Canuckistani

Taking land is also an attack, even if no shots are fired. Israel can't keep expanding its territory and play the victim card at the same time.

Very hard to make that decision early in life. You don't know your career path, you don't know what your health will be when you're older, etc. I propose that a modest pension be in place as it is now - at 65 or 60 if you take a reduced amount. The OAS should also kick in at 65, but the qualifying income amount for it should be greatly reduced. People earning 60k in retirement don't need OAS on top of it, let OAS stop at 30K.. If pensions are modest, but keep people out of the poor house, then the incentive will be there to work if you can. Do do that, attitudes of employers need to change - they often let older workers go because younger ones are cheaper or perceived to be better workers. You can't squeeze people by denying them jobs on the one hand and pensions on the other.

I doubt I could ever prove it to your satisfaction, but your post about Israel in Lake Michigan is all the proof I need. Israel is the size it is, Israelis should live with it, not follow their expansionist policies into Palestine. (Or whatever the Palestinians want to call their state.)

All very good, but you'd better make sure then that those people all have jobs if they can't retire, and that those are jobs they can actually do. Just because you're alive, doesn't mean you can do a heavy labor job, for instance. And if all those people can't retire, that kinda sucks for the young people that want to enter the labor force. In France, older workers face a tough dilemma. France is very ageist and will fire people in their fifties to get in new blood. France has generous pensions, but they don't kick in until people are in their sixties. Many of these formerly middle class workers live in abject poverty for a number of years before their pensions kick in and they're ok again. They exhaust any savings they have and may lose their house. Doesn't sound like an ideal situation to me. If you make retirement age too late in Canada, many seniors will face the same situation here.

Absolutely. Move the settlers out, any attacks are an act of war and Israel is free to fight back as deemed necessary.

. 'Oh, Israel is so small, it's only 9km wide at the narrowest point. we have to take the West Bank." Lebensraum argument.

the end of our civilization isn't the end of the ecosystem. ie the world. I think overpopulation will do us in before global warming does, and of course overpopulation plays a part in global warming. But war/disease or famine will reduce our numbers before global warming does. Doubt it will be the end of humans tho, we're pretty adaptable, and maybe next time we'll build a more sustainable civilization. Doubt it tho. Probably just have a large reduction in population and do the dance all over again.

If you can make silly posts like this, there's no point discussing this with you.

I guess it's convenient to just lump all the Arabs together. Israel has Israel, it should be satisfied with that. Like Germany should have been before WWII.

What's amazing to me is that the defenders of greater Israel want to do to the Palestinians exactly what they call racism when the push is in the other direction. Pushing Israel into the sea or pushing the Palestinians into the Jordan are two sides of the same coin.

Nice strawman. I make anti-Zionist comments if Zionism means creation of greater Israel. We've gone from somebody calling me an anti-Semite, to "no, it's anti-Jew" to now your lame attempt to call it anti-Zionism. Again, if anti-Zionism means how I defined it, then yes, I'm an anti-Zionist, and make no apologies for it. It's a perfectly legitimate position, and using race baiting just shows people arguing against me have nothing else to offer.

There's a difference between occupying territory for defense and settling in that territory. There's a case to be made for the former as long as there are hostilities, not for the latter. The latter just ensures hostilities will continue. As for some Palestinians wanting to kill Israelis as soon as look at them, that sword cuts both ways.

That's my point. Can you imagine if Harper declared Canada a Christian state? One of the loudest voices against it would come from Jewish Canadians, just as most of the protests against Christmas festivities and decorations do. That would be deemed racism, I'm sure. Just to be clear, I don't in any way support Harper doing this - I would be fighting against it. I want Canada to be a secular state that doesn't try to suppress it's Christian heritage. If Israel wants to be a Jewish state, that's up to them. And I can understand the motivation. But it puts them in exactly the same league as the states surrounding them.

Why is it OK to say Jews should have their own state, but not Christians? I certainly understand Jews wanting their own state, but then they can't pretend to be a democracy. They are a Jewish state the same way they are surrounded by Islamic states. And they do have their own state - pre '67 borders.

I knew that you would. Once somebody has to use the r word, it shows me they've run out of real arguments. What do you call those who say the Jewish race/ethnicity/religion must hold all of Israel and Judea? pro-Semites?

It does it every day. Using similar arguments to what the Nazis did.

Are medical expenses not deductible in the US? Assuming they are, expenses due to pregnancy are already covered. Expenses incurred before birth - tax deductible. Expenses after birth, not so much. Reasonable? Really?

As I said, it's up to them. I can't speak for the Palestinians, but IMO they'd be welcome to stay in the Muslim paradise that will spring up. Without any land, since they stole that, but I guess if they really want to they can hang around. Up to them.

If the settlers want to do this,that's up to them, since this will be self-selection. They can chuckle over the irony as this being the same as Germany having to give back the Sudetenland and other territories after their own quest for Lebensraum went awry.

My guess is that these Jewish zealots would not be happy living in a Muslim state with likely, certainly initially, its own brand of zealotry. So the ethnic cleansing will be voluntary, and poor Israel will have to take them back. And of course, any land acquired by squatting and other non-legal means will have to be returned to Palestinians.

More about you and your ethnic cleansing shtick

Total bs. It's a shift of the ecosystem. One that humans may find harder to live in, but not even the end of humans. We've had much warmer global temps in the past without it being the death of the global ecsystem. It's this sort of overstatement that gives global warming fanatics as bad a name as the deniers.

The only thing Israel can give the Palestinians to lose is land. Remove the settlements. If the Palestinians continue to attack, then Israel would have every right to defend itself, including occupying Palestine with troops on a temporary basis.. (not settlers). Then Israel can offer carrots to moderate Palestinians, such as economic development, while going after those that continue the attacks (doubtless there will be some) Israel will have to use finesse here, and not do the German trick of making the entire population suffer for the actions of those that won't stop fighting. tI's been said that Egypt for instance, while publicly supporting Hamas, in actuality and action does not. I doubt most surrounding states have any use for Hamas, maybe there's a way Israel can use this more to its advantage, If they've closed the settlements, maybe go in partnership with some Palestinians who want make money to help build some infrastructure in Palestine, get more Palestinians see what co-operation brings, But, as we see on this forum, there are as many Israelis and supporters who are no more interested in peace, want to holocaust the Palestinians just as much as the Palestinians the Israelis. Doubt if there's a solution that will work with these elements rampant on both sides. Both sides seem eager to cut off their noses to spite their faces,

Yep. In the US they do it by bringing in illegal immigrants, we do it by bringing in legal ones and even more temp workers to lower wages. Why do so many service companies bring in temp workers? Because they can't find resident Canadians to fill those low paying jobs. How does it benefit our country to depress wages like that? Just means we have to pay more in social services for people making such poor wages, instead of those people actually paying income taxes and contributing. But it keeps the profits high for the rich.

Sanity prevailed. As it inevitably does in Quebec.