Israel &The Right Of Self Defense

I have written many post condemning the Bush Administration for taking the U.S. into Iraq.

I also condemn war as a means of solving problems. War is horrible, and it does not solve problems it only creates larger problems.

Yet I believe that everyone, and every nation has the right to defend themselves.

Whatever one may believe about Israel, and Zionism, one must recognize that millions of Jewish people live in that nation, and they are not going to just disappear. Israel is a fact.

Millions of people want to kill Jews because they blame their poverty, and oppressed situation in life upon Israel. These oppressed people should instead focus upon changing their corrupt dictatorial governments into peaceful, and prosperous democracies which recognize, and protect the rights of everyone despite their differences.

It's an age old story - if there's a problem why not simply blame it on the Jews?

Political movements in Islamic nations which use scapegoating, and hatred for the Jews as a means of creating a sense of unity are inherently disconnected from the true issues which face the people the claim to care most about. These organizations fear the consequences of challenging those who control the nations in which they operate, and so instead they choose to attack a sanctioned scapegoat.

While issues relating to the history of the creation of the modern state of Israel, and Israel's treatment of of the Palestinian people are legitimate topics of debate, the villification, and dehumanization of the Jewish people is nothing more than a method of creating a sense of Muslim unity through the creation of an outgroup - one of humankind's sadder modus operandi.

There appears to be a strong inverse relationship between the level of concern which a group's leadership truly possesses for its members, and the amount of outgrouping it participates in.

Those who feel they need to blame all manner of social ills on a particular minority, race, nationality, or religion are less likely to actually address the real causes of poverty, and social problems. Instead they use the "made you look" method of redirecting attention to the scapegoat as a means of control.

The hundreds of millions of dollars which the Syrian, and Iranian governments, have taken from their own people to support terrorist groups could have been used to help their impoverished people. This fact alone is an indication of the lack of concern which the "leaders" of those nations have for addressing the very problems which they blame upon the United States, and Israel.

The United States has pressured Israel for years to work towards peace, by giving up land. Land for peace was the promise made to the Israeli people, yet now we see where that has led. In areas in which Israel has voluntarily exited we now see well financed terrorist groups planning, and preparing the military overthrow of the state of Israel.

Israel has the right to defend itself from an army of terrorist in Lebanon, but it should refrain from destroying any infrastructure which could later assist the Lebanese people in recovering economically.

Opposing war in general does not mean one must quietly refrain from supporting nations legitimately involved in self defense. The difference between the Bush Administration's actions in Iraq, and what Israel is now embroiled in is obvious. Israel is defending itself from destruction, while the U.S. war in Iraq was a war of choice - the Iraqi war was avoidable.

Note: Support for Israel in this current conflict does not imply I support all actions, or policies of Israeli governments past and present.