Scathing Atheist on Israel-Palestine

Scathing Atheist Noah joins me to help wade through the incredibly polarized world of Israel-Palestine commentary. It’s likely you already have a staunch opinion on this conflict, if you’re anything like mine and Noah’s Facebook/Twitter friends. The focus of this show is to do my best to take an unbiased approach to the conflict and look at as many sources of evidence as I can. Here are several of the many references I used to research this show:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/qasim-rashid/9-israel-palestine-facts_b_5643077.html

http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/why-dont-i-criticize-israel

http://mondoweiss.net/2014/08/defends-silence-slaughter.html

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2008/05/can_israel_survive_for_another_60_years.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/richard-cohen-with-israel-the-world-is-blaming-the-victims/2014/07/28/104bcc4c-1680-11e4-9349-84d4a85be981_story.html

And of course, extensive Wikipedia study… Though Noah might be a Scathing Atheist, when he sits down on Atheistically Speaking, he’s always calm, rational, and very well spoken. This episode is a must listen if you’ve been disappointed or turned off by the vitriolic anger of both sides. Noah comes into this with a bit more of a well-defined point of view than I. I came into it not knowing really what I thought, so I’ll be curious if the listeners will come out of the episodes with a similar outlook, assuming they were undecided.

The difference in opinion on this issue, even just among atheists is overwhelming. Many who I follow on Twitter declare Israel a criminal, genocidal state and the US complicit in mass murder. Others think that Israel is not to blame, they are doing their best to minimize casualties, and that the state of Israel needs to exist because of rampant anti-semitism in the area. Conditions in the Gaza Strip are terrible. Does that excuse anti-semitism? Hamas launches rockets indiscriminately into civilian areas of Israel. Does that excuse civilian casualties in Gaza? Or, are none of these things ever excusable? What are we to do with such varied opinion?

Why, consult the Scathing Atheist of course!

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