palestinians,other arabs and israel
 

There is a man in the Villages who is giving talks at various venus about the suffering of the Moslems at the hands of the Israelis. His name is Roger Kaas. He neglects to say that 5 million Israelis are surrounded by 50 million arabs sworn to kill them. He neglects to say that the Israelis have made very important contributions to the world in the fields of medicine and technology while the Mulslims are busy cutting off peoples heads and shooting guns in the air. Check out what Pat Boone, a devout Christian, said recently about Israel. Mr Kaas lived and worked for 5 years in Saudi Arabia. Need I say more?

Re: palestinians,other arabs and israel
 

Could you be referring to Roger Kass?

Re: palestinians,other arabs and israel
 

Yes, one and the same.

Re: palestinians,other arabs and israel
 

I guess you really have to put yourself in each's shoes on order to appreciate their respective positions.

What is sad is when religion is used to justify the actions of a political establishment, and so far I haven't seen any political establishment that acts how God (no matter what name is used for Him) expects the human race to be.

In my lifetime I've seen political establishments claiming to represent every major religion against each other - and oftentimes against sub-groups within that religion. What's worse is that heinous actions - and they all are guilty of some - are done in His name as if the killing, mailing, imprisonment, eviction or subrogation of any human being or group(s) of human beings is a divine calling. What is ironic is that the significant documents of every major religion promote peace, tolerance and brotherhood - and to this day the reactionaries within every major religion find some way to whipsaw bigotry, fear and hatred against others based on distorted interpretations of the printed word.

The Founding Fathers of the United States were wise beyond their years. They learned from personal experience how a state religion can be used as a bullwhip, and made sure their new country would not find itself caught in the same state-religion web that has strangled Europe, Asia and now is starting to do the same in Africa.

How very lucky (blessed?) we are to be in this land where we have to put up with our neighbor in spite of our differences and live under the rule of law which directs we settle disputes and differences in court. That blindfold on Lady Justice signifies that no one is seen as special before the law, and that equality is what is supposed to exist before her.

I sure hope that someday our youth won't have to fight on foreign turf that's bloodied mainly due to religious intolerance. Do you think any of us will live that long?

Re: palestinians,other arabs and israel
 

very well said Steve remember the christens killed the savages because they were not christen

Re: palestinians,other arabs and israel
 

where can i hear Roger Kass would like to know both sides then i will make my own decision thanks

Re: palestinians,other arabs and israel
 

The Palestinian-Israeli issue has been around a long time. There's a lot of information available out there....fact and b.s. ....that will provide more than enough for folks to make a reasonable assessment of the mess. I too would like to hear what Roger has to say. But, it's only one point of few, and a personal one at that. A better forum would be to have Roger and a knowledgeable Israeli speaker (perhaps Ben Netanyahu ;D)debate on the issue.....now THAT would interesting session IMHO.

The western world is being attacked by Muslim extremists (emphasize "extremists") via terrorist acts. Israel, on the other hand, has been under attack for decades by rank-and-file mainstream muslim citizens of many national origins (although Palestine is not a nation), hard-core military as well as the so-called extremists. Make no mistake....Israel is fighting for their very survival.....fighting for their right to exist. Rockets still rain on their cities and towns regularly. Two collegues of mine from the company that I retired from last year were in Nahariya near the Lebonese border in 2006 when the Iranian-backed Hezbollah launched an attack on the city. They were hunkered-down in the hotel bomb shelter when their plant manager rescued them in the middle of the night....they drove down to Haifa with rockets raining and barely made it out. During the hair-raising drive to Haifa, Charles, my collegue (an American) asked the plant manager why this attack happened. The manager's response...."They hate us, they want kill all of us, they want to destroy our state.....and you too....simple!". Duh. Here are some questions in my mind....how can it be that after Israel gave up land in Lebanon six years ago and the Hezbollah is still attacking Israel on every occasion they get and the Lebanese (and Syria) government does nothing? How can it be that less than one year after Israel left the Gaza Strip, evacuating 8,000 Jews from 23 settlements, the Hamas militants are daily firing Kassam rockets into the Israeli city of Sderot and the Palestinian authority supports this? Now, can we fault the Israeli's temperment of ....ah....impatience and heavy-handedness with the Palestinians? This wasn't always the case....most Palestinians and Israeli nationals lived together in peace for a long time and still do to a large degree. But, there are forces that appear to use the Palestinian-Israeli issue to justify their hatred of the Israeli state, it's inhabitants and its allies (us).

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat met with Pres. Clinton in 2000 at Camp David to discuss a peace accord based on a prior proposal steming from the Oslo Peace Accords. Israel was commited to a peace settlement. Here's a link you might find interesting http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_199...david_2000.php. Barak gave-in to almost all of the Palestinian demands and Arafat dismissed it all out of hand. After the talks and after not reaching an agreement acceptable to Arafat, he launched his bloody 'intifada'. There is evidence to suggest that the intifada was planned prior to the peace talks!!! It is clear to the Israeli Knesset that negotiaion is not an option. I think that we (the U.S.) are coming to that realization. I fear that Ben Netanhayu and Newt Gingrich may be correct in their prediction that it will take the destruction of a major western city for us to wake-up. For Israel.....it'll probably be Tel Aviv.....and that would be not only the destruction of a city....but the entire state. And then....then...the world moves to an unprecedented fear level far beyond what we've already experienced in the aftermath of September 11th. It amazes me sometimes that Tel Aviv is still on the planet...due probably in large part to the Israeli Mossad.

I'm not choosing sides...but I want to understand the conflict because now it's in our own backyard. The Manhatten skyline is testament to that. I don't have to think very long to understand why the Israeli's think and act the way they do.

Re: palestinians,other arabs and israel
 

Give this a listen

http://www.khouse.org/6640/BP015/

Re: palestinians,other arabs and israel
 

dk: Thanks. Interestng and scary.

Re: palestinians,other arabs and israel
 

Take the time a listen to all the parts. Very informative.

Re: palestinians,other arabs and israel
 

dk: Thanks. Interesting.