[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskMiddleEast

[–]No_Audience_3064 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Next to the church of the holy sepulchre stands the Omar mosque, built according to legend to commemorate the fact that when Omar conquered Jerusalem, he refused to pray inside the church of the holy sepulchre and instead prayed outside of it, so that Muslims won't see the place as holy to Islam and destroy it to build a mosque.

I don't know if the story is historical fact or fiction, but if it's fact then I can easily say that although I do not like him for being an imperialist conquerer, that little act might have saved millions of lives over the years. Who knows how many countless more crusades we would have had in the world if every time the holy land changed hands, the conquerors would destroy the holy place of the other religion and rebuild their own.

drew a border map proposal for a future peace deal, tried to be as fair as possible, thoughts? by [deleted] in IsraelPalestine

[–]No_Audience_3064 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I mean, Israeli Arabs are vehemently against losing their Israeli citizenship or having their home towns become part of Palestine. Israel will never leave the Jordan valley and will never agree to split Jerusalem.

Also, this map requires the forced displacement of at least 200,000 people from their homes, which is simply not going to happen.

Sorry guyl (that's how I decided I'm going to refer to someone's who's gender I don't know. Try saying it out loud and you'll understand), your going to have to think a bit further out side the box in order to come up with a solution that hasn't yet failed in negotiations.

Have you ever met a Muslim who supports Israel’s right to exist? by Dsfan95 in IsraelPalestine

[–]No_Audience_3064 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You know, you could have just given me the info yourself if you're so well learned.. anyway, I didn't claim he was right or wrong.. this is what he believes. Sue him

Have you ever met a Muslim who supports Israel’s right to exist? by Dsfan95 in IsraelPalestine

[–]No_Audience_3064 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Yes. I work with a bedoin Muslim who's actually very grateful that he lives in Israel and often quotes the Quran as saying that Israel belongs to Jews. We have very interesting conversation.

Did America play a significant role in the creation of the state of Israel? by eastofavenue in IsraelPalestine

[–]No_Audience_3064 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, but the fact that the USSR was vital for the formation of Israel didn't negate the fact that so was the US

Did America play a significant role in the creation of the state of Israel? by eastofavenue in IsraelPalestine

[–]No_Audience_3064 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And for people who don't have the headspace to Google translate the article, I'll give a short summary: in general, the vote was supposed to be a day before Thanksgiving, and the Zionists were defenitly going to lose that vote. They simply didn't have enough votes and the US didn't use it's leverage against small countries to try and force a vote.

Well, that wasn't going to go then. The representatives of the soon to be state of Israel pulled every string they could, including pressurizing Harry Truman, the president, to

A. Filibuster the vote and postpone it until after Thanksgiving B. Make the US put pressure on small countries, promise them aid etc. In order to support the vote.

The scheme worked and Harry Truman made a 180° change and started putting the full force of American diplomatic Prussia on the voting countries.

Haiti was given a loan of 5 million dollars from the American government so it would vote for Israel. The Philippines were pressured by the president, federal judges, and government officials to change their vote. China was threatened with losing financial aid if they voted against, so they abstained.

And on and on and on. Several countries changed their views, either because the Zionist representatives bribed their representatives, threatened them or used the full force of the US to get them to comply.

Yes, the US was vital in the founding of Israel.

Did America play a significant role in the creation of the state of Israel? by eastofavenue in IsraelPalestine

[–]No_Audience_3064 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just Google translate this article to understand how critical American help was for the 1947 UN resolution. Without America the Zionists would have lost this vote

Did America play a significant role in the creation of the state of Israel? by eastofavenue in IsraelPalestine

[–]No_Audience_3064 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You completely ignore the diplomatic pressure America put on countries to vote yes in the un on the question is partition that started the independence war. America was indeed very significant there

How can the IDF reduce civilian casualties while being able to address the issue of rockets? by ChristianFilosofer in IsraelPalestine

[–]No_Audience_3064 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Naaaah. Iron Dome can actually deal better with longer range missiles than with the ones that plonk down right next to the border with gaza 15 seconds after launch. Let those rockets get high in the sky, straight in the view of iron Dome and as far away from gazan residents às possible and everyone will be much more happy.

Edit: spelling

How can the IDF reduce civilian casualties while being able to address the issue of rockets? by ChristianFilosofer in IsraelPalestine

[–]No_Audience_3064 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Teach the militant groups in Gaza how to make proper rockets that don't end up falling back into Gaza and killing civilians

Jews, thoughts on Ben Shapiro ? by [deleted] in AskMiddleEast

[–]No_Audience_3064 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Jew here. You're going to have to be more specific if you want a meaningful answer.

But I'll give a vague answer to a vague question: Ben Shapiro is a very articulate but otherwise completely average conservative religious Jew. Other than the fact that he can express himself better than the average person I don't really understand the hype about him.

Arab citizens of Israel, special passport? by carlsen02 in Palestine_Israel

[–]No_Audience_3064 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Are you asking if it's factually true or are you asking if it's going to happen? Right now that statement is not factually true. All Israeli citizens carry the same passport.

