How I wish Taiwan was more like Israel

I used to travel to Israel for business ages and ages ago and I sure wouldn’t want Taiwan to be more like Israel.

I had to ride in a car from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem with some American dude who spent the whole trip talking about killing every Arab in Israel. Or the time a Japanese took a punch because one of those Orthodox dudes didn’t want him to take a picture of the Wailing Wall. Numerous fistfights on the streets and beach.

Very tense society though I would greatly like to go back some day. But living there, no thank you.

Masada was cool.[/quote]
I hear ya. On a couple of occasions I missed being blown up in bar or street mall/market within a day. One day I came home from work to find they’d shot a suicide bomber in the lobby of the hotel. :s
Half the stuff that happens there never makes it on to CNN…

So can it be safe to conclude people prefer a “nonviolent socially defunct society whose political sovereignty is being challenged” over a “violent socially nonviolent socially defunct society whose political sovereignty is being challenged”

That only the fanatical zealots would wish Taiwan to be more like Israel.

It is ironic that Israel has also recently settled its territorial disputes with Palestine, which is helping in reducing tension with its Arab neighboring states. This is something Taiwan, ROC has not been able to achieve with the PRC.

Well, it’s a bit of a stretch to say the Israeli territorial disputes with Palestine have been “solved”. Far, far from it.

You could say one specific impasse has been broken, and broken in a glorious way: a unilateral step back from one side, that comes at tremendous cost. And I guess that’s one more way I wish Taiwan was more like Israel: I wish CSB was able to conduct a logical long-term cost analysis, and understand that his current highly polarized political position is neither tenable nor logical. And that a drastic revision towards the middle, even if it offends a huge number of his own fringe supporters, might be the sacrifice he really needs to make for peace + stability.

He’d probably get a massive stroke trying to resolve the logical conflict resulting from debasing many of the TI tenents he holds dear.

As for the Isreal analogy, I too would have to agree that a great positive step has been taken by Sharon, however, unlike Taiwan, Israel is in the dominent negotiation postition over the disputed terriorities.

This of course only further increases the perception that it was a positive move on Israel’s part.

So when is Taiwan going to act in some generous fashion to reduce tension between the straits.

You’re right, the power relationships between who “holds the land” and who “holds the guns” is different here, isn’t it? If the Arabs surrounding Israel held the military superiority (+ nuclear weapons+ that the mainland currently has over Israel… well, a government as confrontational as CSB’s would look awfully suicidal.

By the way, ac, you might be interested in the very well maintained + attended: china-defense.com/ .

The Golda/Annette combo is funny!