Re: But is it really as simplistic as religiously inspired ethnic cleansing -- something like SA or former Yugoslavia?
Yep... I'm afraid it's really as simplistic, if more ominous, as ideologically inspired cleansing.
Re: The Israelis cannot physically hope to occupy the lands in the Mid East or anywhere else they lay claim to. In fact, they have long ago lost the demographic battle, even against the Palestinians.
Oh, but of course, Israelis, even the uber-Zionists, don't plot to settle all the land stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates... They merely yet resolutely intend to hold exclusive sovereignty over Jerusalem, that is, ALL of Jerusalem, both east and west. You don't need millions of Jews to settle and control a city like Jerusalem.
As for Israel losing the demographic battle, it's not that simple: you seem to forget that demographics matters only so far as demoCRACY prevails. As a South African, you're well placed to know that a technologically superior minority can easily neutralize adverse demographics by denying the (black, Arab,...) majority equality of rights. Hence Jewish Israelis can live with a state that primarily caters to Jews (law of return), that forbids land/real estate acquisition to non-Jews, that restricts political representation of non-Jews, that grants privileges to military veterans (whose main job was to fight non-Jews), etc. regardless of the millions of Arabs that are being discriminated against in the process....
Gus |
