Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors

60 Replies to “Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors”

1. Listening to both sides, verifying both statements against the facts in order to sort truth from lies – that’s hard work. Being a member of the fourth estate means that you are above such tasks.

2. “Low grade attack”. Pure newspeak.
   Irrespective of what happens after you pull the trigger, doesn’t mean that your intention should in any way be excused, or lessened. We don’t laugh off attempted murder in Canada.
   Do you ever see Israelis smiling and dancing after a huge blast, saying “what a relief, it was only a low-grade attack!” ?

3. Yeah well….I don’t give “journalists” credit for much critical thinking…..
   However, even here otherwise sage commenters have accepted the narrative that the invented demographic “Palestinians”, are the aboriginal residents of “Palestine”.
   I recall prior to 1967 and the invention of “Palestinians, the media and academia blindly endorsed the arab claims that “the joos stole our land”….when even a casual glance at an atlas would reveal that Syria, Jordan and Eygpt had annexed the land alloted to the arabs by the UN in 1948……and ignored the mass movement of 30,000 syrian arabs into Palestine on the eve of the 1948 partition.

4. They’re not interested in the truth, they have a narrative to sell!

5. Sorry, I meant *squeeze* the trigger…

6. “When it comes to covering Israel (and politics) the mainstream media cannot be considered “reasonable and decent.”
   The understatement of the decade.
   Every newscast from Canadian sources, CBC,CTV,Global, all play the Palestinians -as-victims of aggressive Israel theme, mentioning the rocket attacks much later on in the narrative,when most people have already tuned in to the “horror” of the Israeli actions.
   Yellow journalism has become the norm.

7. That’s because every reasonably cogent person knows that Jews are ‘wild child crushing baby blood suckers who engage in Na*i war crimes with carefree abandon.’
   When the dung scrapers that call themselves news organizations can actually ‘report some facts’; rather than the latest spin hurried out the door by some clapped out Hamas protege issuing the latest press release…let us all know.
   http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/hamas-qassam.htm
   November 2012 witnessed a major escalation of HAMAS rocket capabilities, as the Iranian Fajr-5 artillery rocket was employed for the first time. With a range of about 75 kilometers, it had twice the range of rockets previously used by HAMAS, and brought Tel Avic and Jeruslalem within range of HAMAS attacks. At the outset of Operation Pillar of Defense, the IDF targeted a significant number of long-range rockets sites (over 40 km) owned by Hamas. This deals a significant blow to the terror organization’s underground rocket launching capabilities and munitions warehouses that are owned by Hamas and other terror organizations. The aim of targeting these sites is to cripple the terrorist organization’s rocket launching and weapons build-up capabilities. One Fajr-5 [range of about 75 km] launch site that was struck IAF aircraft was located in close proximity to a mosque and other civilian structures.
   Sirens also went off late Thursday 15 November 2012 in Tel Aviv sparking a panic and nearly crippling mobile phone service after missiles fired from Gaza approached the city. Israeli officials say the missiles fell into the sea. Palestinian militants issued a statement claiming responsibility, saying they had fired Iranian-made rockets. It is the first time sirens had sounded in Tel Aviv since the Gulf War in 1991. Tel Aviv is about 80 kilometers from Gaza, indicating the use of the Iranian Fajr-5, which has twice the range of the rockets previously used by HAMAS. On Friday 16 November 2012 one rocket landing in a field outside Jerusalem.
   Yossi Mekelman, a regional expert at London-based Chatham House, told Radio Free Europe on 17 November 2012 that the Fajr-5 missiles were smuggled from Iran to Gaza through Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. “The assumption is that they arrived through the Sinai Peninsula through the tunnels [to Gaza] because since the end of the Mubarak regime the border [between Egypt and the Gaza Strip] at Rafah is quite open,” Mekelman says. “And if you remember, Israel two weeks ago attacked an arms factory in Sudan. So the alleged route goes from Iran to Sudan into the Sinai Peninsula, and the lawlessness in the Sinai enables the smuggling of more and more sophisticated weapons.”
   Cheers
   Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
   1st Saint Nicolaas Army
   Army Group “True North”

