What Should Be Done About Israel's Illegal Settlements?

[Sunstone]

What should be done about Israel's illegal settlements? Why?

 

[Vile Atheist]

What should be done about Israel's illegal settlements? Why?

I think it's more worthwhile to ask what can be done, rather than what should be done. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see anything that can be done.

Israel has a powerful military with the backing of the US. They're up against starving people who throw rocks. It's fairly obvious the Palestinians aren't going to win a military victory. And they wouldn't stand a chance in hell, if it wasn't for the international community placing some pressure on Israel (whenever Israel finds itself obliged to bow to it).

Netanyahu is committed to expanding these settlements and clearly US pressure doesn't influence him much. I think the cessation of the illegal settlements has to come from the people of Israel putting pressure on their own politicians to stop expanding settlements as it is an obvious detriment to peace.

I'm no Israeli, but I would imagine some of them feel the Qassam rocket attacks and suicide bombers justify the settlements. And I'm no Palestinian, but I would imagine some of them feel as if the Israeli blockade of Gaza leading to a humanitarian crisis justifies continued attacks against the Israeli state. The Israeli settlement expansion is what is causing the Qassams to be launched in the first place.

To my last recollection, some 450,000 Israelis live in these settlements and clearly that's 450,000 Israelis who would willingly put themselves at higher risk of attack. What would be their motive for doing that?

More importantly, what can be done? Not much. Except the Israeli people need to put pressure on their politicians to stop expanding the settlement, which is one of the major irritants of peace in this conflict.

On the flip side of the coin, the Palestinians should recognize Israel's right to exist and realize that attacking Israel is going to do them more harm than good. At least with peace, there can be the flow of humanitarian aid and rebuilding can occur.

 

[TashaN]

What should be done? Hmmmmm!
What if we have converted all Jews in Israel to Islam? would they still do he same thing to the Palestinians?

What if they have converted to Christianity, would we still be enemies? At least they will stop looking for that temple of theirs.

 

[Vile Atheist]

What should be done? Hmmmmm!
What if we have converted all Jews in Israel to Islam? would they still do he same thing to the Palestinians?

What if they have converted to Christianity, would we still be enemies? At least they will stop looking for that temple of theirs.

Convert everyone to atheism. Instead of wars, we'd have comical debates.

 

[TashaN]

Convert everyone to atheism. Instead of wars, we'd have comical debates.

Where is the fun in that?

Seriously, i think Europe can put some pressure to pass a law or something in the UN and convince the US not use the veto for once.

 

[kai]

What should be done? Hmmmmm!
What if we have converted all Jews in Israel to Islam? would they still do he same thing to the Palestinians?

What if they have converted to Christianity, would we still be enemies? At least they will stop looking for that temple of theirs.

I thought the temple was yours? heres the problem "them" and "us". I see no solution to the problem i think it is insurmountable. I think the settlements are only a minor player in the whole war. even the argument over Jerusalem is not the real reason the real reason for war is because there are two different religions claiming the same area of land as theirs by divine right. the jews were given it by god and the Muslims were given it by Allah. there's no sharing they hate each other. It will always be a region of instability until religion plays no role in the politics of the region.

the reference by TashaN to " that Temple of theirs" just about sums it up.

 

[Mr Spinkles]

Sadly, the U.S. has been "doing something" about the settlements for a long time. As Tashan correctly points out, the U.S. has repeatedly used its veto power to block UN measures against the settlements which had virtual unanimous agreement among all the nations of the planet, except Israel and the U.S.

Meanwhile, private groups in the U.S., particularly evangelical Christians, send over lots of money for Jewish settlement so their insane prophesies can be fulfilled.

U.S. corporations like Caterpillar manufacture the enormous armored bulldozers used to flatten Palestinian houses. Israel is a tiny country, they can't make all their weapons and equipment on their own.

So one thing that "should be done" in the U.S. about Israel's illegal settlements is to stop supporting them. In order to do that we have to spread awareness among everyday Americans and show that we can protect Israel as an ally against foreign attack, and as a people with whom we share a lot in common, without supporting their settlement policy.

 

[Epicurus_UK]

There's an Australian comedian called Tim Minchin who could settle all the unrest between Jews and Muslims in the middle east with his wonderful peace anthem. Lyrics are as follows :-

We don't eat pigs,
You don't eat pigs;
Seems it's been that way forever.

So if you don't eat pigs,
And we don't eat pigs;
Why not not eat pigs together?

Problem solved (if only)

 

[TashaN]

the reference by TashaN to " that Temple of theirs" just about sums it up.

Because it doesn't exist as far as i know. They just want to dig and dig till they cause the collapse of Al-Aqsa mosque which they are digging under.

 

[TashaN]

In order to do that we have to spread awareness among everyday Americans and show that we can protect Israel as an ally against foreign attack, and as a people with whom we share a lot in common, without supporting their settlement policy.

