For Israelis and Arabs, perpetual war
About a year or two ago, I realized that I had lost all hope for a peace settlement in the Middle East. Both sides are too far gone; the radicals and extremists have become the mainstream, and they are all more comfortable being at perpetual war with each other than they would be in peace. This is what they have come to know.
Stories like this confirm that conclusion.
The worst part is, I think that dooms Israel in the long run. A nation of six or seven million on a relatively tiny spit of open land cannot survive forever surrounded by hundreds of millions of hostile enemies. Today it has the power, but things change over time. Power ebbs and flows. Empires come and go.
Israel can last another 20 years, another 50 years, maybe another 70 years surrounded by people who hate it. But 100 years? 200 years?
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131 comments Add your comment
Kamchak
March 25th, 2009
9:38 pm
On topic:
This squabble has it’s roots in a familiy matter involving Abraham and his decendants. His wife, an Israelite, could not bear him a son(but later did), so he impregnated his slave/servant, an Arab. Inheritance issues ensued. Fast forward a few thousand years, and we find super-powers exploiting this rift and making gazillions of dollars selling/testing weapon systems.
Beware the military-industrial complex.
G
March 25th, 2009
9:40 pm
ByteMe,
That was hysterical! Thanks for the link. And I haven’t seen Bobbie Battista in forever.
Dusty
March 25th, 2009
9:43 pm
Thank you, @@. I just backed up and read a bit. Very nice.
I’m a bit down today. An older lady who is a long time member of our church was driving her husband to a day center for Alzheimer’s patients. He doesn’t seem to know anybody these days. Not too long ago he was an enginer(EE) with a large company and president of council at church.
Nobody is sure but she evidently lost consciousness for some reason while driving and ran into a telephone pole. She was killed instantly and he was hardly scratched. I don’t think he even realizes what happened. So many sad aspects to this terrible happening.
Well, tomorrow, rain or not, I shall be out amongst ‘em. No moping around!
(One son is doing exercises behind my back while the TV blasts. Don’t you just love peace and quiet!)
rcs
March 25th, 2009
9:45 pm
Food Network is showing a Chicago Pizza Throwdown with Bobby Flay.
Anyone know where to get a good authenic Chicago pizza in Atlanta?
RB from Gwinnett
March 25th, 2009
9:47 pm
BTW, in case you missed it, the Obama admin attempted to halt the sales of spent shell casings from the military to reloaders who reloaded the cartriges and sold them to police depts and private citizens last week. The move would have required they be destroyed instead of reloaded and reduced them to scrap metal which would have reduced the value by 80%.
Why would they do that if not an attempt to remove ammo from the market? If they can’t make guns illegal, they’ll eliminate the ammo market instead??
I challenge all you libs to tell me why they would do this if not for back door gun control.
I’m trying to give Obama the respect his office is due, but I don’t trust this man.
G
March 25th, 2009
9:51 pm
Rachel Maddow’s show is almost over, so I’ll be off to bed soon.
Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite, er, well, it’ll be okay with me if they bite some of you.
Corporal
March 25th, 2009
9:59 pm
May I get Biblical here? I know some of you don’t like this but it’s a free country and here it is in its most basic form:
1) God instituted His plan for the salvation of mankind.
He promised to come again to reign as the “King of Israel”.
2) That plan involved Israel – a people He chose.
3) That plan also involved a Messiah from His chosen people.
4) All through Israel’s history, Satan tried to destory them to keep the Messiah from coming.
5) The Messiah came the first time as a “suffering servant”.
6) Satan tried to kill him as a child to thwart His plan.
7) The Messiah completed His plan and arose from the grave.
9) Satan is again trying to thwart that plan by destoying Israel.
10)Israel is not perfect but those who fight against her fight against God.
11)When Messiah Yeshua/Joshua/Jesus returns he will destroy evil, save Israel and set up His Kingdom.
Corporal
March 25th, 2009
10:00 pm
P.S. I’m not sure how that smiley face got in there. Maybe it’s a miracle !!!
Kamchak
March 25th, 2009
10:02 pm
RB from Gwinnett:
What kind of shells? What calibre? How many times have these same shells been reloaded? There is such a thing as metal fatigue. Some shells used in the military use depleted uranium for its’ armor piercing capability, so these shells are radio-active. These are just a few reasons that may be used.
Dusty
March 25th, 2009
10:04 pm
RW,
I tried to get the Viking Kitties to come up but no luck. NO VIKING KITTIES!!! Now that’s no fun at all!!
