Israel has always, in my opinion, taken a proactive approach to mitigating threats to their nation.  No doubt, this is but one example of their foresight concerning identified risks and attempts to mitigate the perceived consequences.  It is sad that in the American culture, our industry leaders tend to live in a state of denial and ignorance.  Is it better to be prepared and nothing ever happen, or to turn our head in conscience disregard and rationalization only to add to the loss of life and property by our failure to prepare when something does happen?

I can't believe that the average Israeli doesn't see merit in a solution that creates a separate state for the Palestinians.  The settler movement, driven as it is by religious beliefs not subject to rational political discussion, won't see things that way, but most Israelis aren't settlers.  

Iran can say silly things about Israel because Israel has not made peace with people who have lived on that land for 2000 years.  Make peace, and Ahmedinijad will have a harder time finding a receptive audience for his statements.

If I lived over in that area of the world I would prepare for war EVERYDAY.

John Carroll,

So if I throw a grenade in your front yard then you are going to automatically give me your house?

John, Isreal was attacked in 1967 by the Palestinians.  Why would they want to just give them that land with no guarantees they won't be attacked?  Common sense here bud.

I think it is time for Israel to move away from the aggressive, victim and begin to take the lead in the region. The Israeli leaders need to MAKE the peace happen and stop waiting around for more liberal Arabs to step up.

Jerusalem should stay in Israel and all the other items should be dealt with swiftly and cleanly.

israelis need a change in their thinking. While thet reat of the world is talking PEACE Israel is walking WAR! What a contrast of mind set vs the rest of the world. IT USES THE DEADLIEST WEAPONH KNOWN TO MAN: FEAR! Such a shame! Wake up israel! learn to share!

The notion that Ahmedinijad or Hamas really care if Israel leaves the West Bank or constructs an additional house on a settlement is absurd. They have made it clear their goal is to "wipe Israel off the map" regardless of the borders.  Israel is prudent to conduct this defense drill; unfortunately they may need it.

Religious believes too often blur pragmatic solutions and obvious realities. This is as true for Isreal, Iran, Palestine, the U.S.A and any other nation that exists on our Earth. Sadly, politics is no better. I can't help but wonder wat ther world we be like if jealousy and greed were replaced with cooperation and sharing. Pasteur Once said: "It is my belief that Science and Truth will triumph over ignorance and war." I truly pray he is correct.

Nonsense.  That's assuming that radical Islam is rational.  They are not.

I completely agree with you John.

Funny how the opponents of Israel use (and discard) the poor Palestenians as cats paws.

I guess the rest of the Arab world was being proactive in 1947, 1956, etc. because they knew that at some time in the future Israel would be bad.


Personally, if people in Vancouver Canada were lobbing missles daily into northern Washington state, I'd be all for flatting all of Canada.

Israel is a tiny nation state which must do all possible to survive. The Palestinians had secure borders in 1967. Thye destroyed them by trying to throw the Israelis into the sea.
Israel should forget about peace. Just live the staus quo for the next 200/300 years and maybe Israel and Palestine can combine into one country like Switzerland. Nothing is going to happenon the quick. It is not human nature.
Meantime, they must prepare for war against Mahmud Amadinajad and his Iranian terrorists.

I think it is time for Israel to move away from the aggressive, victim and begin to take the lead in the region. The Israeli leaders need to MAKE the peace happen and stop waiting around for more liberal Arabs to step up.

Jerusalem should stay in Israel and all the other items should be dealt with swiftly and cleanly.

Israel has good need to be ready for anything and they should be.  

chris, Israel is a relatively recent development, and people lived there prior to its creation.  If I pushed you out of your home in alabama (and sorry, it's hard to argue Palestinians didn't live there for the past 2000 years), you'd likely throw a hand grenade my way, too.

Of course, hand grenades aren't a helpful way to solve the problem, and I'm not defending that.  Irish Catholics had legitimate grievances against the government in Northern Ireland, however.  Protestants had lots to fear from the IRA.  Even so, they made peace.

There are lots of angry people on both sides.  They can't be allowed to torpedo what MOST Israelis want.

The status quo doesn't work.  You can't keep the Palestinians poor, jobless and with little ability to change that and hope to have peace.  There needs to be a proper state in the occupied territories, and the first order of business is to STOP settlement activity.

Israelis have owned the land since Bible days.  The world says give us and, and there will be peace.  There will never be peace there until Jesus comes back.

