[Adam White]

Originally posted by Valhal
[B]Over the years the US has given Israel staggering amounts of aid. So we definitely consider them an important ally. But why is that? Not because of any cultural ties. If I my be non PC it is because it affords us a solid piece of ground in order to dominate the area if it comes down to that. The ME is of dire importance to the US and the world. We will never let the oil spigot be taken away from us. The Israelis make a perfect ally and supporting them like we do is very Machiavellian.
That's my attempt to distill the pure grain from the BS. The only credentials I have is that I kick ass at RISK.

Lets not keep score but lets just say that both sides have killed innocent lives quite frequently.

As for the Media, I guess it depends where you get your info. And I agree RL I don't know what to make out of Chomsky but he is passionate about this issue. I wish I was more erudite and had the time to look at both sides in depth.

Chomsky is a linguist who uses his position of tenure to play-act that he has some background or knowledge in international relations. You should read him not as a PhD (in anything relating to what he rambles about) , but as a anti-American with an axe to grind.

There have been numerous UN resolutions demanding that Israel go back to the 1967 borders and stop setting up colonies within the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Only 2 votes opposed the resolutions. Can you guess who?

There have been numerous resolutions on all sides of this issue. Israel believes they risk certain doom if they give up what little ground they have - they learned this lesson the hard way - in 1967 and 1973. I love how the Palestinian sympathisers love to tout these UN resolutions - and fail to mention that it was an all out ATTACK on Israel that altered those borders to begin with. Every act by Osrael was purely defensive, and done to insure its own survival.

Also, Israel would GLADLY go to those borders if they could have some guarantee of peace and survival. The issue that collapsed the last peace talks was when Egypt wanted to populate the ISRAEL controlled areas with more "Palestinians" than there were Jews in all of Israel- effectilvely meaning that - in the democracy that is Israel - there would be NO MORE ISRAEL.

Finally - those settlements in "Palestinian lands" brings up several points. The fact that they are even called "Palestinian" lands shows that Israel gave them to them - since after the first (1948) war - I would not have blamed them if they just claimed the whole country for themselves. Also, those settlements are ILLEGAL under ISRAELI law. The government is not establishing them. However, as a DEMOCRACY, they can't just tear down people homes without due process. You aren't going to see much support for tearing down homes when TERRORISTS are the ones most concerned about it.

NOBODY was living there before the settlements. This is akin to the whole debate about Israel. When the country was nothing but wasteland - nobody gave a shit. Every time Israel or Israelis try to build something nice - suddenly the Palestinians want to take it or blow it up. It is nothing but envy, pure and simple.

The Arab world sees that the US is acting hypocritically. Much of the bad sentiments they feel towards us has to do with the way we handle the Israeli Palestinian issue. Very one sided.

Egypt is one of the strongest financial and military supporters of Palestinians. Much of the recent activity in Gaza has been to cut off flows of hardware, in fact. We give MORE FOREIGN AID to Egypt than we do Israel. The only thing "one-sided" is the sources that act as if our foreign policy is "one-sided."

You may not realize it, but the press is very biased AGAINST Israel. Once you get your feet on the ground in that region - you wil begin to understand where the REAL hate and one-sided bias lies - and it sure aint on the Israeli side.