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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (102799)	6/25/2003 6:22:39 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

<Eventually the Arabs in Israel will outnumber the Jews, anyway. And then what? > Then it'll be like Fiji, where the 19th century Indians are about equal with the indigenous Fijians and tourists make up the rest. While the tourists can't vote politically, they vote with their wallets, which seems to be a very powerful vote. Both Indians and Fijians know they have better not frighten the tourists too much. But that doesn't stop the odd coup. The Indians got 99 year leases on land on which they grew sugar. When the leases were up, the locals wanted their land back. Just as China's government decided they wanted Hong Kong back when the British lease was up. That meant, as with the Palestinians who were long term tenants when the Ottomans were running the show, when the lease was up and the owners decided to do something different, the long term tenants felt as though they were losing a property right. Which of course begs the question as to how the 'owners' came to 'own' the land in the first place. Almost certainly they got it by conquest and favours from on high. So, it's reasonable to fight for it again. But in the modern world we are looking for more civilized ways than cutting somebody's throat or shooting their children. Because there isn't a religious mania in Fiji, the conflict is moderate. But in Israel, both religions are as mad as hatters. The Moslems are especially mad. In fact, I can't think of a more insane religion. The Moonies, David Koresh, Jim Jones, Heaven's Gate and a few peripheral wackoes are of course more extreme cases of insanity, but for sheer numbers, the Moslems are the most lethally detached from reality. Christianity had its equivalent dark ages madness, when witches were burned at the stake, heretics too and all manner of madness perpetrated, and they made modern Islam look civilized. There are extremists like Jerry Falwell who would see the dark ages return, but mostly the worst of Christianity has been smoothed over [other than the barbaric animals manning the IRA barricades and blowing up children in Omagh and the Tower of London]. Jews, with their 'chosen people' drivel and 'promised land' and stuff are off the rails too, but they are less gratuitously violent than their competitors. God save us from Armageddon MADness [if a plea to God to smite them all isn't too perverse]. So, when the Arabs outnumber the Jews in Israel, I can see there will be some form of apartheid instituted. The aboriginal Fijians don't want Indians taking over Fiji and are prepared to do anti-democratic racist apartheid things to prevent that, and they are under no physical threat from Indians. Jews on the other hand, cannot reasonably be expected to allow Arabs to decide their fate, which would be quite ugly in my opinion. Moslem Arabs have demonstrated their head-hacking propensities for a very long time. They would have a field day if they took over. The answer of course is that a reconstituted UN take over and be the boss, allowing local autonomy in a framework of UN supervised civil rights. But that would take some imagination and there's no evidence of that in this discussion, let alone in the wider world [to any significant extent anyway]. The Rabid Republican Right foams at the mouth and gets spittle on their screen at the mere mention of the UN running anything other than some refugee feeding programmes. But, can't stay and debate. A beautiful midwinter day calls me to the golf course where I can be free among beautiful forests, birds and bunnies to confront the unfortunate realities of my own psychic mayhem. Mqurice PS: Well, you did ask!