The only time I was in Israel, one of the things that bugged me the most was the sight of very young, like 18, 19, kids festooned with automatic weapons and combat gear, manning checkpoints and doing patrols. Standing around looking bored, eying everyone as if hoping to find some excuse to do something to break the tedium, and showing zero restraint or patience. Demoralizing, frightening, and horrifying.
Houngan
4922
Also pervasive through Latin America. Costa Rica, clothing stores have an armed guard standing out front with a shotgun. Houses have medium-security-prison level walls and fences. Mexico, resort island, APC roaming the street with a guy manning a SAW.
No doubt. What was really wacky in Israel was the youth and clear lack of concern for any sort of discipline or professionalism on the part of the crossing guards in particular. The paratroopers in Jerusalem were far more professional and less disturbing, for some reason.
marxeil
4924
What part of Israel were you visiting. Other than Jerusalem and the west bank (which isn’t Israel), you don’t see checkpoints that often at all.
Jerusalem and the West Bank, yeah. Didn’t make it over to Tel Aviv, etc. Of course there wouldn’t be checkpoints except where the bizarre wall/boundary stuff fences off the Palestinians.
marxeil
4926
They’re protesting the erduanification of Israel.
marxeil
4927
Yeah, these areas aren’t Israel, they’re more commonly referred to the occupied territories, hence the need for an occupation force.
Something about this formulation strikes me as circular?
It is indeed a frustrating circle of logical illogic at work.
The answer to the title of this thread: the opposite of every single thing Netanyahu has ever done his entire life.
jpinard
4934
Doesn’t this mean they’re slowly turning into a dictatorship by removing one of the checks and balances they used to have?
Yes? But it’s not like it’s unusual. The history of (historical) Israel is a series of cycles from anarchy to stability to despotism and then back to anarchy. Sometimes with outside help, like the Romans or Babylonians, sometimes with nothing more than home-grown zealots and tyrants.
Sometimes I think we should maybe have just gone back to Pharaoh and cut a deal.
It’s more accurate to say that this is a decisive step towards illiberal democracy. An entrenched illiberal democracy can be hard to distinguish from a dictatorship, but it doesn’t function exactly the same.
Not too long ago I learned that the Hebrews were never actually in Egypt–as in, there’s no historical evidence. I had always assumed that Exodus was a story based on a historical nugget of truth, but apparently not. Go figure!
Timex
4938
I seem to recall some folks here advocating for the removal of judicial review from our SCOTUS. Hopefully this helps illuminate why that’s bad.
dtolman
4939
Broadly speaking everything from Joshua and earlier are stories with no historical grounding - mythology if you will. Once you hit Judges, the stories seem to have some basis in reality - imho that is the start of the “historical” bible. By the time you get to post Davidic kings, you’re in actual archival documents from the royal archives… with many caveats,
I guess what got me about it is that everyone (i.e. in my Catholic upbringing) treated Genesis as a myth (obviously so) but it was sort of assumed that Exodus onward was some sort of reflection of historical events–oral tradition or whatever. Then later I was reading something like “Of course there’s no historical basis for the Israelites in Egypt…” and I was like “wait what?”
