Comments on: Ultra-nationalist leader invokes Assad’s victims to defend Israel

By: Piotr Berman

Piotr Berman — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 05:00:37 +0000

Steve surprized me today. How one of these statements differs from the others?

Crazed leftist:
Israel is dealing with irrational dictators,
The leaders of Syria are crazed militants
So are the leaders of the Palestinians.
But Israel’s neighbors are crazy,

Does it mean the Steve learned a new world in school today? “irrational”? Congratulations! This is a much more sophisticated term than “crazy”.

By: Greg Pollock

Greg Pollock — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 08:53:34 +0000

Steve,
.
Sometimes when you win, you lose.

By: Arnon Schwanzinger

Arnon Schwanzinger — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:25:36 +0000

“Im Tirzu – The Second Zionist Revolution”

Wouldn’t that entail that Im Tirzu are POST-Zionists?
The original Zionist movement is past tense. Now they’re starting a new one.

Post-Zionists AND Neo-Zionists.
Fits the definitions quite nicely.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:30:51 +0000

Israel wants a legit, permanent peace agreement.
But Israel’s neighbors are crazy, making this difficult.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:29:23 +0000

The leaders of Syria are crazed militants
So are the leaders of the Palestinians.
.
The difference is, the leaders of Syria can easily kill the people they want to kill (their own civilians), whereas the leaders of the Palestinians have been prevented from Israel from killing Israeli civilians as easily as they used to.

By: sh

sh — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 08:39:07 +0000

They’re all taking a cue from Avigdor Lieberman who expertly discomfited the Israeli left a long time ago by publicly weeping – and expressing support – for the Syrian rebels. Kind of scary to find oneself on the same page as Yvet.
Greg Pollock, you may have a point about beating down all attempts at thought.

By: Greg Pollock

Greg Pollock — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 07:59:45 +0000

To take the side of the Syrian protestors (which, I hazard, Shoval does) is to side with those oppressed by violent means. Which, I further hazard, means Shoval sides with Palestinians in the West Bank, who seem to have only rocks and slogans.
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If you wanted to engage a different kind of Arab culture it would be in the West Bank. There, a difference could be made. But that would mean not all Arabs are alike–which is ontologically impossible.
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My mind can not view this stupidity for long and survive. Perhaps that is the purpose of this stupidity–to beat down all attempts at thought.

By: Cortez

Cortez — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 05:52:28 +0000

“But that all depends on how soon Palestinians want peace. If they drag their feet on a permanent peace agreement for another 30 years, Israel might as well keep growing, developing, building, etc. in the main area.”
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But Israel doesn’t want an a true and equal peace agreement. Even before the rise of terrorism, it didn’t want to resolve this issue and its always had the bargaining power, money and force on its side. Its sad because it didn’t have to last that long.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 05:26:22 +0000

NOAM: Thanks for the detailed views and actually, I think you are thinking of someone else — because out of all my posts here, I’ve barely mentioned anything about settlements. Once in a while some other guy who also called himself Steve posted, and maybe he’s said something about them.
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As for my view, though, the main settlement area will probably never be disbanded, ever. Too established at this point. The smaller settlements will probably be gone, once peace is reached. But that all depends on how soon Palestinians want peace. If they drag their feet on a permanent peace agreement for another 30 years, Israel might as well keep growing, developing, building, etc. in the main area.

By: noam

noam — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 23:50:52 +0000

steve – i often disagree with a lot of things on +972. i often find a lot of the opinions on everything israeli as diabolic. i often think many writers here criticize israel’s embrace of jewish victimhood while hooting for palestinian victimhood, slamming israeli nationalism and iconizing islamic jihad members.
but i must tell you, once and for all, that one could hardly exaggerate how obnoxious and unintelligent your repetitive, automatic “defense” of israel is.

i’m saying this as an actual israeli, who, unlike you i presume, lives here and is concerned about his own security and safety.
when you write “Israel has to maintain security to protect themselves until the threats against Israel stop”, what do you mean? how and when exactly will all threats “stop”? how did israel make peace with egypt and jordan? how did it sign the oslo accords? that’s how you protect yourself in the long run, not by what we see in the west bank.

i agree, a final pullout of all military from the WB can only happen with many security assurances as part of a permanent peace agreement with palestine = an end to the conflict. this should be done as part of a regional strategic treaty with all arab nations which are singed on the arab peace initiative.

but why pretend that the reasoning for settlements and land expropriations is security? that is a straightout lie. ask any strategic expert, even in israel. this simply isn’t true. you’re spinning everything around at “arabs” and “threats”. if israel wants peace through two states someday (whenever there will “be a partner”), it WILL be based on the green line. and you know that. if we want peace, we must stop settlements. not today, yesterday!
once the occupation of the WB will be declared TEMPORARY and maintained for PURELY defensive reasons, without claiming the WB in any way, once we put the green line back on every map, including the weather forecast, once we prove we’re only waiting to safely “hand over the keys” – THEN we could defend that occupation. THEN you could reason the human rights abuses it entails with actual security needs. BUT as long as you keep colonizing it, this occupation cannot be argued as legal or legitimate.
do you understand what i’m saying, although it’s not “israel=good, arabs=bad” ? can you see anything in any colours but black and white?