Quote from: DigitalBuddha on October 22, 2012, 01:35:11 PM

Like the US, Israel is not perfect.

You might just as well say 'like the US, North Korea is not perfect'. It isn't a very convincing line of argument that a country is deserving of support.

No, totally wrong. Israel is in no way like an evil destructive dictatorship such as North Korea. Bad analogy, dude. Very bad. North Korea is a horrible communist poverty stricken dictatorship, Israel is a modern open prosperous democracy. No comparison at all.

The root of the problem as I see it is that so many countries are trying to claim land based on what the world was like centuries or millennia ago. It's happening everywhere: the far east, middle east, Africa, south America.
There's also the religious aspect but I'll leave that to those more engaged to discuss ...

That is a problem, yes. We in the US had the reverse problem; the Indians living here believed that they had claim to the land because they had lived here for "many moons" and that the "great spirit" had given it to them. We just said "we don't give a shit" and took it anyway, upon which we then built malls, theme parks and big ole' dams (among other things). But not to worry, we "reserved" all of the gambling halls for the Indians and now they're filthy rich and buy the best fire water the white man has to offer.

The root of the problem as I see it is that so many countries are trying to claim land based on what the world was like centuries or millennia ago. It's happening everywhere: the far east, middle east, Africa, south America.
There's also the religious aspect but I'll leave that to those more engaged to discuss ...

You got it Dude. Too many people willing to murder other people for ghosts of the past. If you think that real living people, who's only crime is being born where they are, deserve to suffer unimaginable horrors of war because you, who probably live in a nice quiet beach community, think they die should face down in the muck so we can have our nice little outpost of democracy that Jesus can crash at when he returns is some really fucked uptight tight thinking. The Jews are not totally wrong. The Arabs are not totally wrong. They just need to chill the fuck out and talk without acting like a bunch of fucking amateurs.

My beef with Israel is, instead of honest, compassionate work for peace, they do whatever the fuck they want and piss on everyone else's rug. Yes, the many Arabs are being assholes. So what? Let the past go and move the fuck on. Israel seems determined to drag us into war with the whole middle east and doesn't give a shit who gets hurt. Abide that if you can.

I mean, get real, how about personal responsibility of the parents and the Indians drinking too much fire water........

That's pretty much the agreement of many Indians. Some Indians have even put forth the idea that Indians' physiology make them more susceptible to alcoholism. (And I'm part Cree. )

As for Israel vs Arabia, it's like the Hatfields & McCoys (who have made up). Their common history and hatred dragged everybody else into it.

Time to abide.

JLMO, man!

Too bad we can't all just get a long, I mean universal dude like laid-back-ness would be nice to see in the world for a change. Maybe we need a "International Dude Day" where everyone just relaxes man and spends at least one day not acting like a dick.

I hear you dude... the issue with that is while some feel treated equitably, others feel they're getting gypped (by the good lord or not)... it raises their ire. Getting along on everyone's terms is by its very nature mutually exclusive, just like trying to reconcile all religions into one...  AIN'T gonna happen.  We (the royal "we") all have differing opinions about politics, right and wrong, and yes - religion. (Think jihad).

The day we're all on the same page, is the day we're all nuked, and the ants and cockroaches take over.  Don't mean to be so negative, but until mankind evolves WAY further than where we're currently at, wars will continue to characterise our typical way of resolving our differences.

Edit: I feel we all have to do our part in exemplifying the dude way of life... our example may catch on!

I think the problem lies in the fact that if you get gypped you can hire a lawyer to sue someone.I think it was Lenin who said 'In a revolution,first shoot all the lawyers'.

How much of today's problems go back to the way that land was divided up after WW1 and WW2?
It's amazing.
League of Nations and UN divided things up without regard to ethnic and religious groups.
Israel is a bit different of course. Zionism is pretty specific in that regard.

Actually,Africa was divided up in 1889 at a conference in Paris.

Speaking of which........

  Do you have a flag? - Eddie Izzard  - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTduy7Qkvk8