What's your position on whether or not Isreal is a country? Why do you believe what u do?
358127
What else? Of coures it is a country. It has a government on all levels from national to regional. It has infrastructure, it has it’s own language, it has citizens devoted to their country ready to defend it with their very lives. It has a history that goes back over 3500 years. It also has it’s own unique culture, with art, music, literature and science.\nSo how could it NOT be a country???
468730
To the first ignorant poster:  the United Nations, composed of several nations made Israel a nation.  People really need to learn history.  It might also interest the poster to learn that Israel might not have become a state if it weren't for the hatred shown to them after they tried to rightfully claim their very own homes after the Holocaust.\n\nThe British imposed a severe limit on immigration right after the war.  Many nations would not allow the Jews who were fortunate enough to survive to even reside in their very own countries!  There was no choice other than to make Israel a state.\n\nBefore pointing a finger at the Jews, look at the situation surrounding the issue.
288999
Honestly, in my mind Israel is connected with Christianity and a couple of nice people whom I know from there, also of course rumors of the funny little greediness u have and a really special way to make business :)
965223
hellooo - the Jews do not "occupy" Israel - another myth.  A Zionist is someone who believes that just like EVERY OTHER person on the planet, they deserve a homeland where they can fell free and safe.
184377
Well, Israel doesn't meet many theoretical criteria for being a state:\n- no actual natives to the land\n- built on occupied land\n- not recognized by its neighbours or a relevant majority of the international community (yes the world powers acknowledge Israel but what about other countries?)\n- furthers borders through invasion\n- the declaration of idependence violates Palestine's mandate (at that time).
1090273
The nature of religion means that everyone thinks that their belief is correct. So all of the different cultures and religions which claim Isreal as their own do so with a conviction based on their own beliefs - it is an unending circle!
116553
Wow, bit of a controversial question, right? \n\nFrom what I've heard, most Middle Eastern nations protest the existence of Israel because its creation took away land from the Palestinians who had been living there. Yes, the land was originally given to Israel, but in the minds of Arabics, all that was 3000 years ago or so, and it shouldn't be valid any longer. \n\nPlus, many Palestinians are now living in refugee camps or have fled to other nations, and now those nations are having to help them/feed them, etc. The way the nations see it, if Israel had never been created, the nations wouldn't have this problem.
104492
The country does not belong to the Palestinians.\nIt belongs to the Israelis.
107358
I sympathize with the plight of the Palestinian people, but politically I believe that they're wrong and are never going to get what they want. The problem with the Palestinians' position is that they insist on the destruction of Israel. I think the Palestininians should get their own country, but not at the expense of the destruction of Israel.
378527
Well I put my self in the Palestinians shoes and if some person took my land and made me live like a refugee in my country I would be pritty defensive to put it lightly. Especially if people born in other countries like the US came and tryed to say its there land because they are Jewish, WHAT? its a faith not a right to take some poor Palestinians land.
740708
I think it's very clear that Israel is a Theocracy.\n\nI don't think that they've ever claimed otherwise.\n\nThey don't need to justify themselves when they are in the middle of many Muslim Theocracies where people of other faiths have no powers and are even worse off than the Muslims in Israel.
851723
Please take your Propaganda to Political category.  This is Reiligions and Spirituality not for this type of crap\n\nAnd this is a common strategy of your religion, create problems and when other party retaliate, play the victim and cry loud--oh we are being persecuted for being muslims"\n\nThe blood is shed on the other side too !!  Their children are also losing parents... But since terrorist countries  want Israel to vanish...this war will continue for ever.\n\nIf Israle is against Muslim, why he does not kill Egyptians,Jordanians, saudis, UAE, and other peaceful countries in Gulf??
696316
After WWII and the Nazi persecution of the Jews, the UN and the world leaders set up a secular nation of Israel at the beckoning of SECULAR ZIONISTS. This is not the "Kingdom" of Israel and has nothing to do with any Bible restoration prophecy. People today (“Christian Zionists”) think it is according to prophecy, but they are seriously mistaken. Any restoration prophecies that really pertain to literal Israel were fulfilled long ago when they were released from Babylonian captivity. Any newer prophecies are fulfilled in a new Israel which is not the literal nation of Israel, but rather a spiritual nation of people made up of every nation and tongue today. Their Jerusalem is a heavenly one. Their capital city is a heavenly government ruled by the resurrected Christ Jesus.\n\nJesus Christ, near the end of his lfe, stood on the hill overlooking Jerusalem and the temple....looked down at it and condemned their relationship with God.\n\nNow....looking at the modern situation...it gets very interesting....you see there are a great many Christian Zionists who think that Israel is still favored by God and they feel the Israelites have a god-given right to palestine....these people have HUGE pull in the affairs of the governments which support Israel. Believe it or not this zionist movement will do anything to prevent the current peace efforts from proceeding because they do not want Israel to loose any of their "god-given" land. (The peace plans or "road map to peace" calls for them to loose some)\nThese people interestingly think they are going to be raptured off the world scene so they do not have to deal with any of the nasty results of their meddleing. The Christian zionists are sadly mistaken and bad things will come from their involvement.....(They already have).\n\nGoing on.....ponder this....just 3 days before the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US.....the United States and Israel walked out of the UN conference on racism...they turned their backs on the world community who had passed a resolution that stated that zionism equals racism. This conference was planned for years......the arab community for years planned to present this resolution at this very conference......I wonder.....Could it be.....that this was in fact the TRIGGER for the attacks on the WTC in New York and the pentagon? Were these Al Khada terrorists poised and waiting for this walk out? I say this is a possibility, but what do I know? This presents the question.....If the US was not so motivated by Christian Zionists and their political influence, would there have been an attack? Would Muslims have the same view that they have of Americans today? Thanks for asking this question.
