Anyone else gotten this e-mail?

[karadan]

Heh, that was awesome.

Iran really isn't that bad, though. Two thirds of the country want to join the western world.

Oh I wasn't knocking the Iranians. I know a few and they are nice folks on the whole. I'm knocking the insane government that has an iron grip on them. Governments make some countries ugly. Not the other way around in my opinion.

Yeah i know. It is just a shame that people like Ahmadinejad 'are' the country, or at least its identity in the eyes of other nations. He couldn't be more misrepresentative of the people he is in charge of (barring a few ultra right-wing nutjobs).

[Ultima22689]

Anyone know any folks from Israel? I knew the situation in Iran a while ago but the only person i've ever talked to is 16 years old, uber religious and thinks rascism is ok. If he's the face of the Israeli youth then I fear for that country and sadly it's America's fault the country is like that in the first place or rather some of our own stupid ultra right wing nut jobs.

[Tank]

Anyone know any folks from Israel? I knew the situation in Iran a while ago but the only person i've ever talked to is 16 years old, uber religious and thinks rascism is ok. If he's the face of the Israeli youth then I fear for that country and sadly it's America's fault the country is like that in the first place or rather some of our own stupid ultra right wing nut jobs.

I have met a few Israelis on line and there isn't a lot difference between them and any other atheists, but the religious ones are also right across the spectrum from supporting a secular society in Israel to driving every non-jew off of the holy land. This guy is not typical in my limited experience.

[philosoraptor]

Awesome response.  I'll be curious to see what, if anything, the other party has to say about it.

[Big Mac]

Anyone know any folks from Israel? I knew the situation in Iran a while ago but the only person i've ever talked to is 16 years old, uber religious and thinks rascism is ok. If he's the face of the Israeli youth then I fear for that country and sadly it's America's fault the country is like that in the first place or rather some of our own stupid ultra right wing nut jobs.

Depends. A lot of the ones I know (I used to work as mall security so I got to be friends with the merchants from Greece, Israel, Turkey, and Iran to name a few) tend to just want the fighting and hostility shit to end. I think it's just tiring for them to have bloodshed over ancient and ludicrous feuds that began with people whose great great great grandchildren have been dead for centuries. IDF vets (every israeli I knew) tend to have a calmer view about issues then the ones who haven't served. Some I knew suffered from PTSD badly. One guy was just plain nutty to the point the other Israelis were scared of him. Israelis don't scare easily (though one told me that most people in that part of the world are scared of Russians, basically he said NO ONE fucks with Russians because they tend to be pretty bad on retaliations.) so that's a bad sign.

Frankly I think we see a distorted view. I imagine most are tired of violence and bloodshed for such pointless reasons. The problem is the machismo attitude of righting all perceived wrongs. Once again religion makes such a "wonderful" thing.

Man, Israeli girls tend to be pretty damn hot though. One of the few women I can talk to great lengths about the preference of the M16 variations. I knew one that was half-Moroccan so I imagine Israeli is more diverse than we imagine.

One thing I loved was all of them hated the A&F folks as much (if not more so) as I did. Punks who think they are so much better than other folks.  I learned a few curse words in Hebrew. It was hilarious.

tl;dr is basically they're people like you and me. Most of them just want to go on with their lives without the headache of violence and hate.

[Ultima22689]

Anyone know any folks from Israel? I knew the situation in Iran a while ago but the only person i've ever talked to is 16 years old, uber religious and thinks rascism is ok. If he's the face of the Israeli youth then I fear for that country and sadly it's America's fault the country is like that in the first place or rather some of our own stupid ultra right wing nut jobs.

Depends. A lot of the ones I know (I used to work as mall security so I got to be friends with the merchants from Greece, Israel, Turkey, and Iran to name a few) tend to just want the fighting and hostility shit to end. I think it's just tiring for them to have bloodshed over ancient and ludicrous feuds that began with people whose great great great grandchildren have been dead for centuries. IDF vets (every israeli I knew) tend to have a calmer view about issues then the ones who haven't served. Some I knew suffered from PTSD badly. One guy was just plain nutty to the point the other Israelis were scared of him. Israelis don't scare easily (though one told me that most people in that part of the world are scared of Russians, basically he said NO ONE fucks with Russians because they tend to be pretty bad on retaliations.) so that's a bad sign.

Frankly I think we see a distorted view. I imagine most are tired of violence and bloodshed for such pointless reasons. The problem is the machismo attitude of righting all perceived wrongs. Once again religion makes such a "wonderful" thing.

Man, Israeli girls tend to be pretty damn hot though. One of the few women I can talk to great lengths about the preference of the M16 variations. I knew one that was half-Moroccan so I imagine Israeli is more diverse than we imagine.

One thing I loved was all of them hated the A&F folks as much (if not more so) as I did. Punks who think they are so much better than other folks.  I learned a few curse words in Hebrew. It was hilarious.

tl;dr is basically they're people like you and me. Most of them just want to go on with their lives without the headache of violence and hate.

That's what I hoped and figured.  Thanks for the info, I hope all that senseless violence does end soon and all these fucked up nations have revolutions or something soon so they get on track with the rest of the free world.  What's it take for those people to get to the point where they will revolt? When I look back at history all around the world there were many a revolt against real tyranny but now today it seems people pretend there is tyranny and there are others who live in places that are actually messed up but don't seem to get mad enough to rebel. I guess it isn't the same anymore. It's not just about numbers. Governments typically have access to equipment that civilians could never get their hands on and in some form are able to send out massive amounts of propaganda.