Palistine (where Israel is a nation/state) is made up of an odd mixture of religous groups. The Arab Christians trace their ancestory all the way back to the original followers of Jesus. Then there are the Muslim Arabs, Persian Arabs, Persian Jews, Etheopian Jews, Jews from Russian, Armenia and Eastern Europe. By far the largest percentage are the "secular" Jews that practice no religious ceremonies and would be right there at the shopping mall on Friday night and all day Saturday if they were open.
Then you have the proseltyzing groups, mostly Christian groups trying to save the holy land for Jesus, other Jewish groups that claim to be Davidic and pure and detached from all the land issues. The Baha'is have their spiritual and administrative world head quarters in northern Israel and there are a few Orthodox Christians, Zoroasterians, Buddists and others.
Thanks Carmel for that run-down. It is certainly a very diverse group living in a very small area.
Where would these various groups stand in regard to the issues? Which ones would most likely support the Israeli claims, and which ones would be more likely to swing towards the Palestinians?
I would have thought that the Persian, Ethiopian, Russian, and East. European Jews would have been in support of the Israelis.
I did not expect the summit in Egypt to fail so miserably. I wasn't expecting much progress with conditions at such a 'high temperature', but I was not expecting it to deteriorate so quickly. I hope that you are well and safe.
Do you live or work close to the current fighting?
Thanks all for your inquiries and concern. Actually, living in Haifa is far safer in the worst of times than living in LA, Chicago or even Seattle. Believe me, we can walk around any time of the night and never see a gang member, road rage doesn't exist and no one is stumbling out of a bar and being mugged for a buck. There is a saying that goes " In Jerusalem they pray, Tel Aviv they party and in Haifa they work".
The Jews, Arabs, Europeans, Russians of all religions get alone very well in Haifa and no one wants anything to do with the problems of the occupied territories. We don't stand out as there are thousands of different types here from all over the world and noone knows your religion or politics unless you tell them. Well there's an exception or two, the ones in suits and ties are the Baha'is and the ones with the fur hats or beanies are Jews and the ones with crosses on their necks are christians. Oh, and the ones hanging around the building with all the windows bricked up are the JW's!!
Thanks for the stratfor.com link. I spent some time checking it out tonight. Nice to see in-depth news analysis without the rhetoric.
What do you think their sources are? They really don't say, do they? Have you noticed that there doesn't seem to be any named credits on any of the analyses?
