Utopia Talk / Politics / Da fuck is Israel?

Asgard Member	Sat Jun 09 06:45:19 I want to take UP on a tour a land of unique mysteries. A land of conflict and prosperity, a land of peace and war, and of progress and of backwards zealotry. Israel was started as a democratic and progressive nation. Everybody has voting rights from the start: Arabs, Women, everyone. Everybody was just as entitled as the next, and science was a staple of society. Universities were built, and even today, publications per capita are the highest in the world. But... the country was controlled by a single party, despite of it being democratic. since the 40's all the way up to the 70's, a left socialist party ruled, and the organizations that it controlled (workers union, mainly) were too powerful. If you weren't a member, you didn't count, and competition was non-existent. To get a phone line, you had to wait 6 months, and to get a head, you needed "protection" from the unions. Here is when things started to go wrong: 1) In the 60's, the left socialist party gave the Haredi Orthodox Jews, an anti-zionist sect that is against education other than religious studies, a right to avoid militry service (every male or female has to serve once they are 18, for 3 years (male) and 2 years (female), as well as funding to their private schooling system 2) Israel won the 6 day war in 1967. Its not israel's first win, but it is the first where the land that was grabbed was not returned thereafter, but instead colonists settled, and mostly for religious reasons. This was mandated first by the left socialist party, but later expanded and funded to extreme by Likud party and their coalition partners. 3) The Likud won the elections in the 70's. The left lost and never fully recovered. The Likud housed a tea-party-like madness and anti-establishment sentiment that still rules to this day. In order to keep power, the Likud gave a lot of influence to small coalition partners who extorted it to the last drop, including the Orthodox parties and lesser religious parties. 4) Rise of the Religion There is a growing anti-secular movement that started in the 70's and reached its peak in the present. More and more funding goes to religious schools and religious after-school activities, even if ultimately these are anti-zionist, anti-state, and anti-education. More and more people are walking the streets with yamakas on their heads, beards on their faces, religios clothes, and it's not just for show. Just 2 days ago a girl reported in the main internet news paper (ynet.co.il) that a guard at a train station ordered her not to board a train dressed the way she is (short pants, belly showing), which created a small outcry. you'd expect the guard to be fired, but he won't be, not in Israel. Because the train will back the zealots out of fear of being boycotted by the religious. More and more restaurants are becoming Kosher, more and more places are stopping to work on saturdays, making it less and less worth living for secular people who just want to hang out on saturday (our "sunday" day off). Israel is a start-up nation. 15% of its workforce is in high-tech, working for large global corporations as well as small start ups that want to be bought to said corporations. Israel's universities are top-notch, but it's all starting to crumble. The weight on the secular middle class is too much. There are approximately 1 million Israelis who immigrated elsewhere, out of 8 million Israelis currently living in it, over the years. These immigrants are secular, educated, motivated people, who find their home was stolen from them. And it's not just them. It's also new immigrants to Israel itself. In the 90's after the USS fell, 1 million jews from Russia and other former USSR countries arrived, but they soon found that promises of equality, belonging-ness were all lies. They were cheated by the state and by the people, who often treated them with suspicion and racism (even if Israel was first started by young socialist immigrants from the Russia). Today, most new immigrants are from the US, but these liberal mostly liberal jews who come to Israel find a hostile environment, war-bent and too religious for their liking, and they go back as soon as they arrive, back to the US where even there it seems much saner. The bad things are concealed when these Jews are addressed by The Jewish Agency, an Israeli organization whose purpose is to increase jewish immigration to Israel. A heaven is presented, but Israhell is what they really find in the end. nuke Israel, as Nim would say,
Paramount Member	Sat Jun 09 08:56:29 "More and more people are walking the streets with yamakas on their heads, beards on their faces, religios clothes, and it's not just for show. Just 2 days ago a girl reported in the main internet news paper (ynet.co.il) that a guard at a train station ordered her not to board a train dressed the way she is (short pants, belly showing), which created a small outcry. you'd expect the guard to be fired, but he won't be, not in Israel. Because the train will back the zealots out of fear of being boycotted by the religious. More and more restaurants are becoming Kosher, more and more places are stopping to work on saturdays, making it less and less worth living for secular people who just want to hang out on saturday (our "sunday" day off). " Well, Israel is a Jewish State after all, right? Israelis also seem to want this because they vote for this again and again and again. If they wanted something else they would have voted for something else, right? "In the 90's after the USS fell, 1 million jews from Russia and other former USSR countries arrived, but they soon found that promises of equality, belonging-ness were all lies. They were cheated by the state and by the people, who often treated them with suspicion and racism (even if Israel was first started by young socialist immigrants from the Russia). " Send them back to Russia where they belong. "nuke Israel, as Nim would say" I agree.
Hot Rod Revved Up	Sat Jun 09 11:47:15 I hope things work out for Israel.
murder Member	Sat Jun 09 13:21:43 Religion never makes things better.
patom Member	Sat Jun 09 14:50:50 Hell on earth is located in the same borders as the Holy Lands. IMO there will never be a lasting peace there.
Nimatzo iChihuaha	Sat Jun 09 17:56:22 Marg bar Israel.
Cthulhu Tentacle Rapist	Fri Jun 22 16:52:34 Nobody cares
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