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ZF,
Thanks. The number of patents is certainly impressive. I'd be curious to see how many of those were military, although I doubt that it would be more than 1/4 to 1/3.
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No problem. I've got no idea how many of them were military though.
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As far as the genocide argument, I don't buy the assumptions. If Russia decided to start killing those who didn't emigrate already, there's nothing that Israel or the UN could do to stop it.
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The assumptions are based on the Germany of the 1930s, not the Germany of the 1940s. In the 1930s, Jews were allowed to leave, the problem is that nobody would take them. The West and Latin America let in a few thousand (Canada's record is particularly pitiful in this regard, with our prime minister saying of the number of refugees he would allow in: "none is too many"), but this was obviously not enough. The voyage of the St. Louis is the symbol of this rejection. Israel is not supposed to have the power to halt another country from inflicting genocide (although it is probably closer to being that powerful than the original Zionists ever imagined), it is supposed to be the one place that cannot turn away Jewish refugees. In todays world that may not be necessary, but one could make that argument about the relatively tolerant 19th century. Eras of benevolence can come to an end, which is still an important justification for Israel's existance.
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However, the point of Israel serving as a safeguard against extinction is taken, although I find such a scenario unrealistic given the current state of geopolitics.
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Agreed. I am not saying the world is still out to get the Jews (only part of it
), but it can't hurt to be careful when you've got thousands of years of precedent.
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Nonetheless, I get the impression that you don't buy whole heartedly into this argument, so I am not trying to shoot the messenger here
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Well there is SOME empirical evidence supporting the argument. The most important being the rescue of the Ethiopian Jews and the exodus of Soviet Jewry (even though some were just using Israel as a means of getting into the US). Although there are individual stories like Parihaka's friend whose family walked from Iraq to Israel. There are similar tales numbering in the thousands from accross the Arab world. Of course, one can argue that if Israel hadn't been created there would have been no need to escape...which is true but infuriating since the Arab Jews had nothing to do with the creation of Israel. In the sense that you meant it, the Ethiopian example is the only time that Israel used muscle to save a Jewish population. The only reason I don't buy whole heartedly into the argument is that the existance of Israel puts all the eggs in one basket, so to speak. If, for example, Iran were to nuke Israel, then it will all have been pointless.