User: Highnlonesome

When you say the price of gas, do you mean gasoline, or do you mean natural gas for heating?

One of the biggest reasons why young people carry knives is a perceived need for self-protection. The question is, how likely is it they will fear being caned more than being mugged, beaten up, or stabbed on the street?

I don't really have a problem with a religion that allows polygamy. But I do have a problem with a religion that forces women into polygamous marriages or puts social pressure on men to take more than one wife.

"Should we keep the name of God away from our school teachings or public monuments?

No! Doing that is defying God's authority and telling Him that we just don't need His protection."

I agree that the answer is "no", I just don't agree with the reason. I don't believe in a personal god. I simply don't understand why the "separation of church and state" means we have to eradicate even any mention of religion from public life.

And if we deny kids the opportunity to pray in school even if they wish to, then isn't this violating their basic rights?

"What a bi-national state constituted would have depended on the inhabitants of the Mandate. It probably wouldn't have been a Jewish majority state since the majority of citizens living in Palestine were Arab, even after the successive aliyahs of Ashkenazi Jews . . . if Jewish immigrants to the area wished to live there, they would have to abide by the wishes of the locals not to have their land fragmented in such a manner as the Peel Commission would have done."

Exactly. It would have an Arab majority (but not an overwhelming one), meaning that the Arabs would have had the power to severely restrict Jewish immigration, and probably would have done. I don't know how many immigrants the Arabs would have been willing to allow in, but I very much doubt whether it would been in the hundreds of thousands. Two possible scenarios then present themselves. 1 - The Arabs succeed in preventing illegal immigration (difficult given Palestine's long sea coast), leaving a vast population of Jewish refugees and displaced persons with nowhere to go. 2 - Illegal immigration, unrest, war, partition, and more war. Which is similar to what actually happened.

There is always a middle way, of course, but given the history of the region I think it's unlikely that either community would have chosen it.