If at some point in time various societies did not judge other societies' values, laws, religions, customs, etc. as inferior to their own, we would still be living in caves. I now await your moral relativist babble that Hitler thought the same way, while you completely ignore the relevance.
Right. The fact that the belief system in question involves the brutal murder of innocent people doesn't sway you at all. God will take care of all in heaven. End of story, cue the lights. How lovely. Have a nice sleep. The rest of us will continue to fight for the lives of the as-yet-unmurdered.
That is an excellent, and for the most part true point. In general it should hold true, however we are just humans with all of the flaws that are inherent to humanity. The real problem arises when two different cultures are competing for the same thing. In this case it is several things, land, pride, survival, etc. At this point it is impossible to not make judgment on which culture is superior. Essentially Israel is faced with three choices. 1) Do not judge the Arab culture as being morally inferior or superior and just go along with the train of thought that you have tried to portray in this tread. 2) Decide that the Arab culture is superior to the Israeli culture and assimilate into the Arab culture. 3) Decide that the Arab culture is inferior and take action to prevent the Arab culture from encroaching. Numbers 1 and 2 lead to nothing but death for the Israelis. I take it that the Israelis have chosen number three. In this case, the only solution is to counter with extreme prejudice any attempt by the Arab surrounding nations to encroach on Israel. Sad to say I really think the only thing that will solve this problem is an all out war between the Arab culture and the western culture. I hope that it does not come to this but if it does, I hope that we in the US and Europe have the balls to call a spade a spade and do what is necessary to ensure the contiuance of Western culture.
While i know nothing about anything...i believe if they had a thriving economy with plenty of food on their plate and MTV on the tube things would be alot different...but hey i have no clue..peace but then again alot of other countries/peoples who are in the same shoes they are and dont have a hatred towards the west/or anyone else...
For those wanting to understand more of the mindset of the Arab honor and pride model, and the origins of Islam, I'd recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400062136/104-9772087-3359156?v=glance&n=283155
History does tend to repeat itself, as the current Crusaders vs. Jihadists clearly demonstrates.... However, I don't think Israel entirely represents the ideals of western culture, as they are not a secular state. Yes they do represent capitalism and democracy to a great extent (which most people would say are at the heart of western culture), but at their heart they are still just one tribe fighting another tribe...it remains a tribal mentality at the core.
As sad as it is to say...I agree with this statement 100%. Sometimes "it is what it is"... I just hope we wouldnt be wasting are our energies on the wrong thing ( rebuilding IRAQ )... Its getting mighty ugly up in here and the last thing we need is to be in the wrong place at the wrong time for the wrong reasons...peace
Violation of law is what matters, not belief systems. We don't have laws against belief systems, we have laws against specific actions. When 9/11 happened, it was a violation of law, pure and simple. All that was required was a police action, not moral condemnation and outrage. Moral condemnation didn't bring anyone back to life, and getting so caught in the self righteous moral condemnation bullshit is what distracted the US from finding and capturing Bin Laden actually. The emotionalism of a sense of moral condemnation superiority crap clouds the mind. The morally indignant Bush, still riding high on his self righteous horse, dropped the ball with Bin Laden to focus on Saddam "the terrible." Had Bush remained with a real "stay the course" of finding Bin Laden, we would not currently be lost in the Iraq quagmire...
Few would disagree that the acts you describe are barbaric and immoral. However without being guilty of what I loathe, cultural relativism, Judge not lest you be judged. How would some societies view a culture that: Women routinely elect to kill their fetuses for economic reasons or worst yet to peruse a freer less encumbered lifestyle. A culture that promotes/lionizes violence and sex on the publics airwaves. A culture of men who spend untold hours on the internet either gambling or whacking off to pornography. A culture so consumed by thirst for alcohol and drugs that thousands are murdered in pursuit of these substances and tens of thousands killed or maimed on highways by those wasted on mind altering chemicals. In a vacuum, if that's ALL I knew about Western culture I'd say at face value that we're quite primitive and barbaric in our own right. So, yea this is a cultural war. It has nothing to do with Israel. Certainly the Islamic bombings in Bombay, London, Bali and Lisbon were for reasons far beyond the plight of Palestine. While I vehemently believe that the goal of fundamentalist Islam is global domination and the danger as such is profound, I'm also hesitant to state ipso-facto that Western culture is "morally" superior. We should just admit that we have are own axe to grind and not be so smug about it.