Well, waddya know? Saddam really IS trying to build nukes...

Spooky....I had actually typed "ever heard of diamonds" in a message box.....then I said to hell with it. The last thing this discussion needs is my intervention.

 

I will pull up the public export list for Israel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
machinery and equipment, software, cut diamonds, agricultural products, chemicals, textiles and apparel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One has to wonder where is Israeli software?
Any way, their GDP has fallen .6% and that's why I said their economy was crap, I thought it was 6%.

taken from bbc.com
-Falling exports

In addition to a slump in tourism, there was a dip in exports, in particular of hi-tech goods for which demand has fallen in line with spreading gloom in the world economy.

Export earnings fell 26.5% during the first half of this year, a sharp turnaround from the previous half's 13.6% rise.

The sharpest fall was seen during the second quarter of 2001 when exports fell 38% compared with an 11.5% decline during the first quarter.

The construction and agriculture sectors have also suffered this year, the CBS said.

 

Perl,

I didn't say their economy wasn't sucking air, but they produce much more than 'uzis'

As for their software, you might not see many end-user products, but I have certainly noticed the impact. I read about cutting-edge software coming out of Israel, and one of the SQL Server gurus that I rely on is Israeli.

What industry are you in?

 

P..p...p...Pole! Oh no!

 

Cohen, I was just naming that export off the top of my head. Didn't know much about software, but when I think of software, I think of Microsoft or Sun. However, I learn something every day.

 

Me too. I wouldn't have thought of uzis.

 

Actually Israel has a reasonable economy but the problem is that the military budget is proposterous for a country of a few million people.

There are actually quite a few software companies with roots in Israel like Checkpoint Software. I think its commerce is admirable and that if it would change some of its foreign policy it would benefit from the tourism and decrease in military budget.

 

You're not just gung-ho, you're actively bloodthirsty. It's disgusting.

 

Agreed, NJR. The disdain you show for those who disagree with you is rivaled only by your disdain for people who do not live in the US. I mean, you're free to insist that life will be nasty, brutish, and short, but would being polite on the BBS be so bad? You might persuade more people to your point of view that way.

But then again, you could just hunt all of us down and kill us with a big, big machine gun... I guess. That might feel good.

 

The only people I showed any disdain for are the people who hate Americans because they are American.

As for persuading people to my point of view, I'm not campaigning here, its a BBS and I am stating my opinions and having what I consider to be a discussion. Sometimes its a heated discussion because its an opinion that I feel strongly about. You of all people (with your sarcasm that can easily be taken as impoliteness) should know better than to think I am being rude to anyone because they disagree.

 

I missed this on the first read...

The Israelis demolished an entire shopping district. They also destroyed olive farms. Those people were not playing GI Joe, they were merchants and farmers who have no way to support their families now.

And don't go down the slippery slope of blaming all Palestinians for the wrongs of a few. It's that same logic that is used to defend attacks on Israeli or American civilians.

 

If you lived in a neighborhood where school buses, pizzerias, shopping centers and wedding halls were being blown up on a daily basis by a certain group of people and at the same time, you knew that the 10 families that moved in on the next block were a part of that same group of people, would you be comfortable? Knowing they despise everything about you, would you feel safe? Knowing that these people are fully willing to sacrafice their own lives just to end yours, what would your solution be?

 

For Every Action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Palestinians are thrown off of their land, their homes are destroyed. Their crops are destroyed. They do not recieve water allocation, so their remaining crops are destroyed. Their shopping centers are destroyed. Their people are jailed, murdered and assasinated. What you have done is created more people that hate you. They have no way to get back at those who have destroyed their lives, so they are manipulated by extremists to take their own lives to attack those who destroyed their lives.


Daily? I think if you look back since the intifadah began, 5 times as many Palestinians have been killed then Israeli's. Looks like the Israeli army is the one acting like G.I. Joe. Let me remind you that there was not an uprising beginning with stones and ending with suicide bombers until almost 1987. That means that the Israeli's were doing oppressing the Palestinians for twenty years before they even began throwing rocks.

 

These methods are the source of a lot of dissention within the Israeli populace. Such actions should not be tolerated by the international community.

News flash...they hated the Israelis to begin with. No reason needed to be given. They view the Israelis as infidels, and are taught by the radical religious leaders that they should be killed. How do you think all this started? As soon as the state of Israel was created by the international community post-WW2, the Palestinians started to attack. They want the infidels pushed to the sea and expelled forcibly from the region. Be not fooled.

WRONG! Not only were there uprisings, but there was a full scale battle in the 1960s. That was LONG before 1987. This has been going on for a long time now. It isn't like they were living peacefully and then all of a sudden the Israelis started taking land...and then the Palestinians started attacking in 1987. Talk about revisionist history.

 

Chicken?

Egg?

Chicken, egg, chicken, egg, chicken, egg.....

 

Anyone have a clue as to how long it takes to grow an olive grow so that it produces?? Destroying them is indefensible.

Nice post, Cohen.

 

As Refman eluded to, FWIW, terrorist acts began long before 1987.

The 'war' started before the birth of Israel, and both sides have done much more than throw rocks ever since.

 

Originally posted by Deckard
Anyone have a clue as to how long it takes to grow an olive grow so that it produces?? Destroying them is indefensible.

'Defense': snipers were hiding under them

Should we have cut down all of the trees in Maryland and Virginia last year?

I probably should have added that there are some Israelis who also found the actions reprehensible so they volunteered to help the Palestinian farmers harvest their olives. The volunteers were not well received by the Israeli settlers.

Nice post...

Thx.

 

I don't understand NJ, are each and every Palestinian guilty of suicide bombing? Are each and every Israeli guilty of killing of Palestinian children?

* each and every Japanese guilty of Nanking?
* each and every German guilty of the Holocaust?
* each and every American guilty of (fill in your own list)?
* ...

 

I asked for you solution. I didnt say every Palestinian was responsible for this or that. I asked you what would you do if this was your neighborhood and you knew that these people hated you for no reason whatsoever.