Yeah, it's just one of those things that gets repeated by people who want to believe that. Hitler hated the Jews, but it had nothing to do with religion. He hated Gypsies and homosexuals, too. I think that was just the divide-and-conquer thing we see playing out around the world - and here in the United States - today. If you can create enough divisions among the people, you can keep them from realizing who the real enemies are.
Well it's a rather complicated issue. 1st, the Koran has numerous passages about the "duty" of all Muslims to kill Jews. There is one passage in the Koran that says, "And when the rocks begin to speak, the rock will say, "There is a Jew hiding behind me. Kill him". yeah, I know that's crazy but people take it as truth. 2nd, the Jews believe that God has ordained the Holy Land as "their land". Both Muslims and Jews claim the same land. And BOTH believe that they are the sole owners of Israel.
Monday afternoon. The IDF has now completely surrounded Gaza City and have established various well defended "strong points" and are slowly taking Gaza City apart , slice by slice.
My question is ...... what are they going to do with all that rubble? It would take a mighty big hole to bury it.
That is territorial dispute more than religious. Islam is really the only war-linked religion, hence the Jihad Doctrine. I found it very ironic that G.W. Bush referred to it as a "religion of Peace". It showed he didn't have a clue what he was talking about. The early Hebrews were war-like too, but again it was more about territory than religion. I don't recall the Hebrews having a "Convert or Die" as the Muslims do, but there have been perversions in all religious doctrine.
The Israeli people are primarily secular, and even among those who are religious, some of the most prominent Jewish religious movements are liberal rather than conservative, and even including Humanistic Judaism, in which the traditions and culture is celebrated, but a belief in a deity is unnecessary. While it is common to observe some of the Jewish religious practices, that can be equated to non-religious American people celebrating Christmas and Easter. Only about 60% of Israelis believe that there is a God, only 50% believe that the Jews are God's chosen people, and fewer than 50% believe that the Torah represents God's commands. The Israeli government is secular. I don't know that we could get an accurate representation of the actual religious beliefs of the Palestinians because they'd be afraid of being killed if they said the wrong thing. Nevertheless, there is a whole lot of killing going on in the Old Testament, too, but most Christians don't live by that. That's nationalistic, not religious.
Though Israel has not officially announced it, the big ground invasion is well under way. Israel is claiming that Hamas has suffered the loss of many top commanders and hundreds of terrorists. Also, the IDF has located numerous tunnel entrances had destroyed them with "sponge bombs". Israel has said that their primary mission is that complete destruction of Hamas and the rescue of hostages coming 2nd. The IDF has said that specialized teams of soldiers have begun to go down into a few tunnels. In one attack, the IDF had located two entrance/exit points of two tunnels and they set up an ambush waiting until the terrorists emerged before wiping them out. We have heard much about the potential of other nations jumping in, but so far at lest, Iran has done little except to encourage all "brothers" to act. Likely that the 2 U.S. aircraft carrier fleets in the eastern Med Sea is giving Iran pause.
Missiles are arriving from Yemen that were not caught by the U.S. Navy or the Saudi military, so Israel had to use their air defense to shoot them down. Turkey is still doing saber rattling toward Israel but has taken no action as far as I know. There is a scheduled announcement by the leader of Hezbollah for Friday. It is expected to be a declaration of war against Israel since they promised to do so if Israel invaded Gaza. The Chinese ships are still in the Persian Gulf, but they are believed to be protecting Iranian oil resources from American and Israeli attacks since China has need of Iranian oil. Should the U.S. directly attack China or vice-versa, things could get interesting real fast. I heard reports that U.S. military computer systems had been hacked by foreign sources, probably Russian, and that some deployment information had been stolen. Of course, we are probably doing the same thing to them but the Russians don't have two carrier groups at risk in a tight space.
I doubt that either the U.S. or Israel would attack Chinese warships in the Persian Gulf. THAT would certainly escalate matters beyond our ability to keep things contained . As long as the Chinese warships take no action against U.S. military assets I think China will do nothing except talk boldly.
Beth, Do you really think that this is the beginning of WW3 ? Or are you just a tad worried ? I must admit that I too am worried, but an all out nuclear war is unlikely. Why do I think that ? Because it would take a madman to launch a nuclear attack. China my not be our friend, but I see no evidence that China's leaders are insane. Even Iran can not do too much. Yes, they have a few missiles that could reach Israel, BUT they know that Israel would retaliate massively.
Actually, I'm not worried about it at all. I try not to worry about things that are beyond my control. I am more concerned about the rumors that Biden will be importing thousands of Palestinians as the next wave of immigrants. Oh goodie; my tax dollars will be supporting more refugees who hate us, and they'll probably be in congress next year.
Yes, indeed. If Biden tried to import thousands of Palestinians , I suspect/ hope that there would be a backlash against it.