The only thing that marred my otherwise wonderful extended New Year’s/Perihelion weekend was hearing in conversation that two different intelligent Jewish‐American atheist friends of mine have apparently fallen for the propaganda of fanatically religious Islamic extremists and their allies: One of them was accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing” for issuing identification numbers, and the other was saying that radical Islam is no more a problem than extremism in any other religious group and that terrorism has nothing to do with Islamic doctrine but instead with economic disadvantages and a loss of “dignity” that make terrorists turn to terrorism in order to “shake things up.” This was saddening and disheartening but is also quite rare in my social circles. (Blogger)
Commentary
– Thank you for posting the link to the definition. It emphasizes how Israel cannot be said to engage in ethnic cleansing.
– Actually, he apparently sees problems with extremism in all religions but was unwilling to implicate radical Islam as a cause even of Islamic terrorism, repeatedly saying that radical religion overall is the problem.
– First off, life in Israel, or in the United States or any other country for that matter, is not a paradise on Earth; living in a place less beautiful than a paradise does not mean one is being ethnically cleansed.
Secondly, you’re using ambiguous buzzwords (“Surrounding,” “trapping,” “numbering”) that suggest you’re getting your information from unreliable sources that more resemble hateful propaganda than true news. Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip entirely, so the Gazans are living under the thumb of fanatically religious terrorist organization Ḥamas, and as a result, Palestinians from Christian families are not allowed to participate in their government. Israel has been under steady streams of attack from Ḥamas missiles, something the media largely ignores, but then when Israel retaliates, the Islamists convince the world that Israel is somehow an aggressor.
The Gaza Strip shares a border with Egypt, and the West Bank shares a border with Jordan, so no one is being “surrounded.” If geographically “surrounding” another land constituted ethnic cleansing, then see how Israel is surrounded by hostile Islamic régimes on all sides.