[commanderkai]

PublicAnimalNo9 PublicAnimalNo9:

C'mon Kai, don't you know that the Zionists are actually in control of Egypt?

Those Zionists are awfully powerful. The banks, the media, the United States (and Canadian, as of late) governments, and now Egypt and Jordan! Did I leave anything out?

Seriously, where do I send my resume?

[CanadianJeff]

Curtman Curtman:

$1:

"Never has a scientist of this stature boycotted Israel," said Yigal Palmor, the spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry.

Organisers of the fifth annual Israeli Presidential Conference, held under the auspices of President Shimon Peres, said they had received a letter over the weekend from Professor Hawking announcing his decision.

Cambridge University issued a statement indicating that Professor Hawking had told the Israelis he would not be attending "based on advice from Palestinian academics that he should respect the boycott", Associated Press reported.

Earlier, the university's director of communications, Tim Holt, said by telephone that Professor Hawking, 71, had withdrawn from the Israel trip for health reasons. The university later said it had been told otherwise by Professor Hawking's office.

The chairman of the conference, Israel Maimon, strongly criticised the professor's decision, saying in a statement: "The academic boycott of Israel is in our view outrageous and improper, certainly for someone for whom the spirit of liberty lies at the basis of his human and academic mission."

Mr Maimon, a lawyer and a former Israeli government cabinet secretary, said: "Israel is a democracy in which all individuals are free to express their opinions, whatever they may be. The imposition of a boycott is incompatible with open, democratic dialogue."

Give Palestinians a vote then its a democracy. If stopping settlement expansion can't be a precondition of the dialogue, then it isn't a dialogue at all.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Democracy is a natural reflection of the people values. It's worthless unless people actually value things like freedom, liberty and speech.

Giving democracy to a group who values none of those things is beyond pointless. It's like saying because it works for the white man it works for all. It's beyond arrogant to think we can simply step into another country insert our own form of government and everything will be peachy.

Until these people actually begin to see the value in freedom democracy for them is meaningless.

[Zipperfish]

This is a huge international incident. The horror, the horror. And in four days, no one will care, and it will go back to being what it's been for the past 50 years and the past 5000 years.

If these people spent as much time trying to deal with their issues as they did on their press clippings, the situation wo0uld have been dealt with years ago.

[Thanos]

Well it gave Curt the excuse to form one of his Dorito-stained hands into a cutey-pie little thumbs up so there's that anyway.

[PublicAnimalNo9]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

This is a huge international incident. The horror, the horror. And in four days, no one will care, and it will go back to being what it's been for the past 50 years and the past 5000 years.

If these people spent as much time trying to deal with their issues as they did on their press clippings, the situation wo0uld have been dealt with years ago.

I'm kind of divided about how I feel about it. On the one hand, I laugh at our western arrogance thinking we can solve a situation that has been going on since Methusela was knee-high to a puddle duck.
OTOH, we (Canada, the US and the UK) also helped create the problem after WW2 by refusing to accept any more than a handful of European Jews and deciding to re-create the nation of Israel.

I liked Sheldon Cooper's idea of giving the Israeli's a section of the American South-west and calling it Nuevo Jerusalem.

Heck, the US could use 'em to help keep out the illegal Mexicans

[andyt]

Not much claim that God gave them that land in that case, unless they bo Mormon and claim they are joining their lost tribe brothers. I think European Jews should have been given East Prussia, now Russia. Probably be a very successful state, tho I'm not sure the Jews would have wanted to be there so soon after the shoah.

[commanderkai]

andyt andyt:

Not much claim that God gave them that land in that case, unless they bo Mormon and claim they are joining their lost tribe brothers. I think European Jews should have been given East Prussia, now Russia. Probably be a very successful state, tho I'm not sure the Jews would have wanted to be there so soon after the shoah.

Yeah I don't think giving the Jews a state in Europe, especially in Central or Eastern Europe, would have been a good idea. Hell, after the war, the Jews were still facing serious discrimination when they tried to return home to Poland, as an example.

[ShepherdsDog]

As to 'God' giving them the land. Most of the founders of modern day Israel weren't really the religious types. So much so that the Americans a nd British feared that they were going to establish a socialist republic allied with the Soviet Union.....the Russians and the Czechs were the ones who first sold arms to the new state of Israel

[commanderkai]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

As to 'God' giving them the land. Most of the founders of modern day Israel weren't really the religious types. So much so that the Americans a nd British feared that they were going to establish a socialist republic allied with the Soviet Union.....the Russians and the Czechs were the ones who first sold arms to the new state of Israel

Shhh....facts are bad, m'kay?

[ShepherdsDog]

and what they read in a paper, see on the TV or read in a newspaper trumps the knowledge of those who have been there several times, and have friends and family who live there.

[uwish]

when people realize there is no god, this will all look pretty childish...

[ShepherdsDog]

It's not about God....it's about land.

[uwish]

why is it about the land? because it's.....HOLY? hum...seems pretty god like to me...

[ShepherdsDog]

Read a little more history....most of those who founded modern day Israel were hard core socialists. It's only a very vocal minority that spouts off about the land being God given. Most recognize their 'historical' claim to the land, but not the lease from God.

[stratos]

uwish uwish:

when people realize there is no god, this will all look pretty childish...

I read a quote yesterday that went like this " I would rather live my life beleaving in a God only to die and find out there is none then to live my life beleaving there is no God only to die and find out there is one."

Just something to think on, if you wish to.