Israel, Lebanon, and Gaza

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Nephythys

I suppose I should understand someone who is an athiest ignoring the Biblical history of Israel- it was not created out of guilt. We did not give them anything-

I'm not ignoring it, but oddly I don't use the Bible as a handbook for modern geopolitics. The Biblical history is the hook on which the claim to the land is made, guilt (I'm not talking about WWII but the pogroms of the late 1800s that eventually lead to the Balfour Declaration) and anti-semitism (some factions saw it as a way to get the Jews out of their country) is the reason the Western world gave it to them.

As a practical result, I pretty much agree with wendybeth. Israel is there and it has a right to defend itself. But it is a problem created by sloppy thinking 60-80 years ago and the beef on both sides is easy to understand. Attempts to force Israelites out of their homes are seen as an act of violence while generally ignoring the original act of violence (in the sense that territorial confiscation is considered an act of violence) that initially put them in those homes.

But if god wants the Jews to have Israel it is another example of this deity's general stupidity that they can only have it by being in a perpetual state of war or semi-war. And it was just plain spiteful of it to let other people live there for 2,000 years before giving it back. Frankly, I don't see what it is that you like about this god, it's something of a prick.