical Jewish state, a Jewish run government. No western nation can even begin to make such a claim. It is a subtle theocracy.

 

[Neonanocyborgasm]

Why is there so much sympathy towards Israel? Something I could never understand. They essentially took over a portion of the middle East, knowing full well that this would cause severe tensions. I am not surprized that the Muslims want the Jews out. That being said, people seem to forget that Israel is too a Theocracy. I find it funny when people condemn Iran and other middle Eastern countries for being Islamic theocracies, yet, Israel is also theocratic, just Jewish instead.

The fact that you believe Israel is a Jewish theocracy demonstrates your ignorance. In fact, Israel is one of the few wholly secular countries in the Middle East.

The reason people sympathize wish Israel is because it's the underdog. It's been invaded several times in its history by supposedly more powerful neighbors, yet fought them off and even gained territory as a result. It has had to endure terrorist attacks on its civilians for decades and yet still stands tough. Israel didn't exactly take over territory. It appealed to the UN, which granted a mandate that the neighboring countries refused to acknowledge. The fact that the UN now chides Israel more often than it does the terrorists is an amazing irony.

 

[luiz]

1-Israel is a democratic nation surrounded by enemy dictatorships.

2-Israel is ready to recognise an independent palestinian state and live side by side with it; the palestinians elected a terrorist government that wants to wipe Israel from the map.

That's enough for me.

Anyone who says that the isrealis do not want peace or as guilty as the PA for the current conflict don't know what they're talking about. Look at Ehud Barak's offer.

 

[warpus]

Any resentment about the Jews "taking over" a portion of the middle east is understandable. But you must remember that someone took that land from the Jews as well. Of course they want their land back...just as the Jews did.

That sort of thinking can only lead to more violence.

The problem here is that the land has religious significance to more than one religion. There will be conflict there for as long as the land is considered "holy".

 

[Fox Mccloud]

The Israelis lived there like mileniums before the Arabs came. All they want is that little piece of land back.

 

[Warman17]

Israel isn't a theocracy? Perhaps not in the traditional sense, but it's an offical Jewish state, a Jewish run government. No western nation can even begin to make such a claim. It is a subtle theocracy.

1/12 of the Knesset (Jewish Parliment) is arabic parties. Yes the nation of Israel has been set up as a Jewish state, but only 1/8 of the Knesset is a religious party. (there are 2). The current coalition that controls the government holds no religious party in it.

The problem is when you compare say Judaism to Christianity or Islam, Judaism is not a religion of forceful conversion unlike the other two. it is one of the smallest religions in the world with just 18 million followers. They have been persecuted throughout the ages. Israel was founded to ensure the survival of the Jewish people after the Holocaust.

 

[garric]

1/12 of the Knesset (Jewish Parliment) is arabic parties. Yes the nation of Israel has been set up as a Jewish state, but only 1/8 of the Knesset is a religious party. (there are 2). The current coalition that controls the government holds no religious party in it.

The problem is when you compare say Judaism to Christianity or Islam, Judaism is not a religion of forceful conversion unlike the other two. it is one of the smallest religions in the world with just 18 million followers. They have been persecuted throughout the ages. Israel was founded to ensure the survival of the Jewish people after the Holocaust.

Does that give them an excuse to do what they are doing right now?

You know what playing a race card is? It's when you bring up race to your advantage when you shouldn't. Like, a black person doesn't get hired, so he plays the race card saying he was discriminated against, even though he wasn't.

That's what I'm feeling Jews are doing. Playing the Holocaust card, instead, to justify things they do.

1-Israel is a democratic nation surrounded by enemy dictatorships.

2-Israel is ready to recognise an independent palestinian state and live side by side with it; the palestinians elected a terrorist government that wants to wipe Israel from the map.

1 - Hamas was democratically elected.
2 - Is that why they commited all these crimes against them?

 

[Marla_Singer]

There are many wrong ideas expressed in this thread.

Firstly, it's completely crap to imagine that Israel and the United States are friendly towards each others since World War 2. During the 50's and 60's, the US were really cautious towards Israel. We were in the middle of the cold war and also in the middle of the decolonization. The USSR and the USA were struggling to strengthen their "influence" on newly independent nations.

The traditional friends of the US were Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia. None of those countries were especially happy about the creation of Israel. Israel was clearly against the US interests, and the relations between the US and Israel have been cold from 1945 to the 1970's.

Another reason why the US were deeply suspicious towards Israel was that that small country wanted to devellop the nuclear weapon... something they did in the 60's with the help of France (both countries indeed collaborated on their nuclear weapon developments). The Suez crisis shows very clearly that in that period of time, the best ally of Israel were France and Britain, not the US.

Things have changed progressively. Firstly, the US public opinion has been very shocked by the Munich massacre. Afterwards, PLO became stronger with very lefty leanings. During the war in Lebanon, tensions have started to emerge between France and Israel, relations between both states becoming colder. It's at that period of time, in the 80's, that the US became the first ally of Israel. Not before.