Meat Pie said:Of course there is religious extremism on the Palestinian side and that is unacceptable. But what turns populations to extremism? Oppression and inequality does.
We can see that in most cases around the world, development of widespread extremist views are as a result of some kind of oppression, whether they be Nazi views born of the economic oppression from the victors of World War 1, or whether they be Catholic/Protestant relations in imperialist Anglo-Ireland, or even now with the rise of the Golden Dawn party in Greece as the EU enforces oppression by austerity.
Extremism is born out of oppression, and the oppression of the Palestinians by Israel has lead them to extreme anti-Israel views. Take-away the Israeli oppression and offer genuine help to the Palestinian people, rather then bomb them and invade through the creation of settlements on Palestinian land, (as is recognised as illegal by every country other than Israel and the US). That is how you stop extremism, by removing the extremity in their lives, by helping them raise living standards, not by attacking them and pretending it's somehow 'defensive' when in fact it's that military action that turns the Palestinians against Israel.
Extreme lives creates extreme views.
Palestinian jailed for Abbas Facebook 'insult'
A Palestinian court on Thursday sentenced a West Bank man to a year in prison for "insulting" president Mahmud Abbas in a remark he posted on Facebook.
AFP - A Palestinian court on Thursday sentenced a West Bank man to a year in prison for "insulting" president Mahmud Abbas in a remark he posted on Facebook.
A court in the northern West Bank city of Nablus sent Anas Said Awad, 26, from the nearby village of Awarta, to jail over a caption he posted next to a picture of Abbas kicking a football saying "a new striker for Real Madrid," his father told AFP.
"What my son wrote was not insulting to the president," Said Awad said, adding that his son was a Real Madrid supporter. "It was part of comments exchanged among young people. He did not commit any crime."
He said Anas had in the past been arrested several times by Palestinian security forces for membership of the Hamas militant group which rules the Gaza Strip, his father said.
His father said that the judge handed down the sentence without calling Anas into the courtroom, even though he was waiting elsewhere in the building.
"I do not think there was anything insulting in this photo and I do not think it is the reason for this ruling," he said, adding that Anas had been detained for two months in 2011 and interrogated on security issues linked to Hamas.
His lawyer, Rima al-Sayed, told AFP that her client had been "convicted in absentia" and that she would appeal.
In 2010 a young Palestinian blogger in the West Bank town of Qalqiliya was arrested for writing "blasphemy against the Prophet (Mohammed) and the Koran" and put into protective custody by the Palestinian security service.
More than 800 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds others injured since the beginning of the crisis in Syria nearly two years ago.
In the past two weeks, thousands of Palestinians were forced to flee the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus after Syrian jets bombed their homes, killing dozens of people.
More than 3000 refugees have fled to neighboring Lebanon, where some politicians and cabinet ministers are already calling for closing the border to stop the influx of Palestinians into their country.
The Arab world, meanwhile, has done nothing to help the Palestinians in Syria.
The Arab League did not hold an emergency meeting to discuss what Palestinians described as "massacres" against the refugees in Yarmouk, home to some 50,000 people.
This is not the first time that Palestinians living in Arab countries find themselves caught in conflicts between rival parties. Those who meddle in the internal affairs of Arab countries should not be surprised when bombs start falling on their homes.
Palestinians are not always innocent victims. They bring tragedy on themselves and then want to blame everyone else but themselves.
In Syria, a Palestinian terrorist group called Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command, which is headed by Ahmed Jibril, had been helping the Syrian regime in its attempts to suppress the opposition. Jibril's terrorists are reported to have kidnapped, tortured and murdered hundreds of anti-regime Syrians over the past two years.
The last time an Arab army bombed a Palestinian refugee camp was in Lebanon. In 2007, the Lebanese army destroyed most of the Nahr al-Bared camp after another terrorist group, Fatah al-Islam set up bases there and attacked army checkpoints, killing several soldiers.
In the 70s and 80s, Palestinians played a major role in the Lebanon civil war, which claimed the lives of more than 150,000 people.
MYTH
“Jews who lived in Islamic countries were well-treated by the Arabs.” top
FACT
While Jewish communities in Islamic countries fared better overall than those in Christian lands in Europe, Jews were no strangers to persecution and humiliation among the Arabs. As Princeton University historian Bernard Lewis has written: “The Golden Age of equal rights was a myth, and belief in it was a result, more than a cause, of Jewish sympathy for Islam.”17
Muhammad, the founder of Islam, traveled to Medina in 622 A.D. to attract followers to his new faith. When the Jews of Medina refused to recognize Muhammad as their Prophet, two of the major Jewish tribes were expelled. In 627, Muhammad’s followers killed between 600 and 900 of the men, and divided the surviving Jewish women and children amongst themselves.18
The Muslim attitude toward Jews is reflected in various verses throughout the Koran, the holy book of the Islamic faith. “They [the Children of Israel] were consigned to humiliation and wretchedness. They brought the wrath of God upon themselves, and this because they used to deny God’s signs and kill His Prophets unjustly and because they disobeyed and were transgressors” (Sura 2:61). According to the Koran, the Jews try to introduce corruption (5:64), have always been disobedient (5:78), and are enemies of Allah, the Prophet and the angels (2:97-98).
Jews were generally viewed with contempt by their Muslim neighbors; peaceful coexistence between the two groups involved the subordination and degradation of the Jews. In the ninth century, Baghdad’s Caliph al-Mutawakkil designated a yellow badge for Jews, setting a precedent that would be followed centuries later in Nazi Germany.19
At various times, Jews in Muslim lands lived in relative peace and thrived culturally and economically. The position of the Jews was never secure, however, and changes in the political or social climate would often lead to persecution, violence and death.
