Originally posted by: Trente
I would like to present to you an Israeli point of view. I truly think that this is not a biased opinion but rather a rational view of the current state. You may end up calling me biased after all, but here goes nothing:
I have been following posts of you guys for quite some time now and never attempted to take part of those discussions, nore will I take part in any in the future to come. Most of you are americans? I have lived in Israel all my life and visited America some years ago. I expected to experience ?a culture shock?. I was told that America is just like Israel but more extreme, bigger than ever. I was amazed to discover that it was true? You know why? Because the American culture is not different than any western culture out there. We are people who admire democracy and know that this is the only RIGHT way to manage a society. Your democracy is about 225 years old, while ours is about 55. Israel is still in its diapers and is not yet as stable or mature as America or as some old democratic nations of Europe.
America already grew out of its inner conflicts and struggle. America is past that. But Israel is not. It could very well be that after we get old, things will look different, heading for the course of peaceful plcae.
Israel was founded out of nothing. Remembering the FRESH AND PAINFUL PAST OF WWII, the jews built up a state that is identified with the west. It is the stronghold of the west in this area of the world. Israel grants this area with balance, representing all the values you carry with you each day. This is one of the many reasons we are not welcome here. The nations around us never excepted us and they never will. The two nations that adopted the idea of peace did it since they realized they will only benefit from it. This is the main reason. Worm relations like you have with Canada are the very opposite of our cold realtions with Egypt.
Many times I read posts that are full of mistakes. The piplines through which you get you idea of this plcae are, most of the time, biased towards the palestinias and it is understandable: Israel is big, strong and has an army, while the palestinias are rightfuly struggeling for independence. IDF is presented as an immoral army?
Let me tell you something: the IDF is the most moral army in the entire world. That is a fact that can not be undermind. I feel helpless in convincing you to believe me. But I can only hope you do, and you will have to trust me and not listen to the biased media. I know some of you are now calling me biased myself ,but I stick with my say? I wish you were here so you can withness by yourself. Palestinias who colaborated with Israel, were brutaly murdered by the PLO! Terrorists who sent suicide bombers to kill Israelis, are jailed here and are handed with conditions better than they had in the Palestinian city they came from. Israel has, unlike the antions around it, a true democracy that I sometime like to call ?too democratic?. In some cases it is even more democratic than the biggest one in the world: USA.
Israeli arabs are serving in key offices in our country. They get full rights to study in our academic places and in some cases are favored in order to ?fix their pre-conditions? - that is very true. Without Israel they would not get this far in any society in the middle-east, let alone Palestine. After the misfurtunate attack in Gaza, Arabs who are members of the Israeli parliament called us Nazis. Can you imagine that?! One of them even met with Syria?s leader in the past ? the emnemy! Can you imagine that happening in your congress?! I don?t. these people are taking advantage on democracy and the democracy has to realize that there are times in history it MUST protect itself. Those people who are suppose to carry Israeli flags are doing nothing but meet with the enemies of the state. I bet they are laughfing in secret knowing a Palestinian state would never allowed such things to happen in its parliamnet, if it had one!!! I bet those things are new to you ? no one on the media focuses on this ? they are blindly working for their interests. Some are even intimidated by Palestinias as to not tell the true and favor their side in the conflict.
America is located way way from here, many miles away? you have peacful borders and friendly nations above and under you. Israel faces terror every day. We get up, hear the news and already expect to be told what happened last night. There is a news break on the radio every hour. This has been going ever since Israel was founded. I guess many of you are smiling calling me a Zionist zealot right now, as you are used to. As a matter of fact, I am not that of a patriot, nore am I Zionist. But I am Pro-Israel. I only came here to help you understatnd the conflict better. ISRAEL IS A JEWSIH STATE ? IT WAS BUILT FOR JEWS AND HAS TO MAINTAIN A JEWSIH MAJORITY. This can not be questioned. Israel is a nation like no other. That is the reason why the Palestinias can not be granted with the right of return. other-wise the whole idea of Israel, everything we built, loved and cared for, is useless. This is the only place in the world where jews can be assured that they will not be harmed because they are jews. It is a pitty for the Palestinias that their ?btothers? ? the Arabs all around us ? could care less for them. They only support them since the cause is always the same: UNDERMINE ISRAEL IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE!
After some American soldiers get killed in Iraq, people here, out of rage, suggest to nuke the entire area. Imagine that America becomes the front each and every day. That each and every day terrorists may ruin you and your family. And you know they came from a certain area ? would not you support a military assult on that place ? an action that can prevent a terror attack from taking place, an attack that can have you killed!
When I read what some of you post, I feel I want to cry. How can you not side us? Do you have any idea what would happen if Palestinias had our military power? If things were the other way around, they would CRUSH us. When I see that palestinias play soccer with body parts of Israeli soldiers I understand the kind of people we deal with. The same people that undermine your work in Iraq. The same people who beheaded an American. Those images were not brodcasted by palestinians because they feared that it will be a setback for their ongoing efforet to present Israel an the ?bad guy?. Israel also forbidded the broadcat, even though it could benefit from its cause, just because it decided to consider the families of the victims and did not want them to see parts of their son?s body on antional TV.
Israel is said to have nuclear ability. It helps in assuring the very existance of Israel. Israel is the good guy with enough power to turn the places around it into glass. Everybody knows that ?others? can mess with us but we will never destroy them. In all past wars Israeli soldiers were very near the cpaitals of the nations around it the same antions who attacked it in the first place, seeking to destroy it. When the nations around it realized they are about to lose, they demanded UN to stop Israel from advancing into their land. The land of the very nations that seek Israel?s destruction. Israel has extreme restrain; Rest assure that if America would have been in the same situation, It would use its might to bring down those who seek to destroy it, without thinking twice?
People who say that if Israel has nuclear power so should everyone else in the middle-east around it, makes me wonder how they formed such a view.
We have cars, stores, roads, night-clubs, beaches, buildings, high-tech companies, internet and computers; we have radio, free press and have the right to express ourselfves. We can demonstrate without fear, and go against our leaders in public, ask them hard questions. We have independent facilities so our democracy can operate and maintain its cause, existance and make sure the people can run this country. We have a capitalist economy and can form our own point of you of things?All these wonders took place in half a century. The creation of this state is a wonder and let there be no mistake: Israelis will keep this wonder alive and grow it to be stronger than ever. Israel is an America in a place that is full of hostility? I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes by Winston Churchill:
?We cannot see how deliverance will come or when it will come, but nothing is more certain that every trace of Hitler's footsteps, every stain of his infected, corroding fingers will be sponged and purged and, if need be, blasted from the surface of the earth.?
Trente