Sad, but true. I feel for what these girls went through. I can understand the occasional bit of hyperbole even if he whole “wouldn’t this have made an international incident requiring Obama making a statement demading our release if this happened in country x?” bit was over the top, but it’s still a poignant commentary on the (in)security state that much of the world has become.
Jag
3122
But why only allow new york jews? Would they have an issue with illinois jews?
My point was actually that in absence of being Arab I doubt their behavior would have been brought into question at all.
marxeil
3124
A Jew probably has family he is visiting. Why anyone else would be visiting Israel is a mystery.
Apart from thousands of years of history, fine weather, beaches and great food? The people are pretty friendly too.
I thought I remembered reading that there were Arabs in Israel.
Roughly 20% of the population is Arab.
I believe marxeil was typing tongue-in-cheek
Since it’s such an interesting place to visit is exactly why people going there shouldn’t throw up red flags at Israel’s secret police visitor center.
It’s profiling. Same thing that U.S. police use to justify pulling over/searching/arresting disproportionate numbers of African Americans. We have to remember that none of us are considered citizens of the world, and as such need some kind of permission to lawfully enter the lands of another nation. With Israel, they’re surrounded by neighbors who would like them to be gone and many of whom are not squeemish about such a matter involving violence in the process, so there’s a specific set of patterns they look for.
Here’s how it works:
when you visit another country, not only does your book get stamped but you also get an entry in a database segment with your information on it. If you visit several countries which are considered to have radical elements associated with them and you have no documentable business or family engagements compelling such travel, you become a person of interest to a country that is worried about allowing in activists. If you show up at their border, they’ll pull you aside, determine if there is some particular “innocent” reason for you to be there, search you, try to determine if you’re up to no good (at which point you’d be arrested), and then send you back from whence you came (“just in case”). The likely fact that the majority of people who fit into this category are of Arabic descent is just an incidental aspect to consider. Of course, this then feeds an overall anti-Arab sentiment and almost undoubtably leads to personal treatment like that described by these girls.
Sure, it’s extreme and odious in how it’s carried out, but sadly not unusual. The country may lose out on a few tourism dollars, but they consider that as part of the price to pay for keeping undesirables out of their territory. Heck, even Yusef “Peace Train” Islam got his entire flight diverted to Maine because of his presence, where he was detained and then kicked out of the U.S. (allegedly in error due to a mistake in the spelling of his name), so it’s not exactly a great system but it’s always hard to measure efficacy for causing things to not happen.
No matter, if the majority of what was written was spot on then while many of the officials involved should have certainly acted more like decent human beings instead of how they behaved, they didn’t do anything that’s terribly out of line with what I’ve seen on “TSA horror story” sites and what not, where you can come across stories of grandmothers being strip searched and what not. That’s not an excuse, more just a broadened condemnation that a great many other countries along with Israel deserve to bear.
Jag
3131
Your thoughtful and well stated rebuttal has no place in this thread of scree filled finger pointing!
I wish to nominate “scree filled finger pointing” for the “Phrase of the Week” award.
marxeil
3133
Hell no, I used to live there.
Flowers
3135
Thirbded. Please MS Paint your name and the date of your award in the upper lefthand corner.
Jag
3136
I humbly accept your award.
W_Wiley
3137
Israel, why should I give a fuck? Really.
Toto44
3138
Hi all, being new here, but not to internet forums. (No, I’m not a troll who’s been banned all over the place).
I’m a non-practicing American Jew, meaning an ethnic one; whose forbears in Eastern Europe were treated as “other” (than Polish, Russian, etc). Regarding the seeming consensus (in Washington and in Israel) that Iran must be pre-emptively attacked if necessary to prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon: I disagree, and not only because of the Pandora’s box that would open.
First off, Israel itself has many (200, 300, who knows) undeclared nukes, and no country is about to risk destruction by using WMD’s on it. Secondly (offensive as an Ahmandinejad leaving office this June can be) he’s never called for destroying the Israelis as people, so far as I know, just a governmental structure that clearly prefers (Ashkenazi, of European ancestry) Jews.
Hence the “one-state solution”, with everyone living between the Sinai border and the Jordan River in the same state. I personally think that can’t work (@ least for a few decades) given the sense of deep grievance on both sides. But the Iranians commit no crime by calling for it, and to therefore say they can’t be allowed to “go nuclear” is mixing two things together in a “1 + 1 = 3” fashion.
(What, no avatars or smilies on this board?)
What should have Israel done instead?
Everything that doesn’t lead to this kind of situation?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/18/israeli-soldier-posts-instagram-palestinian
