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Originally Posted by LadyShea
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Originally Posted by Stormlight
Hmmm. While I'm not the biggest fan of Israeli politics, there is something fundamentely wrong with that sentence. Those extreme measures were taken by the Israeli government, no? Those right-wing lunatics were evicted so I fail to see how that proves that "the fringe right is in control"?
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I believe the point was that the government shouldn't have needed to take such drastic measures. The settlers should have withdrawn willingly if their real objective was peace. |
Also, I'd say that Sauron has injected a bit of hyperbole into the OP. The "fringe right" has only sporadic control, thanks to the multiparty structure of the Knesset. When Labour and Likud closely split the majority of the votes, but do not obtain a clear majority, one or the other is required to form a coalition government with one or more of the minority parties, including those which represent the hasidim (the pious). This gives the hasidim, with their ultra-orthodox right wing politics, way more power than their miniscule numbers amongst the mass of largely non-practicing Israelis might suggest. Thus, this is how, in a largely secular society, the "blue laws" governing sabbath closures has been put into place and enforced. The hasidim tend to hold much more to the ideal of Eretz Yisreal, the "Greater Israel", which includes not only Gaza, the East Bank and Golan Heights, but everything from the Gulf of Aqaba to the western bank of the Euphrates (which should certainly give the Lebanese, Syrians and Iraqis pause).
A side note: The West Bank has never been a "homeland" for the Jews. It was conquered by the Maccabeans and Herodians and thus became part and parcel of the Roman holdings in Palestine in ancient times. Those who lived there were Samaritans...Abrahamic (and Mosaic) believers who worshipped at a temple on Mt. Gerizim, rather than Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem, and were treated as sub-humans by ancient Judeans.