Israel to join NATO

V

Vega

Banned
Banned
The best way to provide Israel with that additional security is to upgrade its relationship with the collective defense arm of the West: NATO. Whether that upgraded relationship culminates in membership for Israel or simply a much closer strategic and operational defense relationship can be debated.

After all, a classic security guarantee requires clear and recognized borders to be defended, something Israel does not have today. Configuring an upgraded Israel-NATO relationship will require careful diplomacy and planning. But what must be clear is that the West is prepared to match the growing bellicosity against Israel by stepping up its commitment to the existence of the Jewish state.

Israel has also presented the alliance with a plan for a step-by-step upgrade in bilateral cooperation. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has paid his first visit there, and talks on closer cooperation are underway.

The United States already has a de facto security commitment to Israel. Any future U.S. president would go to the defense of that country if its existence were threatened by a nuclear-armed Iran.

http://www.heritage.org/Research/MiddleEast/wm966.cfm

Israel meets the qualifications to be a full member of NATO because it is a democracy with a free market economy and can contribute to the common defense of NATO allies.

While Nato is not offering Israel full membership in the near future, links between it and the Jewish State have been strengthening in recent years, especially in the area of intelligence about militant Islam.

Several leading Europeans have called for NATO to embrace Israel, but this debate will not get serious until the United States, Israel's main ally, puts its weight behind the idea. The time has come to do so.

Israeli Naval Forces Join NATO Exercises for the First Time

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/104594
 
Actually Iran as a non-occupying nation that has not been preemptively attacking its neighbors, is a much better candidate for NATO.
 
Israel is the only one running a functional occupation that discriminates by religion.

It is recognised by the UN as an occupying state, the fact that there are refugees enclosed in walls and given limited access to food, fuel, education and employment is well known. The humanitarian crisis perpetuated by military force is no secret.

One would hardly consider such a country as a democratic nation.
 
S.A.M. said:
Israel is the only one running a functional occupation that discriminates by religion.

It is recognised by the UN as an occupying state, the fact that there are refugees enclosed in walls and given limited access to food, fuel, education and employment is well known. The humanitarian crisis perpetuated by military force is no secret.

One would hardly consider such a country as a democratic nation.
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I'm afraid you have been misinformed as usual!
Ever since Israel gained control of East Jerusalem in 1967, the city has been a setting of religious freedom and tolerance. The Israeli government has ensured that religious sites in Jerusalem are open to people of all faiths, creeds and nationalities.

Under Jordanian control, Christian and Jewish holy sites in East Jerusalem were off limits to non-Muslims. Jews were unable to access the Western Wall, perhaps the holiest site to modern Jewry. Additionally, in 1955 and 1964, Jordan passed laws imposing strict government control on Christian schools, including restrictions on the opening of new schools, state control over school finances and appointment of teachers and the requirements that the Koran be taught.

Former US President Jimmy Carter acknowledged that religious freedom increased under Israeli rule. According to him, there is "no doubt" that Israel did a better job safeguarding access to the city's holy places than did Jordan. "There is unimpeded access today. There wasn't from 1948-67.

Israel has no constitution; however, the law provides for freedom of worship, and the Government generally respects this right in practice.

There was no change in the status of respect for religious freedom during the period covered by this report. The Basic Law describes Israel as a "Jewish" and "democratic" state. The overwhelming majority of non-Jewish citizens are Muslims, Druze, and Christians. Of this group, most are Arabs, and are subject to various forms of discrimination, some of which have religious dimensions. Israeli Arabs, temporary residents, and other non-Jewish Israelis, are, in fact, generally free to practice their religions.
 
All very interesting. The Palestinian Arab residents of Jerusalem have applied for Israeli citizenship. After reading your post, I now expect a positive response from Israel granting them citizenship. I hope this will encourage all Palestinians to come forward and apply. Thanks :)
 
Some 250,000 Palestinians currently reside in Jerusalem. Only 12,000 of them have sought to obtain an Israeli citizenship since 1967, an average of about 300 new citizens a year.

