Just how crazy are the right-wing Jewish settlers?

[Sauron]

People have accused me of blowing things out of proportion when I say that Jewish fundamentalism is the major roadblock to a peace agreement.

Consider the following:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/617658.html

Right-wing activist dies week after setting herself on fire
By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent

Yelena Bosinova, 54, a right-wing activists from the West Bank settlement of Kedumim died Friday, one week after setting herself on fire in protest over the disengagement plan.

Some 200 people attended her funeral in Kedumim later the same day.

Police said Bosinova held a solidary protest in the Negev town of Netivot. She was holding a sign condemning the evacuation of Gush Katif, and also spoke with policemen who were at the scene. At a certain point the policemen noticed she was going up in flames.

Security forces personnel who were at the scene rushed to Bosinova and extinguished the fire. She was then taken to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva. On her way to the hospital, Bosinova told a paramedic who was attending her that she herself on fire in protest over the plan to evacuate the Gush Katif settlement bloc.

[Clutch Munny]

Maybe they are, but I don't think this can be taken as evidence for it. Any cause can attract a handful of supporters who are psychologically unstable for quite independent reasons. The number of people attending the funeral is more significant than the manner of her death, frankly, and even that is at most marginally significant since there's no indication of the reasoning behind each person's attendance.

Basically, this is one person willing to commit suicide in protest of the evictions. If this is suggestive of "Jewish fundamentalism" being "the major roadblock to a peace agreement," then the number of people who have been willing to commit suicide in protest of the settlements themselves must, by parity of reasoning, show that they are a still more major (majorer?) roadblock to a peace agreement.

[SillyGoose]

Fundamentalists of any religion are pretty whacked, imo. Some act it out more obviously than others, but I think the settlers who remained with their small children to be forcibly dragged out of their homes were pretty crazy too.

[Sauron]

Originally Posted by Clutch Munny

Basically, this is one person willing to commit suicide in protest of the evictions. If this is suggestive of "Jewish fundamentalism" being "the major roadblock to a peace agreement," then the number of people who have been willing to commit suicide in protest of the settlements themselves must, by parity of reasoning, show that they are a still more major (majorer?) roadblock to a peace agreement.

No. Jewish fundamentalism is the reason:

(a) why such WB settlements exist in the first place; and
(b) why the Israeli govt is unwilling to dismantle/move/evacuate them from the WB; and
(c) why the Israeli govt cannot bring itself to consider a Palestinian state in a side-by-side relationship, occupying "Judaea and Samaria" (the biblical name that the right wing Israelis use to describe the land on the WB)

The people committing suicide to protest those settlements (the suicide bombers) are not in a position to be an obstacle to peace, because:

(1)they don't hold the property title to what the fight is all about (the land); and
(2) the fighting existed before the suicide bombers became a popular (ick) weapon, because the land theft existed many years prior to them;
(3) there is no conceivable set of changes on the Arab side that would coerce/coax Israel into giving up the WB, for the reasons a,b and c above. If the Palestinians were a race of Dalai Lama clones, Israel would still keep the WB. The religious right in Israel *requires* this.

Farren said it best: the Palestinians can make peace hard; but only Israel can make peace impossible. Israel controls all the cards. And the right-wing in Israel controls the govt.

[Clutch Munny]

Sauron, you missed the "if". I am not even discussing whether Jewish fundamentalism is the big problem. I am pointing out that this incident is not evidence to that effect.

[godfry n. glad]

It sounds like the Jewish settlers are as crazy as the Buddhist monks protesting the Thieu regime.

[Sauron]

Another one decides to prove my point:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/619573.html

U.S immigrant sets himself on fire to protest Gaza pullout

By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service

An immigrant from the United States who came to Israel a year ago set himself ablaze on Wednesday in the yard of Ulpan Etzion, a Hebrew language school for olim in the Bakaa neighborhood of Jerusalem.

Baruch Ben Menachem, 32, said he did it to protest Israel's withdrawal two weeks ago from the Gaza strip.

Ben Menachem, who came to the ulpan's entrance carrying a prayer book and wearing tefilin on his forehead and arm, doused himself in a flammable liquid and set himself aflame.