Amazing Israel!

[Holy Warrior Monk]

Israel, the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population, can make claim to the following:

Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world.

Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin - 109 per 10,000 people - as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.

In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world, except the US (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).

Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds right behind the US.

Outside the United States and Canada, Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies.

Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East. The per capita income in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the UK.

With an aerial arsenal of over 250 F-16s, Israel has the largest fleet of the aircraft outside of the US.

Israel's $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined.

On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotech start-ups.

Twenty-four percent of Israel's workforce holds university degrees -ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland - and 12 percent hold advanced degrees.

Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East.

In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews at risk in Ethiopia to safety in Israel.

When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she became the world's second elected female leader in modern times.

When the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day - and saved three victims from the rubble.

Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship - and the highest rate among women and among people over 55 - in the world.

Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity.

According to industry officials, Israel designed the airline industry's most impenetrable flight security. U.S. officials now look to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats.

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers was produced by Haim Saban, an Israeli whose family fled persecution in Egypt.

In 1991, during the Gulf War, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra played a concert wearing gas masks as scud missiles fired by Saddam Hussein fell on Tel Aviv.

Israel has the world's second highest per capita of new books.

Medicine:
Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.

An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment. Every year in U.S. hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatment mistakes.

Israel's Givun imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine from the inside, the camera helps doctors diagnose cancer and digestive disorders.

Researchers in Israel developed a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save lives among those with congestive heart failure. The new device is synchronized with the heart's mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.

Technology:
With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and start-ups, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world (apart from the Silicon Valley).

In response to serious water shortages, Israeli engineers and agriculturalists developed a revolutionary drip irrigation system to minimize the amount of water used to grow crops.

Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.

Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U.S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of its work force employed in technical professions. Israel places first in this category as well.

The cell phone was developed in Israel by Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.

Most of the Windows NT operating system was developed by Microsoft-Israel.
The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel.

Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.

Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.
An Israeli company was the first to develop and install a large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity generating plant, in southern California's Mojave desert.

The first PC anti-virus software was developed in Israel in 1979.


ISRAEL HAS BEEN ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH THIS WHILE BEING SURROUNDED BY ENEMIES THAT WANT NOTHING MORE THAN TO WIPE IT OUT. IMAGINE THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF ISRAEL IF IT WAS JUST LEFT IN PEACE!!!!!!

 

[Paladin Dave]

Cool. That is one heck of a country. By the way, was the power rangers part supposed to be a good thing from Isreal or a bad thing?

 

[kurabrhm]

Israel, the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population, can make claim to the following:

Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world.

Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin - 109 per 10,000 people - as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.

In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world, except the US (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).

Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds right behind the US.

Outside the United States and Canada, Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies.

Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East. The per capita income in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the UK.

With an aerial arsenal of over 250 F-16s, Israel has the largest fleet of the aircraft outside of the US.

Israel's $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined.

On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotech start-ups.

Twenty-four percent of Israel's workforce holds university degrees -ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland - and 12 percent hold advanced degrees.

Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East.

In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews at risk in Ethiopia to safety in Israel.

When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she became the world's second elected female leader in modern times.

When the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day - and saved three victims from the rubble.

Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship - and the highest rate among women and among people over 55 - in the world.

Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity.

According to industry officials, Israel designed the airline industry's most impenetrable flight security. U.S. officials now look to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats.

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers was produced by Haim Saban, an Israeli whose family fled persecution in Egypt.

In 1991, during the Gulf War, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra played a concert wearing gas masks as scud missiles fired by Saddam Hussein fell on Tel Aviv.

Israel has the world's second highest per capita of new books.

Medicine:
Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.

An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment. Every year in U.S. hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatment mistakes.

Israel's Givun imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine from the inside, the camera helps doctors diagnose cancer and digestive disorders.

Researchers in Israel developed a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save lives among those with congestive heart failure. The new device is synchronized with the heart's mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.

Technology:
With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and start-ups, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world (apart from the Silicon Valley).

In response to serious water shortages, Israeli engineers and agriculturalists developed a revolutionary drip irrigation system to minimize the amount of water used to grow crops.

Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.

Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U.S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of its work force employed in technical professions. Israel places first in this category as well.

The cell phone was developed in Israel by Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.

Most of the Windows NT operating system was developed by Microsoft-Israel.
The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel.

Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.

Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.
An Israeli company was the first to develop and install a large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity generating plant, in southern California's Mojave desert.