8. Israel needs her enemies. They keep those billions in US aid rolling in. Probably more than $20 billion a year if the FMF grants, reciprocal agreements in return for buying US with US grants, etc., are counted.
   Interesting, when Jim Traficant threatened to interfere with those billions, the Israelis handed John Demjanjuk right over. heh
   A few rockets are nothing compared to losing more than $20 billion in welfare.
   Likewise, the Mooslums need Israel. It’s a symbiotic relationship.

9. sasquatch, exactly. It is convenient as it suits their anti-Jewish ideology.

10. I am always amazed at the control Israel has had in the past three years as 4000 rockets indiscriminately rained down from palestinian territory. What you are seeing is the moment a country finally says “ENOUGH!”

11. Mojo hit the nail on the head. The media people are not the least bit interested in truth or facts especially if they differ from the narrative they are pushing. This is very clear when it comes to Israel, but it is the same behaviour no matter what the topic.

12. Our ” moral and intellectual superiors” should take a look at this site(and then report the facts).
    Amazingly,the Palestinians have constructed the most prosperous open air prison camp in the history of mankind.
    http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/site/881/default.aspx#HouseHold

13. SIN OF OMISSION WARNING
    Congratulations Sradivarious you’ve outed the Israelis. All that FMP aid to Israel and not a red cent to the Palestinians. That’s right folks the US doesn’t provide military aid to the Palestinians. Imagine that – clearly that’s racist – no aid for them – no wait.
    You are clearly right, Israel needs her enemies – she needs them so much she somehow talked Iran into supplying Hamas with ever longer range missiles and rockets. No, don’t say it – it’s the Chinese connection, right? the Chinese sold Iran those missiles because they loooove Israel, so she could go get more enemies and presumably get more foreign aid, right?
    Israel also needs her other enemies and judging by how many she’s got (the entire Arab world the vast majority of the Islamic world and a host of other Jew haters) she’s done a masterful job.
    I think not.

14. Well, I take the long view and wonder, so what if you make the Palestinians stop their rockets, and so what if you make the Israelis stop expanding their settlements in the W Bank, eating up all the land base of the Palestinians. What then?
    I don’t agree with the view that ONLY IF you can prove that your ancestors 2,000 years ago lived in such and such a territory, can you claim the right to live there now. That would, of course invalidate, as nations, Canada, the USA, Australia, indeed all of N and S America and probably most of the world.
    The reality is that our species was migratory and moved, well, everywhere.
    The second reality is that a claim to a land base is not genetic and cannot be defined as ‘heritable’. It’s political, which means, it’s up to the human thought processes. Not genetic processes.
    So, Israel exists as a political entity. Not a genetic entity. Israelis as citizens are also political entities. Same with Palestinians, and, as such, they were, politically, assigned a land base back in 1948. The surrounding nations did not allow them in; don’t think that ‘arabs are all alike’. They aren’t; there is a hierarchy and Palestinians were always considered ‘low’.
    The problem is, not merely the Islamic states and Islam versus Judaism, though that is a real problem. Both religions, or should I say, cultures, have, since their inception, a long, very long history of antipathy towards each other. You have only to read the texts of both, to see the exhortations of hatred towards each other. But, except for the orthodox on both sides, these can, over time, be reduced.
    The problem is political and economic. The West Bank has vital aquifers and land for settlement. Israel needs both. It controls both by its occupation. It cannot cease occupation and, for example, merge the WBank with Israel because a basic component of its political identity is that the majority of its citizens must be of the Judaic religion. That’s its choice. But it cannot allow the W Bank Palestinians to be citizens.
    Nor can it, in the current climate, allow Palestine to emerge as a totally separate state because, in my view, Iran would swallow it in a nanosecond. Iran and its imperialist ambitions is the key problem in the MENA. Iran is running Hamas and is in Syria. And Libya. And Egypt.
    My suggestion, as always, is that Palestine and Israel should join, economically, as a federation. But, politically, as far as social issues are concerned, they should be separate. That is, akin to a province or state. I can see no other way out.
    Stopping the rockets, stopping the settlements, won’t do a thing. The solution has to be deeper and more economic and political than this. And, the solution also has to involve dealing with Iran.

