A friend posted this on his facebook wall along with comments that characterized Thomas as an anti-semite. This is the problem with Israel: if you don’t support their government that automatically makes you anti-semite. Anyone who thinks that the Israeli government does not take advantage of this tar-pit trap is high on crack.
Honestly, what sane person hasn’t had the thought that maybe the state of Israel would work out better if they didn’t have the same neighbors? Along the same vein, can any sane person picture the Israeli government playing so fast and loose with their own borders if they were in between Germany and Poland? OK, fine I can picture them invading Poland. My point remains. Everyone and their mother invades Poland.
Does being against the policies of a government make one racist against the citizens of that country? I don’t think so. Being 100% Pro-Israel while still loving justice for all isn’t actually a choice in the modern arena. If you aren’t pro-Israel then you are branded as anti-semite. You’re either for or against us is a compelling rhetoric but if one is completely without racial or religious bias, how can one help but see the Israeli government as an instigator, as perpetrating a racist style of statehood, as a nurturing parent to the terrorism that they claim to so despise.
It is ironic (and perhaps to be expected with the license given to the Israeli government by the international community who tend to be too afraid of being branded anti-semite to comment on any of this) that the Israeli government’s treatment of the citizens of their own country who claim a different religion than the state resembles the barb wires, ostracism, removal of opportunities, and reinforcement of the second class status of any citizen who is not a member of the state religion through a barbaric system of restriction of movement, commerce ,and self-determination to the pre-concentration camp policies of a certain political movement which swept Germany in the 1930’s and 1940’s? I’ll push it even further. Does it really seem that the ruling parties in Israel would be above concentration camps for the Palestinians if they thought they could get away with them? Given that killing hundreds of Palestinians is the preferred response to the deaths of a handful of Jewish Israelis, it’s not like they respect the value of Palestinian life in any way which equate to the value they put on a single Jewish life.
Let’s be honest, this is a government that makes sure that every country surrounding it is hostile to it and is flat-out disrespectful to it’s own allies. I’ll go out on a limb here and stand with Helen. If the Israeli government can not stay within its own pre-1967 borders and treat all of it’s citizens equally, then perhaps those citizens who hail from other regions would do well to go back there after all.
Short version: I support Israel. If the ruling powers weren’t such assholes I’d support Israel even more.
Comments From The Peanut Gallery 