Appeasement has never won a contest or a conflict. To the victors belong the spoils. Where have the billions given to the Palestinians gone, schools, roads, hospitals, colleges, infrastructure?

having traveled in the middle east and talked about the issues with arabs... i can see why Isreal is preparing for the worst. I think they have burned all bridges back and that they will just have to fight it out till the end which saddly will mean armageddon for the entire region.
I ask some young arabs in tunisia what they would do if the US stopped supporting isreal... they're answer was that they would anihilate them... the damage is done and it is irreversible... 1967 was a slow protracted suicide for isreal. they could not have known tht their preemptive war would caused this and may have waged it anyway.

Sounds like a few of you need to do some real research into the true history of Israel. That's exactly what it has been, Israel since the beginning of time and the bible stated that it would become a state again which it is now. The whole world needs to wake up and realize that what is happening in the world today is the same thing that happened only a little over sixty years ago, and Israel has vowed that it would never happen again. Good for them. I hope they mean it. The bible also says GOD blesses those who bless Israel. So although we (USA) have always been Israels ally, GOD help us now with this new administration who it seems will turn their backs on Israel. This administration does not represent me. I support Israel. GOD bless Israel!  

AK,

The rest of the world may be thinking peace, but keep in mind that they are not at risk of daily suicide bombers, and radical terrorists blowing themselves up on behalf of "Jihad" The problem is that the Arab world can't control the radicals, and the Radicals rule by fear.

There is no peace talks with Radicals. They're not truly fighting for land, or for their religion, and people. They do this with a misconception of their own religion and against the will of the majority of their own people. They are common criminals with more advanced weapons, and better organized. Israel has every right to defend it's land, and territory as does any nation.

People - Israel launched pre-emptive war in 1967. They shot up a CLEARLY MARKED US ship and killed 34 crewmembers and injured another 1712 Americans. The least they should do is get serious about the future of the West Bank. If they want to annex it, do so, and live with the demographic time bomb. Right now, it's a Swiss cheese of "settlers" getting water and road rights, and Palestinians getting checkpoints and bulldozers. In other words, it's a squalid, giant-sized Warsaw Ghetto.

No matter what the Israeli Jews do, the Palestinian, Muslim Arabs are not going to leave them alone. Even if Israel completely vacated the West Bank, and let the Muslims have Jerusalem and more, the latter would still not be content until all the Jews left or remained as Dhimmi in a Muslim run state.  This is the reality of history, but the United States government lives in a fantasy world where childish terminology such as the "peace process" and the "road map" prevails.  All this, because the American people and politicians prefer to act as pimps and prostitutes for Arab oil.  

Americans also think that if they support a Palestinian Arab state that this will satisfy the Muslim world community, and the U.S. will no longer be vulnerable to another terrorist attack.  On the contrary, the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank will be just another launching pad for whatever rockets/missiles Hamas or any other Muslim group can get their hands on. Muslims have always vigorously opposed the mere existence of Israel.  Why would they change their minds because they get a piece of land smaller than many counties in the U.S.?

If the U.S. government had any sense, it would fully support Israel, and never a Palestinian State.  There is no such a thing as a peace loving Muslim in the HolyLand.  The Muslims started raising hell about the immigration of Jews to what is now Israel long before the Holocaust, and certainly under the British Mandate from approximately 1919 to 1948.  

What will probably happen is that the Obama administration will probably con Israel into giving up the West Bank (and possibly more).  The Palestinian, Muslim Arabs will then move in (like Gaza), and then after shooting each other for a while, will end up launching rockets and worse into Israel proper.  Maybe then, the U.S. will come to its senses, although I doubt it.  

In the end, those hard core, religious Jews living on the West Bank know what is at stake here.  Instead, they are the ones who have been portrayed as the fanatics, when in fact the real fanatics are Muslim outfits like Hamas.

Finally, we must never forget the admiration the late Yasir Arafat had for the even later Grand Mufti of Jersusalem (Haj Amin Al Husseini) and his open association with the Nazis during the Holocaust.  That philosophy is not dead in the Palestinian world, and is probably what really fuels outfits like Hamas and others.

Israelis still live with the angst of being wiped out. This is a tradition hard to unlearn after two thousand years of unspeakable persecution in European lands, culminating in the holocaust. Once the State was founded, the Arabs for their own reasons tried to wipe it out. Now the Israelis are left with a case of cognitive dissonance, seeing the Arabs as the next link in the century long persecution of the Jews. Any suggestions as to how to now solve this ? I have some ideas but its hard to communicate them.