15. Sradivarious >
    “Likewise, the Mooslums need Israel. It’s a symbiotic relationship.”
    Bingo, we’re the just the idiots in the middle who fund the theater.
    The good news for Israel is that unlike moronic westerners they could give a flying f*ck what the western Liberal MSM has to say. When they feel threatened enough, they’ll lay down a BIG can of whoop-ass on the adult sized brown children throwing sharp things at them.

16. SIN OF OMISSION WARNING
    Congratulations Sradivarious you’ve outed the Israelis. All that FMP aid to Israel and not a red cent to the Palestinians. That’s right folks the US doesn’t provide military aid to the Palestinians. Imagine that – clearly that’s racist – no aid for them – no wait.
    You are clearly right, Israel needs her enemies – she needs them so much she somehow talked Iran into supplying Hamas with ever longer range missiles and rockets. No, don’t say it – it’s the Chinese connection, right? the Chinese sold Iran those missiles because they loooove Israel, so she could go get more enemies and presumably get more foreign aid, right?
    Israel also needs her other enemies and judging by how many she’s got (the entire Arab world the vast majority of the Islamic world and a host of other Jew haters) she’s done a masterful job.
    I think not.

17. What truly amazes me is the the United Church wants to boycott any goods coming from Israel yet they are the only ones who don’t persecute gays and lesbians the backbone of the United Church

18. No one has any business being surprised, shocked, amazed or etc., by any of this. President This-Is-Payback-Time Obama and his palace guard in the MSM are not neutral incompetents. They are on the other side.
    PS: Each and every one of those Hamas and Palestinian Jihad rockets sent indiscriminately into Israeli civilian neighbourhoods is a war crime. Has the MSM ever mentioned that? War crimes for thee, but not for me.

19. No, don’t say it – it’s the Chinese connection, right? the Chinese sold Iran those missiles because they loooove Israel, so she could go get more enemies and presumably get more foreign aid, right?
    Heh, as of 2005, Israel was China’s second major arms supplier, after Russia.
    Maybe they’re stupid, but I doubt it…follow the money.

20. “I don’t agree with the view that ONLY IF you can prove that your ancestors 2,000 years ago lived in such and such a territory, can you claim the right to live there now.”
    ~ET
    That there is a straw man argument.
    The issue is expanding Islamic Jihad/terrorism and you, ET, are little more than an enabler of it whenever the topic deals with this issue at SDA whether it is the ‘Arab Spring’ in Egypt/Libya or the constant threats to Israeli security by the various Muslim Arab entities surrounding Israel.
    “My suggestion, as always, is that Palestine and Israel should join, economically, as a federation.”
    ~ET
    This is pure fantasy on your part, utter rubbish.
    There is no Palestine.
    When there was a Roman Palestine it was Israel to which the Roman’s were referring.
    To say that there is a Palestine other than Israel is to enable blood thirsty Islamist killers and threaten Israeli security by legitimizing the lie these terrorists claim to be fighting for.

21. I think not.
    True.

22. Has Green Helmet Guy showed up yet on CNN?
    His interview with Anderson Cooper is always a highlight of the MSM coverage of Palestinian events.

23. To these progressives/journalists, the bodycount from the attacks is what matters and not the act of launching rockets. They seem to think that Israel should just take it because Hamas can’t aim. However, if Hamas could aim, and each of those 700 rockets were able to kill some Israelis, I’m sure the journalists would think of some other excuse to condemn Israel for defending itself.