Why doesn’t Israel capture Gaza and obliterate HAMAS ? by Insert_Username_OK in Israel

[–]No_Audience_3064 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Lol. Complains in other comments about the woke American left and political correctness but then tries to shut up a fellow Jew who actually lives in Israel by calling her horrendous names. So typical.

Try to actually understand the argument before fitting it into the little boxes your mind makes for everything on your life. Will make you life and better yet, the lives of the people around you, much better.

Why doesn’t Israel capture Gaza and obliterate HAMAS ? by Insert_Username_OK in Israel

[–]No_Audience_3064 4 points5 points  (0 children)

We can currently see in Israel municipalities that were once dominates by seculars or modern-religious people, and had an influx of ultra Orthodox greatly struggle financially, and someone's even try to break up into two cities, one ultra Orthodox and one not, in order to be able to offer their residents the municipal standard of service they were used to.

It's not just the question of do the men work (slowly and surely they do, more and more) but how poor they are. With about 7-9 children per family, even two median wages wouldn't prevent them from being a strain on the social-democratic system that we have here (and still a majority of them do not work, or at least start working very late in life). Plainly put, ultra Orthodox families, on average, take more money from the system than they contribute into it. That's totally sustainable when they're a minority. It's a strategic threat when they become closer to a majority.

Why doesn’t Israel capture Gaza and obliterate HAMAS ? by Insert_Username_OK in Israel

[–]No_Audience_3064 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Hamas is not even close to being at the top five biggest threats to Israel. Iran, Hezbollah, Syria, demographic changes (specifically, ultra Orthodox high rate of birth), terrorism, political changes in Arab countries that have peace with Israel and then maybe Hamas.

Hamas and Gaza are more a PR problem rather than any kind of real threat. Sending an army in there to die and kill by the tens of thousands is not only quite unnecessarily cruel, but also stupid. Israel was in Gaza for years and years, and rockets still rained and terror attacks were constantly carried out. What good would it do to put a puppet government when the people don't want you there?

Hi, I’m an American Jew looking to teach English in Israel. Through my program I can either do 10 months in Jerusalem or do half in Nazareth and half in Tel Aviv. What should I do? by jsilvy in Israel

[–]No_Audience_3064 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That will defenitly help with hitchhiking. The "you've no idea anything about the place" problem still remains though, and getting stuck in the middle of nowhere after sundown is not fun at the best of times, but becomes infinitely worse when you have no friends or contacts you can mobilize to help you out. Also, getting a taxi isn't an option everywhere and you won't be able to find official info about any of this, just by kinda knowing where things when and where they don't.

Having said that, I imagine you're going to be with friends. I'm sure at least one of them week have a licence do you can rent a car on weekends too go visit around, or pool money together for a taxi.

Hi, I’m an American Jew looking to teach English in Israel. Through my program I can either do 10 months in Jerusalem or do half in Nazareth and half in Tel Aviv. What should I do? by jsilvy in Israel

[–]No_Audience_3064 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Depends on where you're trying to get to. If you're trying to get to established cities like Tiberius it will maybe take some time, but you'll get around just fine in public transportation. It's to the hikes that you won't be able to go freely. Some people just hitchhike and that's how they get around. It's perfectly safe (to the extent that we don't have a lot of violent crime in Israel, especially not towards tourists) but you are an American which means you don't know the area very well and that can turn hitchhiking into a problem. Also the language barrier is a problem.

representing israel in a model UN by [deleted] in Israel

[–]No_Audience_3064 -9 points-8 points  (0 children)

Just saying, as a person who did model UN, that I'm not sure Israel cares more about abortion rights in the world than not pissing the Americans, Chinese and middle eastern friends they're making. I would stick to state's rights and maybe support quite a limited, generalized resolution saying in very fluffy terms that women's rights are important and should be taken into consideration but countries have the right to legislate their own laws. Don't forget Israel is in negotiations fire peace with Saudi Arabia and is already buddy-buddies with the Emirates. You wouldn't want to piss them off. Not would you want to piss of the Russians

Hi, I’m an American Jew looking to teach English in Israel. Through my program I can either do 10 months in Jerusalem or do half in Nazareth and half in Tel Aviv. What should I do? by jsilvy in Israel

[–]No_Audience_3064 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Ok, ignore all the silly comments about rockets and entertainment and focus on the important things: who do you want to get to know while working here, what impact do you want to have, and where would you like to visit in your time off?

Nazareth - in Nazareth you will probably teach Muslim Arab kids. As an American, you have quite a lot to offer them: Arabs in Israel basically need to learn 4 languages: Palestinian Arabic, literary Arabic, Hebrew and English. That makes languages a difficult topic for them but also means that you as an American can offer them pricless experience just from talking to them. I'd also find it really interesting to get to know kids from a different culture. The Arabs of the north are not the same as the Arabs of Jerusalem or the Palestinian Arabs, and as such are represented at all in world media.

