Middle East hypothetical...

[Cuda]

Lets pretend.

Say in some Arab country, oh, I don't know, Saudi Arabia, for example. But ANY Arab country would suffice for this hypothetical.

Well. let's say that in Saudi Arabia, there was a large Jewish community. And in that community, there was a certain leader. And this leader had it in mind to break away from Saudi Arabia and set up a Jewish State. The Saudis wouldn't arrest him and throw his ass in prison, would they?

Well, if there is someone called a leader, it naturally implies that there are followers. Well, let's say this Jewish leader's followers are so intent on establishing a country of their own that, with very little encouragement, they start to committ violent acts against the Saudi people- even to the extreme of random shootings and suicide bombings. The Saudis would still refrain from arresting the Leader and retaliating against his followers, right?

Wrong. And you all know it. Not only would the Saudis brutally suppress any uprising, they wouldn't think twice about, nor regret in the slightest, any loss of life on the part of the insurgents. And they not only wouldn't allow the leadership to walk free, they'd make sure the leadership met an exemplary brutal death.

And that is the difference between the Arabs and the Israelis. The Israelis not only don't try to kill Arafat, they don't even arrest him. And far from having an indiscriminate, response to Palestinian terrorism, the Israelis are going to great lengths to target specific individuals and specific locations.

[Big Tech]

*yawn*

[Adept]

Yeah but the hypothetical doesn't apply because the separate nation has already BEEN created.

[Cuda]

Adept, if anyone on THE was mis-named it's you. You couldn't have missed the point more. If the Jews treated the Arabs the way the Arabs would, and have treated the Jews whenever they had the chance, there would be no more Arabs.

A brief history lesson: When the Limeys divided Trans-Jordan into Jordan & Palestine, the situation I described came about. The only difference being that the Limeys occupied Palestine and prevented the Arabs from brutally slaughtering the Jews. The Jews eventually became a majority in Palestine and took over most of the territory. The Limeys, with the blessing of the UN, hauled ass, and the minute they were gone, the Arabs attacked. The Jews kicked their asses. Then did it again in the mid-1950's, and again in 1967- this time occupying whatever territory the "Palestinians" were living in.

"Palestinian", by the way, is a misnomer. There wasn't a country known as Palestine until the Limeys carved it out of Jordan. The so-called "Palestinians" then aren't really Palestinian, they're Jordanian. But neither Jordan, nor any other Arab country will have them. So much for Arab unity and Pan-Arabism.

[Adept]

in that case i retract my previous statement in favour of worrying about the soap opera here, rather than the soap opera there.