24. As for the US arming the Israelis and not the Palestinians, I wouldn’t be sure of that. Think of Benghazi: a gun-running operation designed to arm Syrian “freedom fighters” clandestinely. In other words, giving arms to Al Queda. Who, of course, would never dream of diverting some of those weapons to Hamas. I wonder what the Israelis will find when they send the army into Gaza?

25. “Fox News’ Leland Vitter say the IDF was responding to “low grade” attacks from Gaza”
    I expected much better from Fox. Someone throwing rocks or eggs at my house could be considered a “low grade” attack. Rocket attacks … not so much. Based on Vitter’s way of thinking, a hand grenade tossed into his living room would not even be classified as an attack.

26. Jews are funny, smart, disproportionately successful in both business and the arts, and bounce back from every onslaught.
    What’s not to hate?

27. Dead Israeli civilians don’t count as victims in the jihadi-intoxicated media – and the zombie left consume more of their disinfo than any other social group.
    Enjoy your snacking on what the Hamas media poots forth. The more SXXT you eat the more SXXT you speak.

28. Historically the city of Shiloh was the capital of Israel, some 300 years before Jerusalem, and located in Samaria. Samaria along with Judea forms the modernly described West Bank.
    The West designation is in reference to the Jordan river, which is almost as historically referred to as is the Indus and the Tigris/Euphrates rivers.
    The present Country of Jordan was originally named by the British after WW One, TransJordan. This name to differentiate the Hashemite Kingdom from the other side of the Jordan river.
    The other side (West)of the Jordan River was established as a buffer for the ragtag Arab tribes who did or would not fit under the control of the Hashemite royalty in TransJordan.
    This buffering approach which was later established after WW Two has some similiarity to Kashmir/Jammu another area of continual conflict.
    This between the dominant Hindu religion in India and the dominent Muslim religion in Pakistan. (The second or third largest Muslim population in the world also resides in India).
    Another peoples who serve as a buffer between the medieval approach to governance in the Levant is the Kurdish Nation. A future boiling pot of revenge and atrition located in the hub of Iraq/Iran/Turkey.
    The greatness of the medieval Islamic domination of the total Mediteranian geographic basin, not just the Levant, ended with internecine relationship with the religious devides of Shi’te and Sunni factions. These continually regressive ruling parties will always seek their own buffer zones. At present it is with Western society as the mutual enemy using ignorance to control as balefully as the Roman urban mobs.
    Western/Occidental Christanity set up the Jews as the Medieval scapegoats during the struggle of moving past the Tribal level of civilization. This is still a work in progress and a continuation in the spread of education may still be possible.
    However, at least to my humble opinion, the only method to effectively control the medieval and tribal governance in the Levant is through unambiguous force. Israel must reverse the Islamic threat to push the Jews into the sea by actually doing this to the Arab scapegoats for the medieval governance of the now called Palistine.
    The start to this plan is to accumulate very large bulldozers, such as John Deere D10 or similar. Then entering the 40 kilometer long by 7 to 11 kilometer wide Gaza strip and under air cover. This could be focused on the north east corner of Gaza and steadily bulldoze the place into the Mediterrean Sea in the direction of Gaza City. this would mean accummulating 50 to 100 dozers and probably bring a completely new focus on doing business with Israel.
    It would probably take a total of 2500 such 16 meter bladed dozers to start on the East side of Gaza and start pushing across to whole length of Gaza at one time. The first half of a kilometer is already a buffer zone, so a running start is possible.
    The next step is to continue buying property in the former Samaria and Judea. Ignore the hand ringing of the liberal/progressives. (scratch a liberal deep enough and you will find an anti-semite).Once the world sees the solving of this millenium old tribal based problem is underway, maybe the evolution of civilization through education will recommence in earnest. Cheers;

29. Palestine has received in excess of 66 trillion in global aid, waging war against Israel is their only source of financial growth. Can you imagine those indoctrinated and trained to hate Jews for 60 years becoming productive peaceful citizens?? Nope the liberal media narrate Palestine’s hatred as some kind of victimhood against themselves, personally I care not one wit what happens to them as a people.