When Jews were perceived as having achieved too comfortable a position in Islamic society, anti-Semitism would surface, often with devastating results. On December 30, 1066, Joseph HaNagid, the Jewish vizier of Granada, Spain, was crucified by an Arab mob that proceeded to raze the Jewish quarter of the city and slaughter its 5,000 inhabitants. The riot was incited by Muslim preachers who had angrily objected to what they saw as inordinate Jewish political power.
Similarly, in 1465, Arab mobs in Fez slaughtered thousands of Jews, leaving only 11 alive, after a Jewish deputy vizier treated a Muslim woman in “an offensive manner.” The killings touched off a wave of similar massacres throughout Morocco.20
Other mass murders of Jews in Arab lands occurred in Morocco in the 8th century, where whole communities were wiped out by the Muslim ruler Idris I; North Africa in the 12th century, where the Almohads either forcibly converted or decimated several communities; Libya in 1785, where Ali Burzi Pasha murdered hundreds of Jews; Algiers, where Jews were massacred in 1805, 1815 and 1830; and Marrakesh, Morocco, where more than 300 Jews were murdered between 1864 and 1880.21
Decrees ordering the destruction of synagogues were enacted in Egypt and Syria (1014, 1293-4, 1301-2), Iraq (854-859, 1344) and Yemen (1676). Despite the Koran’s prohibition, Jews were forced to convert to Islam or face death in Yemen (1165 and 1678), Morocco (1275, 1465 and 1790-92) and Baghdad (1333 and 1344).22
The situation of Jews in Arab lands reached a low point in the 19th century. Jews in most of North Africa (including Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Morocco) were forced to live in ghettos. In Morocco, which contained the largest Jewish community in the Islamic Diaspora, Jews were made to walk barefoot or wear shoes of straw when outside the ghetto. Even Muslim children participated in the degradation of Jews, by throwing stones at them or harassing them in other ways. The frequency of anti-Jewish violence increased, and many Jews were executed on charges of apostasy. Ritual murder accusations against the Jews became commonplace in the Ottoman Empire.23
As distinguished Orientalist G.E. von Grunebaum has written:
It would not be difficult to put together the names of a very sizeable number Jewish subjects or citizens of the Islamic area who have attained to high rank, to power, to great financial influence, to significant and recognized intellectual attainment; and the same could be done for Christians. But it would again not be difficult to compile a lengthy list of persecutions, arbitrary confiscations, attempted forced conversions, or pogroms.24
The danger for Jews became even greater as a showdown approached in the UN. The Syrian delegate, Faris el-Khouri, warned: “Unless the Palestine problem is settled, we shall have difficulty in protecting and safeguarding the Jews in the Arab world.”25
More than a thousand Jews were killed in anti-Jewish rioting during the 1940’s in Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Syria and Yemen.26 This helped trigger the mass exodus of Jews from Arab countries.
DiogoJ42 said:It's late. I'm in no state to type massive essays. I shall boil my thoughts down to three bullet points:
The majority of Israel's military hardware was sold to them by America. Except for the few bits that just aren't deadly enough, then they design their own. The world's biggest semi auto pistol, for example, the Desert Eagle. It's so big that it defies the whole point of being a handgun. An American gun was not big enough for them...Make of this what you will.
This, coupled with the troops dedication and high level of skill, makes Israel one of the most deadly armed forces on the planet. They also have a sizable stockpile of nuclear weapons.
The Palistinians have RPGs and AK47s. That's one step up from throwing rocks.
I'd have thought after all the horrors that the Jewish people have endured over the years, they would want to be a shining example of peace. That they would do everything in their power to stop oppression.
But it turns out that if you beat your kids, they will grow up to beat their own kids.
Back in the cold war, we were constantly told that we had to fear the Commies, because they hate us. Oddly enough, the Soviets were told exactly the same thing about us westerners. And years later (who could possibly have seen this coming?) it turns out that on either side, there was never any hate... only fear.
Purity of Arms - The IDF servicemen and women will use their weapons and force only for the purpose of their mission, only to the necessary extent and will maintain their humanity even during combat. IDF soldiers will not use their weapons and force to harm human beings who are not combatants or prisoners of war, and will do all in their power to avoid causing harm to their lives, bodies, dignity and property.
Discipline - The IDF servicemen and women will strive to the best of their ability to fully and successfully complete all that is required of them according to orders and their spirit. IDF soldiers will be meticulous in giving only lawful orders, and shall refrain from obeying blatantly illegal orders.
http://judaism.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=judaism&cdn=religion&tm=6&f=10&tt=14&bt=1&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.jcpa.org/brief/brief3-8.htmThe IDF has developed a code of conduct that is a combination of international law, Israeli law, and the IDF's own traditional ethical code - ruach tzahal, "the spirit of the IDF." Reserve units and regular units alike are taught the following eleven rules of conduct:
- Military action can only be taken against military targets.
- The use of force must be proportional.
- Soldiers may only use weaponry they were issued by the IDF.
- Anyone who surrenders cannot be attacked.
- Only those who are properly trained can interrogate prisoners.
- Soldiers must accord dignity and respect to the Palestinian population and those arrested.
- Soldiers must give appropriate medical care, when conditions allow, to oneself and one's enemy.
- Pillaging is absolutely and totally illegal.
- Soldiers must show proper respect for religious and cultural sites and artifacts.
- Soldiers must protect international aid workers, including their property and vehicles.
- Soldiers must report all violations of this code.