The first PC anti-virus software was developed in Israel in 1979.


ISRAEL HAS BEEN ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH THIS WHILE BEING SURROUNDED BY ENEMIES THAT WANT NOTHING MORE THAN TO WIPE IT OUT. IMAGINE THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF ISRAEL IF IT WAS JUST LEFT IN PEACE!!!!!!

I can hear distant rumbles of shouts saying, "Pro israeli, pro israeli!!!"

 

[Paladin Dave]

You talk as if that were a bad thing.

 

[kurabrhm]

You talk as if that were a bad thing.

Being pro anything is not necessarily a bad thing. Being Pro Israeli is not, in basic principle, a bad thing if you really believe that Israel deserves your sympathy and your support.

 

[jgarden]

..........ISRAEL HAS BEEN ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH THIS WHILE BEING SURROUNDED BY ENEMIES THAT WANT NOTHING MORE THAN TO WIPE IT OUT. IMAGINE THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF ISRAEL IF IT WAS JUST LEFT IN PEACE!!!!!!

"In 1946, under his (Menachem Began) leadership, the Irgun blew up a wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, where the British were headquartered. Some 90 people- Jews and Arabs, as well as British- were killed, despite warnings that there would be a bombing.

Begin’s picture, that of a wanted terrorist, was posted in all British prisons and offices in Palestine. The British conducted an extensive manhunt for Begin, who had a price on his head that began at $8,000 but was raised to %50,000. Begin escaped the British dragnet by disguising himself as a bearded Orthodox rabbi." (www.ou org/chagim/yomhaatzmauth/begin)

The term "terrorist" and "respected leader" are both relative terms, and can be used to describe one and the same person. A condemned Jewish "terrorist" in the 1940's who planned the deaths of 90 people, eventually becomes a hero, the 6th prime minister of Israel and a recognized world figure.

In reality. Began and today's Palestinian "terrorists" are 2 sides of the same coin. What drove Begin to commit and justify "terrorist" acts in the 1940's, is no different than what motivates Palestinian "terrorists" to adopt the same tactics in 2004. The only difference is that the "winners" (Israelies) gain respectability and get to rewrite history, while the "losers" (Palestinians) remain terrorists.

 

[angelocrator]

ISRAEL HAS BEEN ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH THIS WHILE BEING SURROUNDED BY ENEMIES THAT WANT NOTHING MORE THAN TO WIPE IT OUT. IMAGINE THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF ISRAEL IF IT WAS JUST LEFT IN PEACE!!!!!!

I have noticed that many people who are pro Israel are very reluctant to point out that nothing would have ever been achived in Israel without massive international help.

 

[Holy Warrior Monk]

I'm not reluctant to acknowledge that at all. It's a matter of historical record. It still does not diminish their accomplishments.

 

[Nicaea 325]

All becuase Isreal is bank rolled by The USA.

 

[Holy Warrior Monk]

All becuase Isreal is bank rolled by The USA.

Not true.

 

[Koba The Dread]

How odd, you forgot to mention a few things. Let me....

Firstly, I believe Israel is the only state in existense that has violated every article of the Geneva convention.

Hardly a day goes by without the Israelis killing innocent Palestinian men, women, and children. Somehow Israel cannot commit any type of crime, so long as it is done by Israel it's automatically justified.

A link for you, it contains news reports detaling hundreds of Israeli atrocities........ http://www.nogw.com/israeliatrocities.html

Also, look at the history of U.N. resolutions against Israel.

I will say more later.....

 

[ACougar]

I personally would definately include Israel in my Axis of Evil.

How odd, you forgot to mention a few things. Let me....

Firstly, I believe Israel is the only state in existense that has violated every article of the Geneva convention.

Hardly a day goes by without the Israelis killing innocent Palestinian men, women, and children. Somehow Israel cannot commit any type of crime, so long as it is done by Israel it's automatically justified.

A link for you, it contains news reports detaling hundreds of Israeli atrocities........ http://www.nogw.com/israeliatrocities.html

Also, look at the history of U.N. resolutions against Israel.

I will say more later.....

 

[ShadowAspect]

I personally would definately include Israel in my Axis of Evil.

I'll second that.
The more I learn about Israel, the more sickened and ashamed I become... Zionists are a disgrace to mankind and shame us all. And the fact we let them get away with it shames us all. They never miss an opportunity to remind us the injustice that the Jewish race has faced over the years, all the while committing despicable crimes against a minority who's identity they refuse to even acknowledge. Committing ethic cleansing while claiming to be the victims with carefully crafted lies. It just doesn't get any lower than this.