30. Oz, well, I disagree with you.
    I suggest that it is you who are using a straw man argument, by your requirement that a people exist in a place for thousands of years in order to claim current ownership. I don’t care whether the Romans defined Jews or non-Jews or Christians or pagans or whatever as existing in what is now Israel. [And of course, Islam hadn’t developed at that time.] That doesn’t mean that those who lived there, for example, before the Jews, and who were pagan ‘animistics’ NOW have the ‘right of ownership of that Israeli territory. Just as the indigeneous peoples in Canada, who lived her long before Europeans came, don’t have the right of ‘ownership’ of Canada.
    Land ownership isn’t genetic; it isn’t a property of ancient inhabitation. It’s political, and can certainly change. Consider the history of the world, and how ‘ownership’ of lands changed.
    As I said, legal domain over a territory is NOT based on showing that thousands of years ago, some of your presumed ancestors lived there. Such a belief, if considered as a legal axiom, would nullify the current existence of just about every nation on earth.
    My focus is not on what people think ‘ought’ to be, and this is always in dispute. My focus is on what IS. Kindly consider the difference between ought and is.
    And what IS, is that both Israelis exist, and Palestinians exist. People may deny that one or the other ‘ought’ to exist. I don’t involve myself with ‘ought’. I only consider the reality. Both peoples exist. Just like the illegal immigrants in the USA exist. Whether they ‘ought’ to exist is not relevant. They do exist.
    Therefore, I’m not interested in imaginary ‘if only’ scenarios. Both peoples exist. There is no way that either can be, or should be, made to disappear. Therefore, what is the practical solution? My concept of an economic federation is, in my view, feasible. I don’t think that a separate Palestinian state would survive longer than a second; Iran would swallow it.
    And there is no way that booting the Palestinians, or whatever name you want to give them, out of land which they too have inhabited for centuries, including during the Ottoman rule, is feasible. Just as you cannot deport the US illegals.
    Furthermore, jihadism and Islamic terrorism has absolutely nothing to do with the Israel-Palestine situation. Islamic terrorism began long before Israel even began – read Wright’s book on Al Quaeda and its history. Islamic fascism is a product of the refusal of Islamic governments to modernize and move out of a tribal infrastructure. Their populations have moved beyond the economic and political capacities of a tribal mode of governance, and that is why Islamic fascism has developed.
    Zilch to do with Israel, which is used, by those Islamic governments, as a red herring to deflect the anger of people at their internal mess..to a false external cause (the US and Israel).

31. Israel should bomb the Gaza schools at NIGHT when they’re empty.
    Give the bastards something to rebuild while waiting for next shipment of rockets. “Hey Iran, we could use some more f@&%$ng concrete next time”!
    Anderson Cooper should out himself, while he’s there. Give the media something else to blame on Israel.

32. Low Grade is probably right, they’re not nukes after all. As for the response from Israel, it would be completely justified in my mind if they were to start carpet-bombing the entire strip.
    They probably should before the Iranians start exporting nukes instead of the “low grade” munitions they are currently using.
    Israel really needs to be proactive here. Their survival is ultimately dependent on that.

33. ET, I respectfully disagree with some of your argument. You overlook that as long as Islamic doctrine and beliefs exist there will never be peace or coexistence possible with Israel or any other group that rejects it. Nor can there be economic development or any kind of technological advancement.
    As for the claim that the Arabs cannot be moved or relocated, you overlook again how much larger numbers of people were forcibly relocated during wars, especially WW II. So to argue that it is impossible does not hold up. Of course were they a peaceful, law=abiding and tolerant people, there would be no such need.