If Isreal and mossaud could take out one US president in the early sixties for threatening to stop their nuclear program, they would not hesitate to destabalize the current administration as well.
God Bless America

John Carroll:

The State of Israel is not at all a "recent development". It previously existed in much the same spot before being destroyed by the Roman Empire, however the Jewish people themselves never left the Middle East. There have been Jews living continuously in the Middle East for roughly 3,000 years. They are native to the region, and they never left. Perhaps you know of one such Palestinian Jew, he was from Nazareth and he became famous for a unique ability to feed large numbers of people with fishes and loaves of bread. The real problem is that for almost all of their existence in the Holy Land, Jews were distrusted, hated and relegated to second-class status in Arab societies - or worse, were slaves. (Remember the story of Moses leading his people from Egyptian Arab bondage?) The Muslims cannot bring themselves to tolerate Jews as equals (or, as anything other than despised "dhimmis" with no legal or political rights). That's the real story behind the Mideast conflict. And it didn't begin in 1967, or 1948 either.

We do these all the time, even some of our local police and fire do this, being prepared is the first step away from ignorance, you prepare for many things on a daily basis, for their gov. to step in and hold practice prep's with the population shows they have some good relations between their people and the gov. something our gov has been trying to avoid

Danielle, religion is the reason everybody is fighting.  Whose GOD are you speaking of?  Everyone thinks GOD is on their side.  Given that, we're all pretty well doomed no matter what we believe.  Mercy, peace and tolerance.  Isn't that what Jesus preached?

Danielle,
 So the Bible says it. The Bible also says don't associate with women on their period, stone adulterers and those who disobey their parents etc etc. the Bible is just as full of nonsense as it is wisdom. Religion has killed more people than all wars combined.

Israel has violated international law for over 40 years. They illegally occupy the West Bank and Palestinian territories and employ apartheid policies. Most recently the Knesset passed a law requiring all Arab Israelis to sear alliegence to the "Jewish" State of Israel as well as making any celebration of Nakaba a crime punishible with 5 years in prison. This is a decomracy, right. they have thumber their nose at President Obama and continue to escalate tensions throughout the Middle East. Israel and her supporters then wonder why everyone is agaionst them. If Jews actually have gotten their collective butts kicked for 2,000 years. Then this didn't happen in a vacuum. As far as this list the ADL puts out I'm sure that African Americans still rank No.1 in the nation for having hate crimes perperated aginst them, but now that Israel is once again the aggressor we are going to hear nothing but the whining of the ADL.

Being prepared for those that have tried to destroy you from all sides is certainly a smart idea! But who says the Second State should be in Israel! Surely The Palestainen people would much happier on the other side of the Jordan River among those of there own belief! Why must Israel be the only one to give up land for peace? Why not Lebanon,Syria,Jordan,Saudia Arabia,or Egypt! The Sinai could be a wonderful South Palestine! Like a Northern and Southern California so to speak! Then everyone is truely sharing the burden for peace, not just Israel!

To those who implore Israel to embrace the so-called two state "solution".  Do you really believe that the Palestinians have any interest in peace once they have obtained it?  They have been very open for decades about the fact that they will not be satisfied until Israel no longer exists; their tune has not changed, unless western media or diplomats are present.  In any case, the God and his word have been proven true by the fulfillment of many prophecies, the reestablishment of Israel as a nation after 2000 years dispersed (also prophesied) against insurmountable odds.  The earthly state of Israel will remain until this world perishes and I don't believe Jerusalem will be divided again either.  Believe in Jesus.

You can't go fishing with a lamp, you can't use a flag pole to write a letter, you can't make a call on your shoe....and you can't apply a political solution to a religious/belief problem.

Politics is about compromising based upon an equitable outcome for all with concessions made on both sides that allow for win/win.

There are no concessions made in beliefs. The people of Israel believe that God Himself gave them that land. What would compromise look like? There is no God therefore he couldn't have said that? He gave it to us as an inheritance...but now he's forgotten his promises?

There will be peace in Israel when Somebody's God comes and determines the end. Jesus? Mohamed? The Messiah?......no political solution will last when hearts are stayed in faith.