Thanks for sending them even if they didn’t make it! Sob!! Sniff!!
Taxpayer
March 25th, 2009
10:15 pm
Corporal @ 9:26,
For your first item, please allow me to summarize as succinctly as possible. In Chess terms you were in check after my 7:22 comment on your 7:16 to Jay and it was mate after my 7:36 to your 7:31. Trust me on this.
For your second item, I concede.
Taxpayer
March 25th, 2009
10:27 pm
Andy @ 9:37, it is probably best that you remain in the dark.
RB from Gwinnett
March 25th, 2009
10:31 pm
Kam, good points, but they would not have ceased selling radioactive shells or fatigued shells, they would never have sold them to begin with. Good effort, but keep trying.
Corporal
March 25th, 2009
10:34 pm
Taxpayer:
1) Regarding your “chess terms” flow chart I’ll admit you have lost me.
But … if I am wrong on my point about “His” return … no big deal … but if I am right … very, very, very big deal. Someday we will know.
2) Thank you for your honest concession.
Kamchak
March 25th, 2009
10:44 pm
RB you were looking for reasons, I gave them to you. It very well may be as you suggest, but you still did not answer my questions. I am not pro gun control as I believe a well armed populace has the ability to rise up agaist a tyrannical government. The only thing that would be accomplished is to go down fighting. An untrained under-equipped populace is no match for a trained fighting force. Any vision of some kind of “Red Dawn” scenario is unrealistic.
That being said–new ammunition is readily available, so I wouldn’t be concerned until new restrictions are put on these new shells.
Bosch
March 25th, 2009
10:53 pm
yes, RB, the extremists are in charge in Israel. Read up on it. Google “Lieberman” and “Israel” and it’s not Joe Lieberman from over on our side.
Does anyone want to discuss death and how it looks with me? Do any of you have old people living with you who are currently yelling about eating cake? Do any of you know the definition of irony?
Does anyone else think it is weird that Commie gets banned and RB shows up?
RB from Gwinnett
March 25th, 2009
10:55 pm
Kam, I asked for “good” reasons. Your reason was a good effort, but was not a reasonable explanation.
Ammo is not readily available today. Go visit any ammo supplier and look at their shelves. Bare. Local WalMart stores have a sign posted saying they’re out because their suppliers can’t keep up with demand (not Obama’s fault, but he caused it). Taking the millions of reloads out of circulation would make matters much worse.
I’m not worried about a “Red Dawn” situation because I don’t believe most of our miltary would follow that order.
RB from Gwinnett
March 25th, 2009
11:03 pm
Bosch, I noticed you didn’t answer my question, but that’s ok, you rarely do.
I never said Israel didn’t have an extremist in charge, I merely pointed out the election of Hamas as the leadership of Palestine and their actions of late are a good reason to elect someone willing to ensure survival vs. the Bosch method of surrender at all costs.
Jay is more than welcome to verify I’m not one of the banned.
Kamchak
March 25th, 2009
11:06 pm
RB: again you didn’t answer my questions. What kind of ammo? What calibre? Your explanation that they wouldn’t sell fatigued or radio-active metal is your opinion, not fact.
Military men are trained to follow orders, and I believe if they are ordered to fire on armed combatants, they will follow that order. They will be prying your/my weapon from your/my cold,dead fingers.
RB from Gwinnett
March 25th, 2009
11:16 pm
Kam, here is part of the letter that was sent to the reloaders who were buying the spent shells. If they were reloading them and selling to police and public, you would have to assume they were common sizes(9mm, .40, etc)
“Recently it has been determined that fired munitions of all calibers, shapes and sizes have been designated to be Demil code B. As a result and in conjunction with DLA’s current Demil code B policy, this notice will serve as official notification which requires Scrap Venture (SV) to implement mutilation as a condition of sale for all sales of fired munitions effective immediately. This notice also requires SV to immediately cease delivery of any fired munitions that have been recently sold or on active term contracts, unless the material has been mutilated prior to sale or SV personnel can attest to the mutilation after delivery. A certificate of destruction is required in either case.”
Kamchak
March 25th, 2009
11:34 pm
RB
Interesting letter, but no where in it is an explanation of motive. You are speculating as to the motive, and I have conceded that it may be correct, but it is still speculation.
By the way-at 9:47 you wrote “I challenge all you libs to tell me why they would do this if not for back door gun control.” Then at 10:55 you said you asked for “‘good’ reasons”. I gave you plausible explanations that you have not refuted except for opinion. Have you examined/tested these shells? If so, then I stand(sit) corrected.
jaypat
March 26th, 2009
1:04 am
Monotheism is the dumbest idea ever.