34. ET, the Palestinians have been used as political and military tools by surrounding nations before. Iran is not the first to play this card. In short, Israel’s neighbours have no interest in allowing solutions to the Palestinian question, as it keeps Israel preoccupied from dealing with any other matters.
    As for unification, this is utterly impossible. You have pointed out the rise of Islamic fascism which long predates 1948. You have also pointed out the failing tribal structure of the Arab world. These two factors alone preclude any lasting peace ever being possible between Israel and Palestine.
    If by solution you mean an end to conflict, then there will be no solution. All that is possible is that defined by Tacitus. By virtue of its historic experiences in the 1930s and ’40s, Israel cannot impose such a solution. And the rest of the world will not let it. Hence, the struggle will go on endlessly.

35. Alain, I agree with you, that as long as the Islamic doctrines exist, as they are, which is an ideology based around tribalism, there can be no economic development.
    After all, Islam, which is less a religion than it is a political and societal system, rejects individualism, rejects the use of reason, rejects intellectual dissent, questions, rejects the notion of economic capitalism, rejects science, rejects anything other than ‘brain dead submission’. And, killing all those who disagree.
    So, I agree, as long as this ideology exists, then, the MENA is a mess. My point, which I didn’t discuss, is that this ideology cannot continue to last in the MENA. That’s because the size of the population has reached the carrying capacity of a tribal or non-capitalist economy. They simply can’t survive, economically, as statist redistributive economies. They MUST enable small business capitalism, which means, they must enable individualism, reason, living in and for THIS LIFE and not for death.
    And as I said, the emergence of Islamic fascism, which is a result of the dysfunctionality of the economy to support the growth in the population, has little to do with Israel-Palestine.
    No, I don’t agree with moving the Palestinians. Where? No other Arab nation would take them. And if you think that would solve the problem, you are naive. The real problem is that dysfunctional statism in the Islamic nations. Plus, because one CAN move a population, ie, you CAN deport the illegals in the USA…does not mean that you SHOULD.
    cgh, I think that the Islamic nations themselves have no interest in solving the Israeli-Palestinian situation because by diverting the attention outside, it keeps the local people, the Muslims in these arab nations, from protesting against their own governments!
    I don’t mean ‘unification’. I mean an economic federation, which means that the two are economically connected. BUT, each people run their own local issues, ie, education, health care, social welfare, property rights and so on.
    I do believe that an end to the conflict can and will take place. BUT, more conflict, particularly within the Islamic nations, will first take place. The Islamic rulers cannot continue to rule within a top-down statist redistribution economy. It’s unable to support their populations. They have to change, and that means, allowing individualism in these areas!
    And no, I don’t believe that killing all your enemies is the solution. For either side.

36. I think there are two major problems in the MENA.
    The first, is Islam, as a political and societal ideology. [I disregard its religious aspects which are peripheral to the political and societal and mostly lifted from the judaic but without the wisdom of the judaic system]. It is a tribal system and totally dysfunctional in a population in the millions and in an industrial economy.
    But note, that the MENA is not, itself, functioning as an industrial economy. Islamism prevents rather than enables small businesses. It prevents inventions, patents, new technology, science, the use of reason. All it provides is oil, the raw energy used in industrialism, and even the extraction and processing of that oil, is done by the West, as the MENA was never able to develop its own scientific or technological capacities.
    Given this intellectual ‘brain dead’ system, relying economically on raw resource extraction for and by others, and yet, faced with a population that cannot be sustained even with this raw resource extraction – the MENA has refused to modernize and permit small business capitalism and intellectual and political freedom.
    This is the basic problem in the MENA. This refusal to modernize has led to Islamic fascism, with its utopian idea that IF only we were all living in the 8th century, THEN, everything would be OK. Doesn’t work that way.
    The second major problem in the MENA is Iran. Never mind its Islamic ideology. This is about its political ambitions, which are secular. These are imperialistic. Iran wants to control, politically, the entire ME. It funds all the rebel groups in the MENA, and the reason it funds and arms them, is, not for the advancement of Islamic fascism, but for its own political imperialism.
    Israel is caught in the middle. And Iran is using this Israel-Palestinian conflict to increase its control over rebels in all the ME nations.
    I’d also add that Obama’s idiotic refusal to confront Iran, is enabling and empowering its imperialist activities.