483857
Yes.  Isreal is defined as a Jewish State, so therefore granting voting rights to Jews only will preserve the identity of the State of Isreal as a Jewish State.\n\nMore important than an ethnic majority, however, is a cultural majority.  A nation must define a culture and demand investment in that culture by its citizens.  The more dynamic the culture, the more dynamic the society.\n\nA nation is defined by its borders, its language, and its culture.  Detstoy any one of these three pillars of the tripod, and the whole thing comes tumbling down.
97154
When Isreal was formed as a country in the late 1940's the area was uninhabited.  The people had every right to be there.  They took no one's land and did not bother anyone.\n\nUnfortunately, Islamic Law does not tolerate non-muslims.  In fact the Koran is very clear that the ultimate goal is for Muslims to take over the world.  Because of this, the people of Palestine and other Muslim countries have been trying to push out the Jewish people since they settled in modern day Isreal.  \n\nIsreal is the only source of sanity in the middle east.  It is the only free people. Despite what most news outlets say, the Muslims in Isreal have more freedom than they do in thier native countries.\n\nThe western world should support Isreal as the only bastion of freedom in the middle east.
507053
Wow...I'm amused by the previous post.  Does he really think that Jews never lived in Palestine?  He should read any history book.  Jewish history in Palestine is well documented, and has been known for generations.\n\nI think today, most of the world recognizes it as a region in limbo...not quite a nation, but not exactly a territory.  It is unique.  \n\nI think it is sad that nations of the world are unwilling to recognize nations that are effectively independent.  I don't know if Palestine quite qualifies yet, since it still depends on Israel for a lot of its financial and trade responsibilities, but it clearly isn't a typical territory.  But clearly there are other places in the world that operate as nations, but the world simply refuses to recognize them.  I think immediately of Somaliland (the northern chunk of Somalia) which has apparently been operating independently for some time, but which the world seems unwilling to deal with.  It seems unfair.  Perhaps there are issues that I'll never understand.  Or Taiwan, which is clearly a separate country from China, but which we continue to ignore to give power to a big bully.  Sad.\n\nI suspect that one day, Palestine will be treated as an independent nation, but I hope they will take time to consider their economic policy before that happens.  If they continue to operate as they are now, the nation will starve.  The government seems to have learned too much economic policy from Israel, and has adopted the Israeli model of socialism.  Sad.  Perhaps they would do well to look back to the history of the Arab peoples and research the Saracen history, in sources like Rose Wilder Lane's "The Discovery of Freedom", to find a model that would make Palestine liveable.  \n\nIf they continue down the current path, it will only lead to more devastation for everyone.
151099
Religion is just an ideological disguise.  Wars are always about territory and power.  The only reason that the US is in the Middle East right now is because this administration, following in the footsteps of the Reagan and Bush Sr. adiministration, has a serious comitment to creating and maintaining a US military stronghold in the Middle East.  Jimmy Carter laid it all out for the American people in an interview on NPR.  This "war" we are fighting is solely for maintaining economic and political control of an oil-rich territory.  The whole Isreal thing is a bogus excuse.  God will support the righteous--yeah right, what are you smoking.  According to the Bible, God instigated more wars than anything else.  He commanded massacres and genocide.  Isreal was formed, according to the Bible, because God commanded the Hebrews to kill all the Cannonites and take over their territory.  The modern state of Isreal was formed by the Allied powers after WWII because none of their countries wanted to take in all the Jewish refugees, so they picked their "historical" homeland, disposesed all the people already living their at that time and forcefully created a new state of Isreal.  Religion has always been and will always be an intricate screen to hide power-hungary facist regimes.  If people keep buying into the Bush administrations lies that we, a Judeo-Christian country that symbolizes all that is good are fighting Muslim countries because they symbolize all that is evil, the cycle of violence will perpetuate itself, and those people will only strengthen the ideological forces that promote this war.