What's the point of debating if you're going to be so one-sided? You can't possibly think the situation is as simplistic as you're trying to paint it.
This is the toughest issue. Being jewish, it is sad to see laws put into place that hold any other culture down. Its a reminder of darker time and the capability of how inhumane humanity can be. I don't want to get into a debate about the similarities/differences between the current scenrio and the holocaust because they are very very very different. Facts: 1. There are groups on both sides that want the other ethnic group gone. 2. There is a higher ratio of palestinians/arabs that do not want peace with Israel than there are Israelis that do not want peace with its neighbors. 3. There is a long history of terror attacks by Arabs on jews. 4. Israel, being a predominantly jewish country, has the sovereign right to defend jews on its soil. At what point does it become necessary to pass laws against an ethnic group bent on the destruction of your country? Does it start when they attack your country on multiple fronts during the high holidays? Does it start when they murder Olympians? Does it start when they blow up civilians in shopping malls? I'm sure there have been multiple cases of 1. arab Israeli's aiding palestinian terrorists and 2. arab Israelis aiding Israel in stopping attacks. You didn't really specify if you were talking about laws against palestinians or laws against arab israelis so ill stop here.
US needs to take a more unbiased view of the problem, then the world will hate us less: http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/11/11/un.israel/index.html
"We are disturbed that there is not a single reference to terrorism in the proposed resolution, nor any condemnation of the Hamas leadership's statement that Palestinians should resume terror attacks on a broad scale, or calls by the military wing of Hamas to Muslims worldwide to strike American targets and interests," he said. No US veto if: 1. Condemn the attack and call for investigation. (not sure where they were going with this.. war crimes tribunal?) Push for an end to the gaza operation asap. 2. Condemn rocket attacks and call upon the hamas leadership to stop them immediately. (check) 3. Condemn statement by Hamas leadership and ask for a retraction. Is it just me or do UN resolutions "condemning" a country seem pointless? The Israelis have a long tract record of revenge and retalliation. The Palestinians have a long tract record of committing desperate acts of violence to be noticed. Israel did pull out of Gaza ONLY TO BE ATTACKED AGAIN. What "world" hates the U.S.? You must be talking about the arab world. I don't think most Americans care all that much about its opinion when the majority of the arab world cares more about the destruction of Israel than the wellbeing of the palestinians. It's been the same freakin broken record for generations. Israel this, Israel that. Stop teaching your kids hate against jews/Israelis. Stop making resolutions against Israel and start making resolutions to feed/educate the Palestinians. Hopefully moderates on both sides of this mess will prevail. I'm starting to lose faith
The world, not just the arab world, hates US. A couple of survey recently showed that people, even from traditional allies, consider US to be the biggest threat to world peace, and the percentage of people holding friendly attitude towards US is very low. Have you missed that? There has been resolutions passed condemning the things mentioned above, WITHOUT mentioning Israelies' occupying territories it doesn't own, and killing innocent palastinies. Why didn't those get vetoed? Double standard I guess.
There is no doubt about it. Israel is in a tough situation. There are people all around them that want them gone. Hamas despite all the pressure put on them from outside still won't even recognize Israel's right to exist. So it is hard to say that Israel should buddy up to them, and in fact I wouldn't suggest it. You are right that Palestinian groups have intentionally killed innocent civilians and plan to continue. There is no defense of that, and those groups should be gotten rid of and people that help them should be held responsible. I was referring most specifically to Palestinians, but I did live it ambiguous because of the Israeli Arab situation as well. I don't think laws targeted at one ethnicity and not another, help to make any of the groups less likely to attack, or other people less likely to join their cause. It is, and is seen as injustice by those who are on the down side of those laws and elsewhere around the world. It breeds anger and resentment towards Israel. Make no doubt about it that anger and resentment helps fuel the attacks toward Israel as well. I think the situation is crying out for one side to be better than the other. It needs one side to take the moral high ground. Israel could do it. I think it would improve their situation, give them extra bargaining power in any future peace talks, and help the international community bring more pressure against the Palestinian groups that use terror attacks against innocent civilians.