Radical Islam is not rational, but not all Islam is radical.  The majority of people, black, white, other, Christian, Muslim, Jews, whatever, just wanna take care of their family and make an honest wage.  But some do not see this at all, they just see that they are different and judge the masses on a few bad high profile cases.

Prick me, do I not bleed....

chris, alabama

Your comparison of throwing a grenade in someone's yard making them give you there house in retort of John Carrol intelligent observation, makes no sense.

But here's something your little RNC brain may understand,     If you lived in a house for 40 yrs and someone ran you out with a shotgun, along with your grand kids etc etc, all based on self fulling prophecy and an errant claim to a holy site ( even though no one grain of sand is more holy then the next, no one wall more recognized by god then the other ) and then refused to let you visit this holy site, which I don't know, being so close to a magical place I would think might convert you from a pagan beleif to the worlds only true relegion  ( in there mind of course )hebrewism  You might throw a grenade in that yard, I know I would.

Isreal sucks and I wish Obama would say on live television that we are not enemies, but that we certainly won't commit american lives to any trouble they cause themselves with their behaviour.

Oh, and super funny is that all the rabbis and holy heirarchy got together at the height of our recession and prayed for and end to our economic woes, not because they like us, but because donations to isreali synagogues dropped heavily. Jews coming together to pray for money, classic. Can't come together across the globe to pray for world peace and understanding, but money, no problem. One of the best known stereotypes of jews is money hunger, and they go right ahead and re-enforce it. Pray for money, don't pray for peace.

I'm also going to coin a term here it's called

Anti-Europetic, so when someone jewish says anything at all critical of anyone not jewish, that non jew can say, " Oh, your just anti-europetic "  Kind of how they say " Oh, Your just anti semetic " whenever you say there wrong of out of order. I bet I spelled anti semetic wrong, and for that I must be anti semetic.

Everyone seems to forget that this is about politics, and land. Religion should have nothing to do with it. Going by these arguments everyone posting in the USA should be turning there keys over to the first Native American they see and begging forgiveness for hundreds of years of genocide.

If Israel wanted peace they would be making an attempt at peace. But backing someone into a corner and whipping them into submission guarantees they will react as they have nothing left to lose since they have already lost it all. Israel needs to help all of the people of the region if they want to be respected and remove the arguments of the few militants that are causing the problems.

Being prepared for those that have tried to destroy you from all sides is certainly a smart idea! But who says the Second State should be in Israel! Surely The Palestainen people would much happier on the other side of the Jordan River among those of there own belief! Why must Israel be the only one to give up land for peace? Why not Lebanon,Syria,Jordan,Saudia Arabia,or Egypt! The Sinai could be a wonderful South Palestine! Like a Northern and Southern California so to speak! Then everyone is truely sharing the burden for peace, not just Israel!

Maybe the Palestinians can live on reservations like we do with the American Indians.  They can build casinos and create wealth with that.  It's a perfect solution because Israel isn't going to give up 1 inch of land without a fight.  

the u.s. should cut off all foreign aid to arab countries.  period.

every single dollar is stolen and pocketed.  and the arab's just laugh at america's hubris and ignorance.

israel vs palestine is pretty much a showdown between the 21st century and the 10th century.  it's time for israel to flatten that place, and force the ignorant arabs to grow up and act like human beings.

The Rothchilds created a decloration endosing the creation of Israel in about 1912.  They then bought some of the land prior to WWII.  After the war they bulldozed the Palistonians and set us their state, populated it with Kazars, whose leader only forced the populus to convert to Judiasim around 700 AD as a control to keep control from the Arabs and Christians.  The Jewish state is intended to be as an irritant.  While some of the population may want pease, the leadership will never work on their bahalf.  Sounds like the US doesn't it.

Eyes on the ball, people! This is Israel preparing to "do business in Iran" for real. I for 1 am tried of waiting, it is way passed due for countries to respond decisively and with full force to all threats be they bluster or realized! Get down wit your bad self , Netanyahu!

The suggestion that Israel keep Jerusalem is a deal-breaker to the Arabs.

And quoting the Bible will do little to gain support among the Palestinians, any more than quoting the Quran will sway Israeli or American sentiment.

The peace process is a joke because they always say start with the easy problems and put off the hard ones (e.g. who controls Jerusalem) to the end.

Peace will only come when one side gives up.  You can guess what that will take to happen.

Smart move boys. Don't depend on ANYBODY to come to your rescue. Gee, lets see. 8.5 million Israelites....275,000,000 Arabs/////I'll give em even odds.