You have to wonder what the Palestinians could have achieved with the same level of aid, investment, guaranteed loans, preferential deals and tariff free trade? and of course if the Zionists hadn't stolen their land..

It's estimated that Israel has cost America between $1.6 and $3 trillion, what did they do to deserve that? Monk's list just goes to show that crime pays. Until justice is done, there will never be peace in the middle east.

 

[Koba The Dread]

According to the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE), from 1949-2001 the U.S. has given Israel a total of $94,966,300,000.

http://www.sustaincampaign.org/about_usaidtoisrael.html
STOP US TAX_FUNDED AID TO ISRAEL NOW



The following article provides a short introduction to the issues involved in the U.S. Relationship with Israel and the Occupied Territories.

U.S. Aid - Lifeblood of the Occupation,


by Matt Bowles (SUSTAIN)

Israel has maintained an illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip (Palestinian territories) for 35 years, entrenching an apartheid regime that looks remarkably like the former South African regime Palestinians into small, noncontiguous bantustans, imposing closures and curfews to control where they go and when, while maintaining control over the natural resources, exploiting Palestinian labor, and prohibiting indigenous economic development.


​

The Israeli military (IDF) --the third or forth most powerful army in the world-- routinely uses tanks, Apache helicopter gunships, and F-16 fighter jets (all subsidized by the U.S.) against a population that has no military and none of the protective institutions of a modern state.​

All of this, Israel tells its citizens and the international community, is for "Israeli security." The reality, not surprisingly, is that these policies have resulted in a drastic increase in attacks on Israel. These attacks are then used as a pretext for further Israeli incursions into Palestinian areas and more violations of Palestinian human rights which makes Israeli civilians more secure; all of which further entrenches Israel¹s colonial apartheid regime. Most Americans do not realize the extent to which this is all funded by U.S. aid, nor do they understand the specific economic relationship the U.S. has with Israel and how that differs from other countries. ​

The Aid Pipeline​

There are at least three ways in which aid to Israel is different from that of any other country. First, since 1982, U.S. aid to Israel has been transferred in one lump sum at the beginning of each fiscal year, which immediately begins to collect interest in U.S. banks. Aid that goes to other countries is disbursed throughout the year in quarterly installments.​

Second, Israel is not required to account for specific purchases. Most countries receive aid for very specific purposes and must account for how it is spent. Israel is allowed to place US aid into its general fund, effectively eliminating any distinctions between types of aid. Therefore, U.S. tax-payers are helping to fund an illegal occupation, the expansion of colonial-settlement projects, and gross human rights violations against the Palestinian civilian population.​

A third difference is the sheer amount of aid the U.S. gives to Israel, unparalleled in the history of U.S. foreign policy. Israel usually receives roughly one third of the entire foreign aid budget, despite the fact that Israel comprises less than .001 of the world¹s population and already has one of the world's higher per capita incomes. In other words, Israel, a country of approximately 6 million people, is currently receiving more U.S. aid than all of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean combined when you take out Egypt and Colombia.​

This year, the U.S. Congress approved $2.76 billion in its annual aid package for Israel. The total amount of direct U.S. aid to Israel has been constant, at around $3 billion (usually 60% military and 40% economic) per year for the last quarter century. A new plan was recently implemented to phase out all economic aid and provide corresponding increases in military aid by 2008. This year Israel is receiving $2.04 billion in military aid and $720 million in economic aid there is only military aid.​

In addition to nearly $3 billion in direct aid, Israel usually gets another $3 billion or so in indirect aid: military support from the defense budget, forgiven loans, and special grants. While some of the indirect aid is difficult to measure precisely, it is safe to say that Israel¹s total aid (direct and indirect) amounts to at least five billion dollars annually.​

On top of all of this aid, a team from Israel¹s finance ministry is slated to meet with U.S. government officials this month about an additional $800 million aid package which the Clinton administration promised Israel (and the Bush administration later froze) as compensation for the costs of its withdrawal from Lebanon. The U.S. also managed to find another $28 million in the 2001 Pentagon budget to give Israel to purchase "counter terrorism equipment." ​

According to the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE), from 1949-2001 the U.S. has given Israel a total of $94,966,300,000. The direct and indirect aid from this year should put the total U.S. aid to Israel since 1949 at over one hundred billion dollars. What is not widely known, however, is that most of this aid violates American laws. The Arms Export Control Act stipulates that US-supplied weapons be used only for "legitimate self-defense." ​