The US need more people like you. I wish they could understand what you are talking about.

 

[Caladan]

Convert everyone to atheism. Instead of wars, we'd have comical debates.

I'll cautiously speculate that most Jews are atheists. at least Israel was created by a secular movement and it is an officially secular state (with some compromises with the religious sector which manifest in Israeli domestic affairs).
as for the temple. that's nonsense. any religious person who actually dreams about the third temple is treated as a kookoo in Israel. the fact that there are some nutjobs who talk about it is no surprising, every society has its trouble makers. the archaeological excavations done in the area of where the temple once stood have nothing to do with the third temple, it has to do with archaeology and Jewish history, given for some people there is a traditional importance to that, can you blame them?
the bottom line is, that after taking Jerusalem in the 67 war, Israel has given the control of the Al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the rock to the Muslim Waqf, and has placed whatever restriction it saw fit out of whatever security measures that were considered.

 

[TashaN]

I'll cautiously speculate that most Jews are atheists. at least Israel was created by a secular movement and it is an officially secular state (with some compromises with the religious sector which manifest in Israeli domestic affairs).
as for the temple. that's nonsense. any religious person who actually dreams about the third temple is treated as a kookoo in Israel. the fact that there are some nutjobs who talk about it is no surprising, every society has its trouble makers. the archaeological excavations done in the area of where the temple once stood have nothing to do with the third temple, it has to do with archaeology and Jewish history, given for some people there is a traditional importance to that, can you blame them?
the bottom line is, that after taking Jerusalem in the 67 war, Israel has given the control of the Al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the rock to the Muslim Waqf, and has placed whatever restriction it saw fit out of whatever security measures that were considered.

What should be done about Israel's illegal settlements? Why?

 

[Vile Atheist]

I'll cautiously speculate that most Jews are atheists. at least Israel was created by a secular movement and it is an officially secular state (with some compromises with the religious sector which manifest in Israeli domestic affairs).
as for the temple. that's nonsense. any religious person who actually dreams about the third temple is treated as a kookoo in Israel. the fact that there are some nutjobs who talk about it is no surprising, every society has its trouble makers. the archaeological excavations done in the area of where the temple once stood have nothing to do with the third temple, it has to do with archaeology and Jewish history, given for some people there is a traditional importance to that, can you blame them?
the bottom line is, that after taking Jerusalem in the 67 war, Israel has given the control of the Al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the rock to the Muslim Waqf, and has placed whatever restriction it saw fit out of whatever security measures that were considered.

I was curious to see just how many Israelis actually are atheist. So I looked it up.

This website gives a wide range: 15 to 37%. Here, it says the percentage of atheists in Israel is 25.6%, so I'd venture a guess that it's somewhere around 25 to 30%.

In terms of what percentage of Jews are atheist, I couldn't really find much info in my Googling (which is why I decided to look up Israeli atheists instead). Mostly what turned up was comparisons of populations of Christians, Muslims, Jews, and Atheists globally. Could just be poor search terms on my part.

So while a large part of Israel is atheist (which is encouraging !) they are certainly not a majority. On the flip side of the coin, atheism is virtually non-existent in pretty much any pre-dominantly Muslim country. If it does exist, the percentage of atheists is very low.

 

[Alceste]

The US need more people like you. I wish they could understand what you are talking about.

Yeah, the US needs more Canadians!!

 

[Kilgore Trout]

What should be done about Israel's illegal settlements?

More pools and hot tubs.

Why?

It's nice to be able to relax by taking a dip or a soak after a long day.

 

[Vile Atheist]

Yeah, the US needs more Canadians!!

I second this.

 

[Caladan]

So while a large part of Israel is atheist (which is encouraging !) they are certainly not a majority. On the flip side of the coin, atheism is virtually non-existent in pretty much any pre-dominantly Muslim country. If it does exist, the percentage of atheists is very low.

You need to understand several complexities about Israeli society. some Israelis are complete atheists, but they still keep several Jewish traditions out of respect to their heritage, its pretty hard to understand for a western atheist I guess. therefor even many secular Israelis might be defined as theists in surveys. also many Jewish and Israeli atheists still define themselves as Jewish.

 

[YmirGF]

What should be done about Israel's illegal settlements? Why?

Have the UN declare them as being legal and tell the "Palestinians" to take a hike.

 

[Vile Atheist]

You need to understand several complexities about Israeli society. some Israelis are complete atheists, but they still keep several Jewish traditions out of respect to their heritage, its pretty hard to understand for a western atheist I guess. therefor even many secular Israelis might be defined as theists in surveys. also many Jewish and Israeli atheists still define themselves as Jewish.

I sorta understand it. I come from a similar situation.

 

[Humanistheart]

I think it's more worthwhile to ask what can be done, rather than what should be done. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see anything that can be done.

Israel has a powerful military with the backing of the US. .

.

Then it's time the US took that backing away. We have our own problems to deal with.