Digg Townhall Tonight!
Tune into the live Digg townhall tonight at 5:00pm PST/8:00pm EST.
Israel makes arrests in alleged plot against Bush
reuters.com — Israel accused six Arabs on Friday of trying to set up an al Qaeda cell in Israel and said one of them had proposed attacking helicopters used during a visit by President George W. Bush.
hdar3415- 95 diggs
- digg it
- franklymister, on 07/18/2008, -3/+11Two of those Arabs were Israeli citizens and students at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
I think it says a lot that Israel has over 1.2 million Arab, non-Jewish citizens, and despite repeated acts of terrorism, disloyalty, and treason by a few, recognizes the overwhelming goodness of the majority and guarantees equal rights for all.
By contrast, Jews have fled or been evicted from all of the Arab world, and where they remain, they are persecuted and live under laws that are openly and formally hostile to their existence.- reflex768, on 07/18/2008, -1/+6True up to a point. But there is after all a reason why they've consistently rejected a right-of-return for the Palestinian refugees. That is if the refugees returned to Israel, it would constitute a voting majority they wouldn't trust along similar lines. Not to suggest that they should, but that we shouldn't be unnecessarily impressed with their commitment to the universal goodness of multiethnic majorities as you sketched it.
- franklymister, on 07/18/2008, -2/+5You're right about the ethnic divisions. The complaint that Arab citizens in Israel seem to have the most is that the rules of democracy mean that they have less influence, as a minority.
Generally, they seem to feel that if they could just make Israel a Muslim majority, then they'd be happier.
Unfortunately, the point of Israel is to be a Jewish nation, because of the historical problems that Jews have faced when they were without such a country.
I'm certainly not saying that Israel has a commitment to multiethnic majorities, but I am saying that you can judge a nation by the way it treats its minorities.
Like pretty much all first-world nations, Israel needs to improve the status of its minority groups. But at least they acknowledge it as a principle to live up to.
- franklymister, on 07/18/2008, -2/+5You're right about the ethnic divisions. The complaint that Arab citizens in Israel seem to have the most is that the rules of democracy mean that they have less influence, as a minority.
- reflex768, on 07/18/2008, -1/+6True up to a point. But there is after all a reason why they've consistently rejected a right-of-return for the Palestinian refugees. That is if the refugees returned to Israel, it would constitute a voting majority they wouldn't trust along similar lines. Not to suggest that they should, but that we shouldn't be unnecessarily impressed with their commitment to the universal goodness of multiethnic majorities as you sketched it.
- zolthar, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1Neighboring civilians (either self defined as Israeli Arabs or Palestinians, but hold Israeli citizenships) were surprised at the accusations, and described some of the detainees as the anti-social type, who sit at home and browse the web for god knows what. like the kids who take a gun and go on mass murder at school.
- JimmySpaza, on 07/19/2008, -1/+1Why doesn't Israel just kick out all non-Jewish people and be done with this nonsense? After all, anti-Israel propagandists and pro-Islamic liberals are always saying how eeeeevil Israel is and doesn't have the right to exist.
Check out the new & improved 
© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is