Moreover, the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act prohibits military assistance to any country "which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights." The Proxmire amendment bans military assistance to any government that refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to allow inspection of its nuclear facilities, which Israel refuses to do. To understand why the U.S. spends this much money funding the brutal repression of a colonized people, it is necessary to examine the benefits for weapons manufacturers and, particularly, the role that Israel plays in the expansion and maintenance of U.S. imperialism.​

A Very Special Relationship​

In the fall of 1993, when many were supporting what they hoped would become a viable peace process, 78 senators wrote to former President Bill Clinton insisting that aid to Israel remain at current levels. Their reasons were the "massive procurement of sophisticated arms by Arab states." Yet the letter neglected to mention that 80% percent of those arms to Arab countries came from the U.S. itself.​

Stephen Zunes has argued that the Aerospace Industry Association (AIA), which promotes these massive arms shipments, is even more influential in determining U.S. policy towards Israel than the notorious AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) lobby. AIA has given two times more money to campaigns than all of the pro-Israel groups combined. Zunes asserts that the general thrust of U.S. policy would be pretty much the same even if AIPAC didn't exist: "We didn't need a pro-Indonesia lobby to support Indonesia in its savage repression of East Timor all these years."​

The "special relationship" between the U.S. and Israel must be understood within the overall American imperialist project and the quest for global hegemony, beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s. For example, 99% of all U.S. aid to Israel came after 1967, despite the fact that Israel was relatively more vulnerable in earlier years (from 1948-1967). Not coincidentally, it was in 1967 that Israel won the Six Day War against several Arab countries, establishing itself as a regional superpower. Also, in the late 1960s and particularly in the early 1970s (this was around the time of the Nixon Doctrine), the U.S. was looking to establish "spheres of influence"-regional superpowers in each significant area of the world to help the U.S. police them.​

The primary U.S. interest in the Middle East is, and has always been, to maintain control of the oil in the region, primarily because this is the source of energy that supplies the industrial economies of Europe and Japan. The U.S. goal has been to insure that there is no indigenous threat to their domination of these energy resources. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the U.S. made the strategic decision to ally itself with Israel and Iran, which were referred to as "our two eyes in the middle east" and the "guardians of the gulf." It was at this point that aid increased drastically, from $24 million in 1967 (before the war), to $634 million in 1971, to a staggering $2.6 billion in 1974, where it has remained relatively consistent ever since. ​

Israel was to be a military stronghold, a client state, and a proxy army, protecting U.S. interests in the Middle East and throughout the world. Subsidized by the CIA, Israel served U.S. interests well beyond the immediate region, setting up dependable client regimes (usually military-based dictatorships) to control local societies. Noam Chomsky has documented this extensively: Israel was the main force that established the Mobutu dictatorship in Zaire, for example. They also supported Idi Amin in Uganda, early on, as well as Haile Selasse in Ethopia, and Emperor Bokassa in the Central African Republic.​

Israel became especially useful when the U.S. came under popular human rights pressure in the 1970s to stop supporting death squads and dictatorships in Latin America. The U.S. began to use Israel as a surrogate to continue its support. Chomsky documents how Israel established close relations with the neo-Nazi and military regimes of Argentina and Chile. Israel also supported genocidal attacks on the indigenous population of Guatemala, and sent arms to El Salvador and Honduras to support the contras. This was all a secondary role, however. ​

The primary role for Israel was to be the Sparta of the Middle East. During the Cold War, the U.S. especially needed Israel as a proxy army because direct intervention in the region was too dangerous, as the Soviets were allied with neighboring states. Over the last thirty years, the U.S. has pursued a two-track approach to dominating the region and its resources: It has turned Israel into a military outpost (now probably the most militarized society in the world) that is economically dependent on the U.S. while propping up corrupt Arab dictatorships such as those in Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. These regimes are afraid of their own people and, thus, are very insecure. Therefore, they are inclined to collaborate with the U.S. at any cost. ​

Prospects for Activism​

Since the end of the Cold War, the nuclear threat associated with direct intervention in the Middle East has disappeared and the U.S. has started a gradual and direct militarization of the region. This began with the Gulf War—putting U.S. military bases in Saudi Arabia (the primary source of oil), among other places—and has continued through the current ‘war on terrorism.’ ​

More...​

http://www.sustaincampaign.org/about_usaidtoisrael.html​

​

 

[Tours732]

How odd, you forgot to mention a few things. Let me....