37. Somehow it has failed to be reported that of the near 600 rockets fired at Isreal…..about 100 fell on Gaza. One wandered off hitting a house 2-3 blocks from the launching point. Hamas has dug these large launchers in to conceal/protect against Isreali air-strikes…..in close proximity to schools and mosques….SOP for Hamas to use non-combatants as shields…….

38. Looks like ET has her green helmet on again.
    I certainly hope the Israeli aggression haven’t hit that spiffy shopping mall or Olympic swimming pool. (Last line was sarc for those sarcasm challenged).

39. This war differs from other wars, in this particular. We are not fighting armies but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war.
    William Tecumseh Sherman
    Should be applied to all conflicts involving Islam….

40. Herr Rupprecht (or is it Generalfeldmarschall Rupprecht?), you wrote my comment for me! And did it better than I could! The Fajr-5 is a major escalation in Middle East weaponry.
    We too should take note. For too long have we downplayed Iranian military technology. True, the Fajr-5 might have been developed from a Chinese rocket (but most weapons systems are developed from earlier ones) but they have improved it, and they are manufacturing it and deploying it; and teaching their allies to use it.
    Anyone who thinks that the Iranians are not going to attain nuclear weapons soon, and effective delivery systems soon after, is such an ignoramus and fool that he might even be a journalist.

41. And this one…… I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world, but I am sure we would be getting reports from Hell before breakfast.
    William Tecumseh Sherman

42. ET, I posted my comment prior to seeing that you do recognise the problem with Islamic doctrine and beliefs. I would however argue that it is Islamism that has led to the refusal to modernise rather than the other way. Of course it becomes the old argument of which came first, the chicken or the egg. The problem of Islamism remains in my opinion the root cause with tribalism being a second one. The only “religion” that does not tolerate non believers and seeks to convert them by force is Islam. Judaism does not even seek converts and neither does Hinduism or Buddhism. While Christianity acted at times in the past much like Islam (I shall probably get a very negative reaction to this), it long ago moved on. Yes, there are some sects of Christianity who believe non believers go to hell, but they do not seek to murder you if you do not accept their beliefs.
    Unless there is a total reformation of Islam, I just do not see any change for the better.

43. The statement has been made by a troll that Israel receives substantial support from abroad, and this statement is true, so far as it goes. But Gaza, HAMAS, etc., also receive massive infusions of cash from other Muslim areas. How else can they continue? Gaza is, or could be, moderately productive agriculturally, They have little industry, and their level of sophistication is about that required to make Qassam rockets. Their rifles, machine guns, RPGs, etc. are all imported, and these “toys” are not cheap. Yes, they could be productive, but they live for one thing: to kill Jews. Back in the `90s they claimed that if the Israelis would leave Gaza, all would be peaceable. The usual dupes believed them. The Israelis left. So Gaza was promptly turned into a base for attacks against Israel. When they were fenced in, like the mad dogs they are, they turned Gaza into a missile base. What if the Jews leave Israel? Even then, the Muslims of Gaza would pursue them.
    There is only one solution.

44. Alain, Islam IS tribalism. If you read its texts, you’ll see that it promotes a society that lives as a tribe, economically, politically, socially, conceptually. That is, it is two class: rulers and ruled. No free middle class; that’s a basic definition of tribalism.
    Islamism, by which I mean the fascist ideology based on Islam, is the purely conceptual or utopian version which is totally alienated from any reality. Islamismis a belief system and is pure utopian fiction, where one imagines that IF you make everyone behave within the rigid rules of sharia law etc, THEN, a wonderful life will exist.
    Agreed, Christianity, in the medieval period, acted in a similar fashion to Islam, but I’ll argue that this period wasn’t ‘Christianity in itself’, which is most definitely not a belief system based on violence and submission. This was a political system that used/misused Christianity as a cover for its totalitarian rule.
    Agreed, there has to be a change in the ideology of Islam. My belief is that this will happen, but only with great difficulty and violence (same happened in the West when it fought back against the political regimes of the medieval period).. But it has to happen because the populations in the ME are too large to be supported without a capitalist, ie, free, economy.
    Right, Judaism has never been about conversion. Never. I sometimes think that is why it attracts so much hostility, because it says: “we are just fine as we are; we don’t need you and we don’t really welcome conversions’. I think that isolationism and self-sufficiency bothers people. It’s an ignorant reason, but, humans are not just rational but also psychological.

