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• Tuesday, January 6, 2009 08:46 AM

  Imagine that Indian people were becoming the majority in America

  Heck, don't have to go that far; imagine that a dozen or so arabs who don't believe in the legitimacy of the US and its economic expansionism manage a sneak attack that kills a few thousand Americans; the reaction of america would be enormous. anybody who was an arab would be at risk from both the government and "patriots". even anybody who could vaguely be compared to an arab because they wore a turban or something. demagogue politicians could easily whip the populace into a frenzy giving them carte blanche to not only quash their political opponents at home but engage in military adventures abroad under the vague rubric of preemptive self-defense against an imminent attack. long standing and almost axiomatic human rights like habeas corpus and prohibition of torture could even be repealed without the public rebelling. (yes, i know it's farfetched, but it could happen!)

  yes, this could happen, even in America! so give the Israelis the courtesy of not expecting them to behave any better than you and your fellow citizens, please.

  of course, however, israel is deserving of all this strife, because many indigenous residents had to move a dozen miles or even more when the white men arrived, either because they were forced to, because they thought they were forced to, because the new folks bought the property, or because they didn't want to live in the neighborhood when the Jews moved in; and others were killed. thus the country should be dismantled and the property given back to the folks who say their relatives used to live there 50 years ago, even if they can't prove that their ancestors sold the place. after all, if they were a legitimate country like the US, the israelis' ancestors would have so thoroughly massacred the indigenous population that the question would be moot; in addition this would avoid the thorny question of whether the property had been purchased or stolen, as there isn't a need to purchase property from somebody you've killed.

  and this is why we're morally justified in requiring israel to live up to different rules than we expect of ourselves.

  —gzuckier Read gzuckier's other letters
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