On the Holocaust.
Did the Holocaust happen. Well of course it did. who cares what the exact numbers were. what does it matter.
However, The Jewish people have not cornered the market on being the "oppressed peoples" by despicable despots.
Genocide still continues today and for the most part the world turns a blind eye.
Lets not forget our history.
The annihilation of American native Indians all the way up to 1890 with the massacre of Sioux at Wounded Knee
The Australian Black war 1800's - the complete and utter annihilation of the Tasmanian Aboriginal population
Russian genocide against the Circassians nation by Czarist Russia in the 1800s has been almost entirely forgotten,
and that it was the largest genocide of the nineteenth century.
The 1915 Armenian Genocide at the hands of the ottoman empire.
Killing Fields of Cambodia 1975 - total numbers will never be known some estimate 1.x million
The 1975 Indonesian annihilation of the East Timorese people - numbers in the hundred thousands
The Chinese genocide of Tibetans - on going (but let's not raise too much fuss because after all it's china) Pathetic.
Somalia
Darfur
AND on AND on ON
On Isreal
Now I am not an anti-Semite, and I do believe in a two state solution but let's not forget history here as well. (portions lifted from wikipedia cause I don't have time to type it all from scratch all. But you'll understand the point.
During World War I, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issued what became known as the Balfour Declaration, which "viewed with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people". At the request of Edwin Samuel Montagu and Lord Curzon, a line was also inserted stating "it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine. In 1922, the League of Nations granted the United Kingdom a mandate over Palestine. From 1921 the British subjected Jewish immigration to quotas and most of the territory slated for the Jewish state was allocated to Transjordan.
The rise of Nazism in the 1930s led to the Fifth Aliyah, with an influx of a quarter of a million Jews. This caused the Arab revolt of 1936–1939 and led the British to cap immigration with the White Paper of 1939. With countries around the world turning away Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust, a clandestine movement known as Aliyah Bet was organized to bring Jews to Palestine.[42] By the end of World War II, Jews accounted for 33% of the population of Palestine.
So.... here's my thoughts
The British, League of Nations, and U.N. have left this world with the Isreal/Palistine (Jewish/Arab) mess. In November 1947 the United Nations decided on partition of Palestine (yes the Palestinians were there First) into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and a UN-administered Jerusalem. The British basically drew arbitrary lines in the sand , and then vacated all responsibility (basically packed up and left). Israel declared independence on May 14, 1948 and through r a a series of wars Arab/Israeli , Israel now controls territories beyond those delineated in the 1949 . and they continue to try and expand territory by building settlements.
Areil Sharon and Yasser Arafat were idiots and squandered so many opportunities for true peace. Somehow these two peoples need to find a way to co-exist. It takes 2 to tango , and I believe if Israel would withdraw to 1949 boundaries , this would go a long way to provide stability in the region.
Additionally the wall and check points don't help. I do understand the need for security but the way the wall and checkpoints were constructed it cuts Palestinian people off from Palestinian lands divides neighborhoods etc,, (don't think straight line). For Example, One Palestinian farmer leaves his home and has to pass through an Israeli checkpoint everyday just to tend his olives and cultivate his fields. Some days if skirmishes have occurred, he's not allowed through. This is no way for Human beings to have to live. These Gov'ts need to get their acts together and work towards real peace.
On Iran.
I truly believe The Iranian Gov't (not necessarily the common peoples) is a destabilizing threat to the whole region and continue to exacerbate the Isreal/Palestinian thorn wanting it to fester so they may exploit for their own gains . Additionally when your Buddy is North Korea , the world must be very concerned. I have no doubt in my mind that these two countries are sharing resources to develop a nuclear or atomic weapons.
