Israel arrests Israeli rights activist (curious timing)

in years past, americans would've looked down at israel for this. i think, however we have recently become more educated on terrorism and the many ways it can present itself. unfortunately this country is still relatively soft on terrorism compared to other countries (israel being the toughest).

america was founded on the basis of freedom. however, to protect some freedoms you have to take away others. we are not willing to give up any freedoms even at the potential cost of lives. being a life long new yorker i can't tell you how upset i was about the times square car bomb that nearly went off. we shouldn't wait for another tragedy to happen before we decide to take this more seriously. in america we have a "fool me once shame on you. fool me twice, shame on me" mentality. in israel they have a "your gonna gonna fool me" attitude. if we were a little tougher, this lunatic wouldn't have nearly succeeded in killing hundreds of people.

i can't tell you which mentality is better, but i can tell you which is safer. kidnappings and attempted bombings happen on a weekly basis there. they can't let their guard down for one day. we just can't understand that because we are not in that situation. since 911 i only remember 2 or 3 major instances of attempted terrorism in the news. imagine if that were 2 or 3 in the last month, every month. you might be willing to search a guys house to stop the next one.

 

Israel does something like this every peace process. They will keep pushing and doing more and more until the Palestinians retaliate with some form of terrorism, and then the Israelis will try and claim that they don't have a willing honest partner in the peace process.

The Palestinians always take the bait, and Israel always provokes it. Hopefully this time something will change.

 

In what way would being tougher have prevented the would-be bomber from succeeding any differently than what happened? If you think Israel is safer from terrorism because of their "toughness" than the US is because of our liberty I would have to disagree.

Imagine if Israel had lived up to its peace agreements, not built illegal settlements, not made laws that discriminate based on ethnicity even when security isn't an issue. Had they done that I would bet the threat from terrorism would be far less than it is today.

 

So freedom is not really free?

I hope we don't have a lot of people that think like you. You can't trade liberty for security. That goes against 200+ years of what this country stands for.

 

Funny thing is Israel will end up being a non-Jewish state of all the folks living there including the Jews. It will be a pluralistic state after a long struggle by the Palestinians against apartheid.

 

I whole heartedly agree. This is quite pathetic on their part.