Israeli-British immigrant to Israel makes it in the Arts. Michael Shine is a very special person. His talents are varied and he has a wicked sense of humor. Although he loves acting he is open to all kinds of possibilities and opportunities. Living in Israel ones needs to be a” jack of all trades”. when Michael isn’t busy he blogs for israelseen. I am not a scholar of international relations, or a politically motivated expert. I am neither a war-monger nor a pacifist, but I do believe in honesty, and I was brought up to stand up to bullies and not to turn the other cheek!
Michael Shine
I am a now slightly aging Englishman trying to live my life out peacefully in Israel. I find in very difficult to understand the world’s attitude toward Israel and Jews. Surely it is about time that the world should accept that the Muslim Arab v Israel confrontation is not about settlements, is not about Jerusalem (never once mentioned in the Muslim holy book, the Koran), is not about religion and is not about race.
What it is about is that the Arab Muslim world (as a generalization, of course not all Arab Muslims, just, apparently, most of them) cannot accept that the tiny world population of Jews is so much more successful and better educated that they are. It is all about jealousy! That Jews educate their children to succeed and live as good a life as possible and that many Muslims raise their children to be uneducated and to hate and to kill. (Girls are not sent to school in many Arab countries and are 3rd class citizens in their midst, Hamas TV teaching children that all Jews should be killed and Israel destroyed etc).
Since the United Nations voted to give tiny Israel a tiny land for the Jews, and to share it with the Arabs that were currently living in the same area, all the Arab nations have tried to do, was to destroy Israel and kill all the Jews in it. From day one when the Arab nations told those Arabs who were due to share the land to get out of the way so that Israel and the Jews could be destroyed (and of course, they failed to do it) the Arabs have been complaining that the Jews stole their land. Like school bullies who try to beat down the weaker studious students, they were mightily surprised when they were sent packing with a good hiding – and they have been crying ever since, and regularly getting the same good hiding. They could have had their own state time and time again, and what stood in their way? They just could not bear the thought that the Jews would still have their own one too.
Prior to the independence of the State of Israel, whilst the land was still mostly deserts and swamps, prior to the Jews making it the most technically and agriculturally advanced country in the Middle-East, most Arabs in the surrounding countries had absolutely no interest in the region. None! Nada!
Indeed, many of those that eventually became “Palestinian refugees” arrived to what was then part of the British controlled region previously known as part of the Ottoman Empire, (from neighbouring Arab countries) because Jews who had legally purchased land from absentee owners in Syria, Turkey etc, started to clear the land and make it green, and in the process, offering paid employment to those who would come and do it.
Whilst Israel took in all the Jews who were violently expelled from Arab and Islamic nations with very little of their possessions, and with no compensation or right to return (which they would not want even if offered it), what have all the other neighboring Arab nations done for those Arabs who “got out of the way”? Absolutely nothing – other than to incite them time and time again to kill the Jews and destroy Israel – but give them a home or a nationality, which they could have done with ease – never!
The estimated total Jewish population of the world is approximately 13.5 million and the Muslim population is approximately 2.4 BILLION! Room for both, one would think.
Now Hamas, the area’s internationally recognized terrorist bullies, the ones who say that they will never recognize Israel, the ones that teach their children to hate and kill Jews, are once again trying to destroy Israel. Will they succeed? Never! Once again they are attacking Israel with 10s and sometimes 100s of rockets each day, and then they are crying that the Jews have no right to defend themselves and retaliate. It is surely about time that they realized that the Jewish people will never again peacefully go to the slaughter.
Michael Shine. As a final thought regarding turning swords into plowshares – If these terrorist Arabs were to lay down all of their weapons, there would be peace, but if the Jews were to lay theirs down, Israel would be immediately destroyed.
Michael Shine
