Cinnamon Zone

The other day I was listening to the BBC Arabic, they were discussing something about the Middle East crisis. At one point, they started talking about minorities and their rights, and someone suggested that "Israelis are a minority in the Arab world" and they are being "abused" by the majority. The discussion went on and on, are Israelis (more specifically, Jewish Israelis) a minority? If so, I really wonder, what is a minority?

I looked up the definition on the net, and the results were fairly satisfying, look at this:

mi·nor·i·ty (mə-nôr'ĭ-tē, -nŏr'-, mī-)
n., pl. -ties.

1.  
   1. The smaller in number of two groups forming a whole.
   2. A group or party having fewer than a controlling number of votes.
2.  
   1. A racial, religious, political, national, or other group thought to be different from the larger group of which it is part.
   2. A group having little power or representation relative to other groups within a society.

If you look at the definitions 1-a, 2-a, you will realize that Israelis can absolutely be considered a minority, no need for further explanation I guess.

But, looking at definition 2-b, you can see that it doesn't apply to Israelis in anyway. This definition deals with status rather than number (quality not quantity). 5 million Israelis (including 1,7 million Arabs, which makes the "minority" around 3,3 million only) versus an estimated 291 million Arabs. Leaving populations aside, the influence of Israel on shaping the international policies is no mystery to anyone, given that the Jewish lobby is the most influential party in the United States, the most powerful country in the world today. This is politics, but this is not all, have a look at these interesting facts:

Israel Military Power

Military branches:
Army, 134,000
Navy, 9,000
Air Force 32,000 troops
Reserves, 430,000

Primary military equipment

Ground forces: 3,800 tanks, including U.S.-built M1A1a, M-60A3a, and native Merkaavas; 1,500 large artillery pieces.
Sea power: Four diesel submarines, three missile corvettes and a fleet of about a dozen fast missile patrol boats.
Air power: About 2,000 combat aircraft, mostly U.S. F-16 and F-15 variants, plus 25 nuclear capable F-15Es; about 80 older F-4 Phantoms.

Military expenditures: $8.7 billion, fiscal year 1999
Military expenditures, percent of gross domestic product: 9.4 percent, fiscal year 1999

Seems like some terms need to be redefined! Or at least some definitions should be more referred to/widespread and used by people. You can't call Jews a minority in the Palestine, in the same sense you call Cercassians a minority in Jordan or Syria or wherever… I think the real minority is us, with our puppet governments, wappenschawing our obsolete, second hand weapons, watching Israelis killing Palestinians everyday then calling them terrorists for second-striking them. In fact, I think we've just made a record, the largest minority in the world! A minority of roughly 291 million Arabs, Way to go!

 

Bon appetite... I'm afraid!