"legal borders? That matters to Jordan and Syria and Egypt, not to Palestinians."
No miracle cure, that's for sure, but still, legalities matter. I'd like to see Israel *actually* holding the moral high ground, not just pretending to. I admit my stance on this is very unusual but my dad inculcated into my formative moral self that stolen …
"legal borders? That matters to Jordan and Syria and Egypt, not to Palestinians."
No miracle cure, that's for sure, but still, legalities matter. I'd like to see Israel *actually* holding the moral high ground, not just pretending to. I admit my stance on this is very unusual but my dad inculcated into my formative moral self that stolen land can never be holy land. I think of Abraham purchasing the cave for Sarah's burial -- the sellers praised his honesty.
The only difference between 'stolen land' and 'legal borders' is a peace treaty. If you can't get a peace treaty out of the opponent and voluntarily cede land back to them, then that's the moral equivalent of surrender. To people who want to kill you.
I disagree. The legal line is still there and it could be withdrawn to. Peace treaties would be a bit harder and there's ... nuts, how many needed? Gaza/Hamas, West Bank/ PLO, Jordan, Syria ... at least. But surrender? Nope. Once Israel was on land that almost the entire world agrees is hers, she can defend it with vigor. It's bad press when Israelis kill Palestinians on their own land. Much easier when they kill terrorists who are on internationally agreed Israeli land.
Do you remember 1973? Do you know how close Israel came to destruction then? And that was with the current borders. If they had stuck to the 1967 borders, we wouldn't be discussing Israel now.
National survival trumps 'propriety' every time. The disagreement I have about this with you is more succinctly stated than about Israel. Every nation, every people is in a struggle for survival. Time and space do not change this. We may delude ourselves into thinking this not true; but the world will remind us. The Ukraine is rather instructive here.
It's a legitimate comparison. But today Israel is far and away the strongest player in thee Middle East, it's not about tanks rolling over geography anymore. The thing is that the world really does have a sense of morality even if it violates that morality all the time. The slow dispossession of the Palestinians is rightly seen as immoral and that costs Israel. I wonder if someone has ever tallied up the cost of all the wars going right back to '48 vs. what it would have cost to purchase the land honestly the way the first kibbutzim did. It's a shame to steal land when honest purchase would have been cheaper in the long run, no? Even now I suggest that honest purchase would be cheaper.
"legal borders? That matters to Jordan and Syria and Egypt, not to Palestinians."
No miracle cure, that's for sure, but still, legalities matter. I'd like to see Israel *actually* holding the moral high ground, not just pretending to. I admit my stance on this is very unusual but my dad inculcated into my formative moral self that stolen land can never be holy land. I think of Abraham purchasing the cave for Sarah's burial -- the sellers praised his honesty.
The only difference between 'stolen land' and 'legal borders' is a peace treaty. If you can't get a peace treaty out of the opponent and voluntarily cede land back to them, then that's the moral equivalent of surrender. To people who want to kill you.
I disagree. The legal line is still there and it could be withdrawn to. Peace treaties would be a bit harder and there's ... nuts, how many needed? Gaza/Hamas, West Bank/ PLO, Jordan, Syria ... at least. But surrender? Nope. Once Israel was on land that almost the entire world agrees is hers, she can defend it with vigor. It's bad press when Israelis kill Palestinians on their own land. Much easier when they kill terrorists who are on internationally agreed Israeli land.
Do you remember 1973? Do you know how close Israel came to destruction then? And that was with the current borders. If they had stuck to the 1967 borders, we wouldn't be discussing Israel now.
National survival trumps 'propriety' every time. The disagreement I have about this with you is more succinctly stated than about Israel. Every nation, every people is in a struggle for survival. Time and space do not change this. We may delude ourselves into thinking this not true; but the world will remind us. The Ukraine is rather instructive here.
It's a legitimate comparison. But today Israel is far and away the strongest player in thee Middle East, it's not about tanks rolling over geography anymore. The thing is that the world really does have a sense of morality even if it violates that morality all the time. The slow dispossession of the Palestinians is rightly seen as immoral and that costs Israel. I wonder if someone has ever tallied up the cost of all the wars going right back to '48 vs. what it would have cost to purchase the land honestly the way the first kibbutzim did. It's a shame to steal land when honest purchase would have been cheaper in the long run, no? Even now I suggest that honest purchase would be cheaper.