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From: chris@aquila.UUCP (chris)
Newsgroups: can.general
Subject: Re: Leaving Israel alone
Message-ID: <8@aquila.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 4-Apr-85 10:40:39 EST
Article-I.D.: aquila.8
Posted: Thu Apr  4 10:40:39 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 4-Apr-85 14:32:31 EST
References: <577@lsuc.UUCP>
Organization: Consensys Corporation.
Lines: 37

David Sherman writes:
 > ... Israel poses no threat to Iraq nor any of the other
 > countries in the Middle East, if they'd only leave it alone.

Sure, and any invading country is really peace loving, if only the original
inhabitants would turn over their homes/possessions/et cetera, and
leave the invaders to enjoy them in peace.

Many people sympathize with Israel's position, but in Canada and Europe,
at least, there seems to be a much more balanced view of the 'unholy' lands
than in the U.S. administrations. As long as the Palestinians are living
in refugee camps in Jordan there will be Arab hatred of Israel, and many
Canadians understand this. In last weekend's Globe and Mail there was an
article about Canadian Jews who had moved to Israel for various reasons.
One guy had moved to a kibbutz that was described as being built on the site
of an old Arab village; the actual line was somthing like "after the original
Arab peasants had been driven out." This is a way to build peaceful relations
with your Arab neighbours? The amazing thing about this article is that the
writer found nothing remarkable about this.

There are too many arguments and counter arguments to be made by both sides;
I am sure there are good internal reasons for all the atrocities. But that
doesn't alter the fact that there are very real hatreds of both parties for
each other.  Arguing the case here in Canada is, in my opinion, a fruitless
and morally sick academic exercise given the murders, detentions,
interrogations, bombings, and hatred going on EVERY DAY in the 'unholy' lands.

I still stand by my labelling (oh so long ago!) of Israel as a belligerent
power. And lumping Israel in with South Africa, as I did, make sense
given the high level talks and visits between these two countries.
They are both in the same boat as far as hostile neighbours;
as well, there is increasing evidence of the poor treatment
(i.e. lack of civil rights / legal discrimination) against Arabs living
in Israel. Is apartheid far from coming now? (Did you know that all Israeli
identity cards give the religion of the bearer? Do you wonder why?)

	Chris Retterath		utzoo!dciem!aquila!chris