Most of what is written in the Pentateuch, the first 5 books of the Bible, is malarkey.
In the beginning, the earth is at least 4.3 billion years old. That’s 4,300,000,000 years old. That is a very long time, in human terms. The Bible claims that the earth is 6,000 years old, give or take a couple of hundred years.
The Bible claims that there was a global flood that covered the entire earth. In spite of hundreds of years of searching, there has never been any evidence ever found that there was a universal flood. It never happened. The entire story of Noah and the flood is a myth. It never happened. What probably happened was that about 7150 years ago, a geologic event happened. and the Straits of Bosphorus opened and the Mediterrean Sea flowed into the area now occupied by the Black Sea. There are remnants of villages under the Black Sea which could only have happened if the area was above water when the villages were built.
And where did the mythical Ark land? In nearby Turkey, atop Mt. Ararat.
We do each other a very big favor if we forgot all about religion and simply looked at each other as another human being.
I doubt that the new Israeli government will take a different tack to the one before, but there is the judgement of history bearing down on them, and they don’t have much time left.
I Report/ You Whine
March 26th, 2009
6:12 am
Come on, Bookman, this is lame-
‘Socialist’ Obama bails out capitalism By Jay Bookman But that’s not what’s happening. Quite the contrary, instead of undoing capitalism, Obama is trying desperately to reform and save it.-Urinal
With friends like Oblahmi, who needs enemies?
Besides which, how else would Impeachment Boy pay for his socialist pogrom without capitalists and their hard earned tax dollars?
Even the Chinks have caught on to this lesson, duh.
I Report/ You Whine
March 26th, 2009
6:19 am
Say what you will about Cobb-
Cobb County will maintain the highest possible municipal credit rating in a troubled economy.
The rating is good news for taxpayers: The county will pay a net interest rate on the notes of less than one-half of 1 percent, approximately $382,566 in interest costs.-Urinal
Smaller, more efficient government is achievable, even in this financial climate, good police/fire protection, schools and other government services don’t have to be sacrificial lambs.
It helps not to be a goony socialist, too.
I Report/ You Whine
March 26th, 2009
6:45 am
Now America’s economic and financial future is in the hands of the federal government, under a President and Congress whose hubris trumps Wall Street’s, and is combined with an ignorance no trader could survive with for a single week.-AmSpec
All you need to know.
Corporal
March 26th, 2009
9:16 am
to jaypat:
May I recommend this site:
http://www.reasons.org/
Be sure an check out the credentials (”About Us”) of these scientists.
If you are “sincerely” looking for truth you can find it here.
By the way, the Bible (which I believe to be God’s Word to us and therefore accurate) says NOTHING about the age of the earth (we know its billions of years old, etc.), the great flood was probably only local and so forth.
Monotheism (specifically God in the flesh come to this earth) is either true or not. If not, I am wrong and we both don’t have a problem. But, if I am right …………….
Copyleft
March 26th, 2009
9:25 am
Of course, polytheism may be true, in which case Christians, Muslims, AND atheists are all wrong!
Corporal
March 26th, 2009
10:05 am
Copy left:
You are absolutely correct. All cannot be true.
Therefore:
If all or some are true (except Christianty) – no big deal. We either all go to nirvana or oblivian or whatever. We all win.
But if Christianity is true – a big deal. “Unless you believe in Me you are dead in your sins”……”I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
So, if you are a gambler, who is taking the bigger chance ???
Barry
March 26th, 2009
10:25 am
Geez Louise Andy, “Chinks”??? I think even Dusty blanches at that one.
Copyleft
March 26th, 2009
10:43 am
Corporal: You’re restating Pascal’s Wager again, which has some serious logical flaws.
For example: “No big deal” if you chose the wrong faith? What if the Hindu gods are angry with nonbelievers and cast you into the Hell of a Thousand Razors? More to the point, how is it “no big deal” that you wasted your life on a lie?
I consider a wasted life to be a VERY big deal, thank you.
Corporal
March 26th, 2009
2:26 pm
Copyleft:
I hear you but according to all the other religions, they don’t really care and/or you are not cast out forever. You get a second chance.
Christianity is different. You get ONE chance and after you die it’s too late. Eternity is just a little too much to risk.
If you really seek the truth, I believe God will reveal it to you. Don’t tell me about it (unless you want to) ….. just seek it. Ask for a miracle, a vision, something to prove it to you, anything !