Jerusalem - International City ???

[Peace_At_Port41]

...continuation of a thread started on http://peace.port41.com/index.htm

I'm a 27 year old Jewish person who spent seven months in Israel and made a great many friends who were both Israelis AND Palestinian.

What I noticed was that one a one to one basis, there is actually civility between the two people which proves that they can live side by side. Jewish people don't automatically hate Arab people and Arab people don't automatically hate Jews. The difficulty lies in the fact that the 'greater cause' for both sides seems to include so much intolerance.

I think that much of the problem lies with the politicians because they're the ones who need to learn to give as well as to take and I think that both sides are guilty of wanting too much.

Jerusalem is an example. Sure, it's the birthplace of Judaism, but it's also the holiest city in the world of Christianity and it's a holy city for Muslims too.

Doesn't this suggest that it should be made into an international city? No one religion is more important than another and therefore no religion should be restricted from access.

I think that the path to peace lies in the greater understanding of Jews by Arabs and Arabs by Jews.

... discuss Israel at http://peace.port41.com/index.htm

[L@mplighterM]

What misunderstanding justifies the intentional murder of babies, children, pregnant women, women and men?

[Peace_At_Port41]

http://peace.port41.com/index.htm

Nothing can justify this at all. However, both sides are rightfully angry at each other and atrocities have been performed on both sides.

There will never be any hope of progress in this current climate of tit-for-tat reprisals.

Everybody has a right to be angry about everything that has happened - stuff like this is truely sickening, but at the same time, the mutual hatred is getting in the way of progress.

In five years time, things will still be the same and attrocities will still be carried out on a daily basis and the reason for this is because neither side will ever trust the other.

The longest journey has to begin with a single step forward!

http://peace.port41.com/index.htm

[ibrodsky]

Originally posted by Peace_At_Port41
http://peace.port41.com/index.htm

Nothing can justify this at all. However, both sides are rightfully angry at each other and atrocities have been performed on both sides.

There will never be any hope of progress in this current climate of tit-for-tat reprisals.



This simply isn't true. Anyone who has bothered to study the history of Middle East knows it.

There may be disputes regarding who owns this or that plot of land. But the State of Israel was born quite legitimately. At its birth, its inhabitants included Jewish immigrants from Europe, Jews fleeing persecution in Arab countries, and Jews who had lived in "Palestine" for generations.

The Arab world rejected the creation of a Jewish state by the Jewish population of British Palestine. Why? Because they saw British Palestine as one of the pieces of the old Islamic Empire that they hoped to restore. Sure, Jews could live there, but only if they agreed to be second-class citizens in an Islamic state.

To claim symmetry as you do is preposterous. Who is intolerant? Who is racist? Who is so profoundly hateful as to purposely kill the other group's children?

Israel has spent 50+ years trying to make peace with the Arab world. The Arab/Islamic world has spent 50+ years trying to destroy Israel. Their hatred runs so deep, and their evil is so profound, that they publicly yearn for an Arab or Muslim nuke to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, even if it means millions of Arab deaths resulting from Israeli retaliation.

Tit-for-tat? You must be kidding. Israelis don't walk into Palestinian cafes or other places where ordinary people congregate and blow up themselves and as many Arab civilians as possible. The Israeli government, media, and schools do not glorify killing. Nor do they spew racist hatred of Arabs.

The Palestinian "cause" is promoted through a series of shameless lies. Even now, as we speak, there is a conference in Cairo (Egypt, a country that supposedly made peace with Israel!) discussing what will come after Israel is wiped off the face of the earth.

Yes, there are Palestinians who are civil and could get along with Israel. But 1) they are a minority and 2) their leaders are brutes who kill those who oppose them.

To wit, you see symmetry where most of us see the entire Arab and Islamic world obsessed with Israel's destruction, and willing to use any lie, to make common cause with any allies (including neo-Nazis), and motivated by extreme anti-semitism.

P.S.: have you bothered to investigate how they handled "their" part of Jerusalem when they ruled it (from 1948 until its liberation in 1967)? How can you create an international city to be shared with people who designate entire cities as off-limits to non-Muslims?

Jerusalem is not holy to Islam. It is never mentioned in the Koran. When given the opportunity, Israel's Islamist enemies destroy Jewish holy sites and build mosques on top them -- and then declare a wide radius around the mosque off-limits to non-Muslims (who they consider "infidels").

Israel is a Western society, enlightened by Western instituions such as freedom of speech, democracy, and equality before the law. The Palestinians are a lawless society, and their leaders reject Western institutions and values as the institutions and values of infidels. Instead, they want to build an Islamic state where Sharia (Islamic law) and a strongman (i.e., brutal dictator) rule.