Anyone watching Obama's speech?

[Wezil]

Heh, "Israeli aggression."

I wouldn't call it aggression if the very existence of your country is at stake.

How is dropping bombs not aggressive?

Hopefully Israel has the balls to do what we don't, just like every other time.

More importantly, Obama didn't call on the PA to recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, which is a pretty glaring omission. The PA is only willing to accept peace terms that leave open a pretext for future war, which should come as no surprise since it doesn't actually want peace in the first place.

So your real argument is whether it is justified or not?

More proof that Harper > Obama.

Keep saying things like that and every Canadian on the board (except the Albertans) will presume you are mentally defective. Harper is a major league joke on most every issue.

[kentonio]

Israel, however, is a Jewish state that does not recognize interfaith marriages, civil marriages, or marriages between people of faiths not among the nine officially recognized faiths.

You can presumably explain this?

There are nine officially recognised Christian communities, and Jewish, Muslim and Druze communities. Marriages in each community are under the jurisdiction of their own religious authorities.[3] The religious authority for Jewish marriages performed in Israel is the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Rabbinical courts. The Israeli Interior Ministry registers marriages on presentation of proper documentation. Registration does not in itself validate a marriage, and lack of registration does not invalidate one. However, civil, interfaith and same-sex marriages entered into abroad are recognised by the state

[Al B. Sure!]

Yes. You have to leave the country (usually to Cyprus) to get married if you don't want to get married within the officially recognized Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Druze communities.

The officially recognized Christian faiths are Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and some smaller Eastern Christian religions. Protestants are not recognized.

The Israeli consulate speaks to de facto recognition for non-recognized Christians, but it's still telling that the Israelis do not have civil marriage for all other purposes:

http://israel.usembassy.gov/consular/acs/marriage.html

Only the religious communities mentioned above have de jure status in Israel. Other groups, including Protestant churches, have only de facto recognition; and in the absence of specific legislation on the subject, marriage between Protestants is arranged on ad hoc and individual basis.

The minister who plans to perform the ceremony writes to the Ministry for Religious Affairs, setting forth the names of the persons to be married, their nationality, and their religious affiliation. He requests the Ministry's permission to perform the marriage and to issue a marriage certificate. Protestants planning to be married in Israel should allow from two to four weeks to complete the formalities required before the marriage can take place.

So again, Protestants do not have de jure marriage rights but can be married through an ad hoc and lengthy process. That's still not rights. Meanwhile, those seeking non-religious or inter-faith marriage need to leave the country. Fortunately, the marriage is recognized on their return but that's hardly the same thing as actually allowing civil marriages.

In the interest of full disclosure, civil marriages do not exist in Syria or Lebanon, either, although there has been a push in Lebanon for it in recent years.

[Al B. Sure!]

And like Israel, Lebanon recognizes foreign civil marriages. The same thing that occurs in Cyprus with Israeli citizens getting married there occurs for Lebanese nationals.