Would the long standing Arab/Israeli tribal differences be better contained, if one side weren't armed with enough firepower to destroy a continent?

Not just one continent, baby.

Oh, you mean Israel? Thought you meant Iran, in a few years.

Your one-sided statement neglects the fact that since Israeli independence in 1948, there was an equal amount of “firepower” in the Arab/Persian countries supplied by the Soviets (until their eventual collapse). Firepower has nothing to do with it. Hatred and ignorance has much more to do with it.

I heard some good insight on this topic recently (‘Best of the Left’ podcast, most recent.. always an awesome show!)..

First, as I see it, the size of Israel’s arsenal is good, because it means that no country is going to fuck with them and start an even worse conflict. I.e. Iran or anyone else is going to think twice before going in there.

Second, Israel is making things worse by putting Palestinians in what are basically ghettos not unlike the Jewish ghettos in WWII. Palestinians are going to be understandably angry. Then to rack up a death count of Palestinians that is a thousand times larger than their own, is just strategically irresponsible. It makes it harder for their one ally (the U.S.) to support them, nor does it score them any points with the rest of the Earth.

Third, nonetheless, the Palestinians exacerbate the situation by launching little rockets continuously into Israel, which just makes them look bad in the international community. Not to mention their primitive anti-western attitude which also gets them little sympathy.

So sorry to sound a little pretentious, but its like children fighting children. I say screw them all and let them sort it out themselves, and no more aid for Israel until they can learn to solve their problems diplomatically.

@shilolo think you side stepped the question, if your kids were fighting, would you give one of them a stick, but not the other?

@upholstry Little rockets? Ever been near a 172mm when it exploded? I have. Half the house gone. 10,000 of these have been launched by Hamas, a terrorist organization, from Gaza, which was returned completely to the Palist. in 2005.

U.S. is Israel’s only ally? Israel has friends all over the world, from the sharing of its agricultural and medicinal and tech breakthroughs, including ICQ and most of the Intel stuff, and your phone that you’re holding. From Africa and the Middle East (though many Arab countries do it secretly) to Russia and of Britain, not counting little boycotts and protest. Diplomatically, Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, has exchanged Embassies with most of the modern, and third world. Stop reading wikipedia crap and blogs, and ask a real question of a real Israeli someday.

@Zen ever been on the wrong side of an Israeli arial assault? i’d pick the palenstinian fireworks any day.

Been on both, sadly.

@mammal. So, by Arab/Israeli, you meant Palestinian/Israeli? Let’s be clear, since Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iran, the country formally known as Iraq all have (or had) very large standing armies with sophisticated weapons. Remember the Scuds that flew from Iraq to Israel or the F16 fighters purchased by Saudi Arabia? I guess not, but I shouldn’t be surprised since you use Qaddafi as your avatar.

@shilolo yeah right those pesky scuds, anyway what is wrong with Qaddafi?