Poll: Israel or Palestine?

[badgenome]

superchunk said:

badgenome said:

Mr Khan said:

What you have cited as well is an instance of short-term racism and xenophobia in a country currently running on mob mentality and lacking a rational state actor visage, as well as acting against an individual, which afflicts many countries that, as states, are still rational actors.

Except there's nothing short term about it, and it fits perfectly into a larger pattern: that of an Islamic world which was never very tolerant to begin with (unless compared to medieval Christendom) but which over the past century has managed to backslide even further, turning into a seething basket case.

Its amazing the amount of historical fallacy that is presented in this thread.

Islamic world was the far different historically than it is now. Studying Jewish history itself would show this as there have only been two non-Jewish states the Jews have ever lived in where they were treated equably and flourished. The US and the Islamic world (pre-1800's), specifically Spain under Muslim control.

If you consider being subject to fits of antisemitic violence and persecution to be equitable treatment, then sure. Al-Andalus was certainly tolerant relative to the rest of medieval Europe, as I said, but I can't pretend that I find Islamic treatment of dhimmis to be equitable in any meaningful sense of the word; it was only less horrible, generally speaking, but still patently discriminatory. And besides this systematic discrimination, the tolerant "utopia" of Al-Andalus also had its bouts of fierce persecution against non-Muslims and particularly the Jews, especially under the Almohads.

So, yes, good for their time, but in no way good.