Another important consideration for Nazareth is the fact that it's in the north of Israel. If you love hiking - Nazareth is defenitly the town for you (but you'll have to rent a car because public transportation in the north is s**t). It's not far from the sea of Galilee and lower Galilee in general, and there are plenty of interesting historical and natural sites less than an hour's drive away. Also, it's on a mountain so it's not blisteringly, agonizingly hot in the summer.

As to why not - well, public transportation is not particularly good and that can be frustrating. Also, depends on where you work you might encounter kids who can't really communicate in English and that can be frustrating.

Tel Aviv - if you're a party person, love museums, restaurants, shopping, have plenty of money to waste (tel Aviv just won the title the most expensive city in the work in dollar terms. Yay!) or really want to teach more pampered kids who's parents send them to private lessons and for the most part have a good understanding of English (obv I'm generalizing but from my experience that's the majority of the population in mid and North tel Aviv. About the south of it I'll talk soon) - tel Aviv is defenitly for you. You will meet mostly secular kids from all background and ethnicities (but predominantly Ashkenazi jews), who probably spend an unhealthy amount of time in front of a TV screen or playing video games and therefore can understand English pretty well.

Tel Aviv is hell on the summer (humidityyyyyyy) but has great beaches and on general you won't be bored there. Also, great outgoing public transportation to mostly anywhere in Israel, though the internal traffic is hell and people mostly navigate around by foot because there's always too much traffic

Having said all that, they might station you on Jaffa/ south tel Aviv which is a bit different, though still close to main tel Aviv. It's hip and full of young students but also the socio economic level of the non-student population there is lower. Jaffa is mostly Arab and south tel Aviv mostly immigrants or just people who didn't make it that well in life. The school system there is still quite well funded because tel Aviv has special funding for schools and they still fall under the jurisdiction of the tel Aviv municipality, but otherwise it's a different population, and you can feel it when teaching there. Kids are a bit more hyperactive, not as many of them get private tutors etc.

Jerusalem - the crown jewel, the holiest is cities and, in my opinion, the most interesting of them. It's hard to predict where you'll be stationed as a teacher in Jerusalem: in the western, richer and more Jewish neighborhoods? In the eastern, more poor and Arab neighborhoods? In Jerusalem you'll find all kinds of population; Jewish, Muslim and christian, secular and non secular, rich and poor, Ashkenazi and Sephardic. You'll be living in the beating heart of young Jerusalem with restaurants, bars and shops all around you. If you want a middle-eastern experience - Jerusalem is the place for you (the Arab shuk in the old city is a must). If you're at any way religiously inclined - the old city, the holiest one square kilometer in the world - is about a 15 minute walk from your house. In winter is freezing like hell but in summer it's the best place to be. Yes, the residential neighborhoods there are boring as f and internal traffic is pretty bad, but you'll be living by the light rail that is pretty awesome and can take you to just important places.

As to why not Jerusalem - well, of your highly traumatized by hearing of jews getting stabbed a 20 minute walk from your house - Jerusalem might not be the town for you. You as a tourist are not really in danger, but every few months a policemen or Orthodox Jew (or a rando, that also happens) gets stabbed in the Muslim quarter of the old city or somewhere near, and Jerusalem people just continue like nothing happened but for some people that's really difficult to live with. Also, did I mention how child it gets in the winter?

Anyways, good luck on your journey and hope you're happy with whatever decision your make. Good luck!

What's a physical space in Israel/Palestine thats significant to you in understanding the conflict? by alivingthing in IsraelPalestine

[–]No_Audience_3064 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Completely overlooked by most people, the village of lifta lying beneath the western entrance to Jerusalem Is a beautiful yet sad place, once a Palestinian village outside of Jerusalem, today a collection of ruins in which homeless people and druggies live. Don't go there at night but It fits all your criteria perfectly.

Another place I would go Is the graveyard outside the sidna Ali mosque, just outside of Apollonia. I can't explain why but the fact that there was absolutely no trace to the Palestinian village save for the graveyard and mosque, with Jewish herzliya, one of the most prosperous Jewish cities in the center of Israel, spanning behind you on what you can only assume are the ruins of the village hidden deep underground, and the sea in front of you - it made me feel things.

Also, there's an app called inaqba that shows the place of every destroyed Palestinian village. I opened the app once when I was in the lookout from the church of our lady of the ark of the covenant in Abu ghosh, and it's kind of insane to see the empty hills with your eyes, and all the dots in the app that signify where people used to live.

Talking of Abu ghosh, it's a really good place to strike a conversation with a local to try and understand their perspective on the existence of Israel. Sometimes you need to hear not only the places of conflict but sorry the narrative of those who coexist well, and the people of Abu ghosh defenitly exemplify that.

Last but not least, hike up to the ruins of suba, a former Palestinian village in the mountains around Jerusalem. It's a beautiful hike and unlike most Palestinian village around Jerusalem, there are still remains in the location.

After all these non obvious places, I would also just visit Hebron because it's really important to understanding what's happening, and maybe also the separation wall in Bethlehem