Teribus, "I think that you will find Barry that Israel has never threatened the destruction/eradication/annihilation of anyone. Exactly the opposite has been the case with Israel's neighbours and more latterly of the terrorist organisations they harbour and support"

Which is worse? Threatening to wipe someone off the map, or actually doing it in practice?

I think we can agree the latter. Israel has been wiping the West Bank off the map steadily since 1967. Palestinians have been evicted from their homes, had their farms and property seized, their homes destroyed their livelihoods shattered, their economy ruined (and don't dare blaming that on the 'lazy Arab' stereotype - if you're an Israeli you should know just how many permits are required and how much red tape is needed for Palestinians to do any buisness). If number of deaths is an indicator of atempts to wipe someone off the map, the Palestinians have lost far more people than the Israelis. Indeed, Israel is the only one in the immediate region with the actual arms and equipment to think in terms of wiping anyone off the map. They've shown 'considerable restraint' ? Well they can't exactly go in and nuke Gaza, now, can they? That wouldn't look at all good internationally, and if anyone is publicity-conscious, it's the Israeli Govt.

Concurrently Israel has been aggressively expanding an consolidating its settlements at the expense of the very same Palestinians who are being dispossessed. Roads are being built through the West bank to link these upon which no Palestinian is allowed drive. Palestinians even need different colour licence plates on their cars - in their OWN territory - as decided by Israeli authorities. And that's before we start on the wall, being built well oover the green line to annex Israeli settlements. An apartheid and unjust society is being created. The situation within Israel is not so severe, but 'Isareli Arabs' as they are called, are still like second class citizens. Israel is, in ideology, a racist theocracy.


Further up the thread you lamely attempt to justify such blatant colonialism with 'well, hasn't everyone done that in the past?' Yes, but perhaps unfortunately for Zionists who want to do it now, they've picked a bad time, at the end of the 20th Cent and start of 21st Cent when humanity is supposed to be more civilised and looks down on its own colonial past sins. We've abolished slavery, banned genocide and given thumbs down to apartheid so the Zionists need to get with the times.

If Israel is serious about peace, let it pull out of the West Bank NOW, end the settlements and resettle the latter-day colonists back in Isreal and demolish the settlements or hand them over to the Palestinian authorities.

The other alternative is to make the whole Israel / West Bank region into one country where Arab and Jew alike are treated as equal citizens. That seems unlikely to happen as long as Zionists want 'an Jewish state for a Jewish people' That's a whole other argument of course, and it's debateable whether in this day or age such a thing shouyld be permitted. Otherwise every country could choose to be 'a Catholic Spain for the Spanish" and return to the old days of kicking all the Jews and Arabs out as they did in the mid-1400s. Except of course that is exactly the kind of mono-cultural racism we're all so keen to avoid these days....except in Israel.