For those supposed history buffs, the Israelis used bombings and terrorist tactics to drive the British out of the area. The had their own version of the death squad to assassinate local British leaders

No one really talks about the religious roots to the Israeli/Palestinian problem.

The truth is that both the Arabs and Israelis are in the wrong, and they'll never solve the problem because they adopt the "eye for an eye mentality".

The Israelis are stuck in the old testiment, and the Arabs will always be at odds with them.

The only solution is CHRIST, but neither of those two groups will accept HIM.

I love how everyone here thinks that we Americans do not have daily terrorism...we do!!!  It is called gangs.  Each day, gang members kill more people than any of these terrorist groups. I think it is time that we deal with more reasonable and local problems here.  We will never stop terrorism abroad.  We know nothing about these people and their real problems. It takes a powerful cause to make a man kill himself and others to obtain it.  I don't think we will be able to sway them from it.  That must come from within.  Only once the middle east nations speak out against the extremism...will there be any change.  America...we need to stop meddling in the business of other countries.  And people need to stop using the religious arguement as a rational and factual statement. All that is hear say and cannot be proved...therefore it must be thrown out as proof.

I need to help some on this blog clarify their knowledge of history. Israel attacked Egypt and Syria in 1967 and then Jordan. The Palestinians didn't attack anyone, mostly they were caught in the middle. Let's not forget that Israel also attacked the USS Liberty in collusion with Pres. Johnson to try and blame it on the Egyptians and thus give the US a reason to enter the conflict incase Israel got into trouble. This is documented history. This along with many attacks Israel has made (particularly Lebanon 1982, for colonization)against soverign states covertly and openly clearly show they are a war like aggressive military power(4th most powerful in the world). Unfortunetly their misinformation and propaganda machine not just here but also in Israel has so many believing that the sky is a different color. Most Israelis do want peace but their government just doesn't represent this. Just like our government. It should also be noted that most Israelis are European and not decended from ancient Judaic tribes at all. The Jewish people of the east(called Sephardic Jews) were initially against Zionism and there was much struggle against this idea of moving from places like Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Morrocco etc. to Palestine and not just trying to take land from non Jewish Palestinians but also to being treated as second class uneducated peasants to the 'colonial Europeans'. Israel has done an incredible job of re-educating their public schools in the last 60 years to reflect 'Zionist revisionist history' that totaly keeps their populace uneducated about reality. They took so many lessons from the Nazi regimes play book and adapted and perfected them it truly is scary. Israelis living 2 miles away from the occupied zones literally have no idea what is going on over there. As far as their 'drills' Israel does this every time they are going to attack someone. Look at history. Every conflict they instigate happens in May or June. Well Lebanon has a very important election in 5 days. If one coalition wins Israel will fabricate a reason as it always does and deliver full scale devastion to a country that is and has always 'resisted' Israeli occupation and control. Israel has said it would do this many times simply because the Lebanese choose to have a democratic choice. Basically if the Christians 'legitimize' Hezbullah in their government (or let it happen, like some how they can stop it without shutting down democratic voting)Israel has stated that "Everyone is accountable and fair game". Who gives them the right to threaten the Lebanese this way? The US does, the other great war monger. Some truth for thought.

John - The Jewish Kingdoms of Israel and Judah existeded there even prior to the birth prophet of islam.  Rome, under the emperor hadrian, (a renowned anti-semite)re-named the area syria palaestina after the philistines (ancient enemies of Israel)to tick the Jewish people off.

There is actually a decent amount of history prior to the 1900's.

Once again religion is dictating the policies of nations. That is the root of the entire problem. Solution: NONE! This has been happening for as long as history has been recorded in that part of the world. A young nation such as the USA will not deter the extremists, regardless of military power, because brute force will not get the job done. We should keep to ourselves and stop trying to be world police. How much richer would our nation be were we not giving aid to countries that in a couple decades turn around and stab us in the back? How much aid do WE receive from foreign countries to feed our homeless and starving people? Granted the standard of living may be better here in the USA, but we did it on our own through struggles and wars. When we solve our own pressing domestic issues, then we will have some degree of authority to lead the world, as we did before.

John C - Jews have been living in that area since the dawn of time.  I should know my family is from that part of world and we can trace our ancestors back to at least the 16th century.  In addition records found during the time of the crusades talk about Jewish massacres in that part of world, not mention other historical journals like the Jewish wars (Roman times).

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