45. “The Jews Control the Media and have an Insidious Zionist Agenda” jackasses should look at that little roundup. If “The Joos” do control the Media they are doing a seriously crappy job of promoting Israel.

46. ET, thanks for clarifying the reason why this took place with Christianity. That was my point although I failed to make it.

47. ET I must disagree with your assessment of Medieval Christianity….with the exception of the Crusades….which IMHO was the Pope’s ploy to divert the (nominally Christian)Norman’s who having just conquered Sicily/Sardinia were getting just too damn close to Rome………
    Actually Charlemagne’s conquest of Saxony was an example of covert or die. Many thousands of Saxons were sent to the block for rejecting Baptism. It is speculated that this slaughter, incited the Vikingr period….the first raids were on monestaries not just for loot but for vengence to a degree. Saxony is that area of Germany immediately south of Denmark.
    The concept of spreading Christianity by the sword(axe) was probably copying the Moorish/Islamic model.
    Cherlemagne’s grandfather, Charles Martel, had stemmed the Moorish threat from the south, but, the newly converted, Charlemagne, in a fit of religious fervour, ignited the Vikingr, who transformed Europe more than Charlemagne’s “Holy Roman Empire”.
    That’s my theory and I’m stickin’ to it.

48. If “The Joos” do control the Media they are doing a seriously crappy job of promoting Israel.
    They’re not all that clever. After all, they did have to steal nuclear secrets …
    Although, they are pretty good at passing US technology on to China.

49. ET: “And no, I don’t believe that killing all your enemies is the solution. For either side.”
    Tell it to the Carthaginians, the Iceni, the Trinobantes.
    “This was a political system that used/misused Christianity as a cover for its totalitarian rule.”
    Actually that’s most of the history of Christianity. It was used as a state religion starting with Constantine explicitly for the purpose of reinforcing Roman imperial authority. The Church itself persisted as a militant and military centred power structure until the mid-16th century. There were two key events which altered its course. The first was the great schism in Christianity called the Reformation. St. Peters no longer spoke for all Christians. The second great event was the sacking of Rome by the Emperor Charles V armies. That one shattered the Church’s military power permanently.
    The Church may have indeed been reformed from its earlier reliance on the sword to enforce its authority. But this reformation came from having been thoroughly mangled by the military force upon which it formerly relied.
    Sasquatch, you have most of it but not all. The 1st Crusade was an attempt to get out of Europe all of the stray mercenary bands (younger landless sons) who were making it all too easy to fight feudal wars in Europe. This was becoming a serious problem given the increasing devastation of much of Europe by the end of the 11th century.
    The official justification of course was to rescue the East Roman Empire from the Turks. Alexius I wanted money; what he got was a large band of armoured ruffians which he quickly diverted off to other places.
    Also, the Viking raids can be considered the last phase of the ongoing collapse of the power of central government in Europe which started during the last half century or so of the Roman Empire. The Vikings were simply the last wave of about 400 years of invaders coming out of Germany and Scandinavia.

50. Stradivarious: Conspiracy fiction.
    Do you believe everything you read on cheesy anti-zionist blogs? The Jews are not clever, yet according to your ilk they somehow masterminded taking over the worlds financial and media empires. There are billions of Muslims, yet only 35 million Jews at the very most, but Jews are seen as the threat. Give your head a shake.
    The Chinese have been stealing Canadian and US technology secrets for decades.