Firstly, I believe Israel is the only state in existense that has violated every article of the Geneva convention.

Hardly a day goes by without the Israelis killing innocent Palestinian men, women, and children. Somehow Israel cannot commit any type of crime, so long as it is done by Israel it's automatically justified.

A link for you, it contains news reports detaling hundreds of Israeli atrocities........ http://www.nogw.com/israeliatrocities.html

Also, look at the history of U.N. resolutions against Israel.

I will say more later.....

Israel has a lot to answer for, no doubt. One thing though, when a person has a pic of STALIN as their avatar, any condemnations that they make on behalf of humanity tend to ring pretty hollow.

 

[lunachick]

<insert OP here>

Holy Warrior Monk, do you realise how hypocritical your OP is to your libertarianism?

You despise welfare and anything that smacks of socialism. You hate taxes and see tax as theft. I won't get into the Palestine/Israel debate here, because it's not relevant to the point I want to make, but you do realise that Israel is a capitalist country that has a very strong socialist bent, don't you? They also still get a considerable amount of money from Germany, and an enormous amount of money from the US. I'm amazed that you don't see this as welfare, and condemn it. Israelis pay quite a bit in tax themselves to support their socialist infrastructure, draw welfare from other nations, and give out a lot in social welfare to Israelis. And as far as I know, some agriculture and industry is assisted through subsidies and tarrifs. Yet here you are, Mr. Libertarian, trumpeting Israel as a great country with an educated population an' all, and yet it's based on an economic and social system you despise. Weird.

 

[ACougar]

I think some people would support Israel even if an IDF bulldozer was taking out thier home because a relative was accused of commiting a terrorist act. They would support Israel even if they lost a child to a "stray" IDF bullet. They would support Israel even if lying on the side of the road bleeding, the IDF wouldn't allow an ambulance to get to them and carry them to a Hospital. Thier religious zelotry prevents them from doing anything despite supporting Israel.

Holy Warrior Monk, do you realise how hypocritical your OP is to your libertarianism?

You despise welfare and anything that smacks of socialism. You hate taxes and see tax as theft. I won't get into the Palestine/Israel debate here, because it's not relevant to the point I want to make, but you do realise that Israel is a capitalist country that has a very strong socialist bent, don't you? They also still get a considerable amount of money from Germany, and an enormous amount of money from the US. I'm amazed that you don't see this as welfare, and condemn it. Israelis pay quite a bit in tax themselves to support their socialist infrastructure, draw welfare from other nations, and give out a lot in social welfare to Israelis. And as far as I know, some agriculture and industry is assisted through subsidies and tarrifs. Yet here you are, Mr. Libertarian, trumpeting Israel as a great country with an educated population an' all, and yet it's based on an economic and social system you despise. Weird.

 

[Nicaea 325]

Israel has managed to violate or plainly ignore more UN resolutions then any other country.

Israel has a human rights recoprd equal to that of Saudi Arabia.

Israelis's know that the prophesies Christian Zionists quote are often about in case they stop being sent lots of money.

It's about money. Israel is a rich country and Arafat's palaces didn't fall out of the sky. Both sides have people making money out of misery.

 

[ShadowAspect]

Iv'e been an activist for quite a number of years now and so I know... that 5 years ago, anybody exprssing an anti-zionist or pro-Palestinian opinion would have been spat on and stompted on in most forums on the internet (let alone once full of christian Americans).
The fact that there has been so many people expressing negative veiws of Israel can only be described as 'progress'. It's not much, but it's a start... there may be hope for the world yet!

 

[BobbieDog]

Iv'e been an activist for quite a number of years now and so I know... that 5 years ago, anybody exprssing an anti-zionist or pro-Palestinian opinion would have been spat on and stompted on in most forums on the internet (let alone once full of christian Americans).
The fact that there has been so many people expressing negative veiws of Israel can only be described as 'progress'. It's not much, but it's a start... there may be hope for the world yet!

Negative views of Zionism, rather than Israel. Genuine Israeli/Palestinian cooperation still remains the best option for everyone. That this requires Israel in many ways to go back to before much they have created as facts on the ground since 1947: will be very hard fro all; and to hard for some.
Reconciliation that sees some kind of bicameral, twin-culture, federated one state, federated two state resolution: is the prize for overcoming Zionism's blind intransigence.