Israel stands ready to bomb Iran's nuclear sites

(Continued from previous post)

You say "6 million Jews out of the over 40 million total people that they killed" as if this holds little significance. They killed 40 million people, so 6 million Jews aren't really that important correct?

Do you know how many Jews there are in the world today? 13 million (less than the population of New York City) - 6 million of whom live in Israel. Hitler attempted to wipe out the entire Jewish people, every last man woman and child and succeeded in killing one third before the Allies stopped him. This genocide was done in a systematic and mechanised manner, and it was perpetrated by every institution of society, from Parish Churches that provided records of Jewish residents, to the Post Offices that delivered deportation orders, to the pharmaceutical companies that tested drugs on Jewish camp prisoners. What makes it so chilling to us in the West is not just that it was the most horrific, cold-hearted and murderous undertaking in all of history but that it was done by a Western, supposedly civilised nation.

And as for your assertion that "wealthy Jews" "ran away from the Nazis" I would beg to differ. The Jews that were not brutally slaughtered by Hitler wanted their own country so that what happened then could NEVER happen again. And quite right too.

Worst still is that the underlying anti-Semitism that was the driver for the holocaust was not new, and has never gone away. To this day you will hear school children calling each other Jews as an insult. Anti-Semitism and persecution are things that the Jewish people have suffered for many, many centuries in their homeland and in the countries that hosted them.

In addition, the Jews have never forgotten or let go of their traditional homeland and have always longed for return there. "Next year in Jerusalem" was a common toast amongst ordinary Jews living in Diaspora for a long time before Zionism. So your notion that Jews "decided to claim Arab land that had not been there's [sic] in millenia [sic]" is misleading to say the least.

After the Hebrews were driven from their homeland it fell into ruin under the Byzantine Empire and later the Ottoman Empire. It was only when Jews started to return in successive waves of migration (driven out of Europe and Islamic countries by increasing persecution) in the 19th century that significant numbers of Arabs also migrated there, following the job opportunities created by the farms and industries that the Jews created with their own labour.

The other notion which I want to argue against is that the Jews stole land from Arabs to create the state of Israel. This is categorically false. The vast majority of land was purchased from the British (who took over the region from the Ottoman Empire after WWI) or absent Arab landlords, often at extortionate prices. Nobody was kicked off their land, nobody was forced to leave. Jews lived largely in peaceful co-existence with Arabs within Israel and continue to do so - Arabs have the same rights to vote, own property, practice religion, etc, as Jews. So your notion of "Jewish only settlements" is also patently untrue.

I also think it's important to look at the creation of Israel in its historical context. After WWI the world was radically and fundamentally changed. The entire Middle East had been under the control of one government - the Ottoman Empire. When the old empires fell the League of Nations tried to carve up the territories as fairly as possible, giving each indigenous race their own territory (and this included Jews). Thus we have the geopolitical landscape of today. Incidentally Israel is 1/500th of the size of the land which was reserved for Arabs.

The Jews are a people that have maintained their own identity, culture, tradition and dignity for many thousands of years. This in spite of relentless hatred and persecution throughout the centuries. You may dismiss this as insignificant - in my opinion they deserve their own sovereignty.