But over the past four months the Interior Ministry has registered an unprecedented 3,000 applications, primarily residents of the Arab neighborhoods unlikely to remain under Israeli sovereignty according to the political initiative currently on the agenda.

The 240,000 non-naturalized Palestinians in the city currently hold the status of permanent residents. As Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem they were also eligible to participate in the elections held by the Palestinian Authority.

As accepting Israeli citizenship was viewed by many within the community as tantamount to treason, most Palestinians opted to remain permanent residents and enjoy the benefits of living under Israeli sovereignty – full welfare rights, municipal voting rights and unrestricted movement - without putting their loyalty to the Palestinian Authority into question. The average Palestinian family in East Jerusalem currently receives a $770 monthly stipend from Israel.
 
Vega said:
Some 250,000 Palestinians currently reside in Jerusalem. Only 12,000 of them have sought to obtain an Israeli citizenship since 1967, an average of about 300 new citizens a year.

But over the past four months the Interior Ministry has registered an unprecedented 3,000 applications, primarily residents of the Arab neighborhoods unlikely to remain under Israeli sovereignty according to the political initiative currently on the agenda.

The 240,000 non-naturalized Palestinians in the city currently hold the status of permanent residents. As Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem they were also eligible to participate in the elections held by the Palestinian Authority.

As accepting Israeli citizenship was viewed by many within the community as tantamount to treason, most Palestinians opted to remain permanent residents and enjoy the benefits of living under Israeli sovereignty – full welfare rights, municipal voting rights and unrestricted movement - without putting their loyalty to the Palestinian Authority into question. The average Palestinian family in East Jerusalem currently receives a $770 monthly stipend from Israel.
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How do Israelis in general view the Arab citizens of Israel?
 
S.A.M. said:
How do Israelis in general view the Arab citizens of Israel?
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With most of Israel's land controlled by a government agency, Israeli Arabs have long had more trouble acquiring property than Jews, who outnumber them five to one in a population of about 6.5 million people. In response, Arab lawmakers joined a Jewish parliamentary majority this year in endorsing the construction of a new Arab city in the Galilee, where demographic rivalry and ethnic separation are most pronounced. Arabs say it will be the first city built on their behalf since the state's founding.

But some Jewish political leaders have suggested that Israel's Arabs, who commonly refer to themselves as Palestinian citizens of Israel, should eventually live in a future Palestinian state, the subject of peace negotiations inaugurated last month in Annapolis, Md. Israel's foreign minister and lead negotiator, Tzipi Livni, said before the meeting that such a state would "be the national answer to the Palestinians" in the territories and those "who live in different refugee camps or in Israel."

Arabs and Jews study in separate schools in Israel -- the Arab system receives fewer resources -- and learn Israeli history in different ways. Israel's Jewish education minister, Yuli Tamir, ordered this year that Arab third-grade textbooks note that Arab citizens call Israel's 1948 War of Independence "the catastrophe." Many Jewish lawmakers reacted with scorn.

Except for a relatively small Druze population, Arabs are excluded also from military service mandatory for all but ultra-Orthodox Jews, an essential shared experience of Israeli life and a traditional training ground for future political leaders. Arab lawmakers have lined up now against a new proposal for Arabs to perform "national service" in lieu of time in the army, an institution they hold responsible for enforcing the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.
 
Vega said:
you don't have to be sorry it's not your fault!:D
It's the same as a small muslim community living in a dominantly hindu neighbourhood in mumbai!
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Which is? I'm curious to know how you think my family lives in Mumbai.
 
Israel to join NATO and receive even more aid to continue their destruction? A bad idea.
 
S.A.M. said:
So how do the Israelis view the Arab citizens of Israel?
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As I said before..."It's the same as a small muslim community living in a dominantly hindu neighbourhood in mumbai"

can't you grasp the english language, how many times do i have to tell you?
 
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