The place for a Roma (Gypsy) homeland is in India and the place for a Jewish homeland is in Iraq.

To begin, I should like to welcome my opponent to Debate.org and thank him for posting such a courteous and well-versed rebuttal. Now, to address my opponent's first argument: that is; that Israel should be a homeland for Jews because it was promised to them by their god as detailed in their scriptures. I agree that this is the case but since not 100% of the world's population, or even 1% of it, recognise the Torah as "God's Word" its assertion that the Jews are the "Chosen People" and that the area currently occupied by Israel is their "Promised Land" is clearly not universally accepted. Furthermore, as I stated in Round 1, only 11% of the population of that area were Jewish when Israel was created in 1948. So what sort of process allows a small minority to dictate over of the vast majority? I'll tell you: the type of minority with enormous financial and political support from the world's richest nation – the United States. Israel simply wouldn't exist today without the billions of dollars the American taxpayer donates to the Jewish State every year. This seems bizarre since this process is patently anti-democratic and the concept of democracy has always been central to American politics, both at home and abroad. My opponent's argued that Jewish people needed a "safe haven" after the war as they continued to be persecuted against. The very same thing can be said for gypsies. By the way, my opponent mentioned "anti-Semitism" which, incidentally, is a misnomer with reference to Jews as both Arabs and Hebrew Jews are Semites, which, if you think about it, makes perfect sense given that the Jews' native homeland is Iraq. Please excuse these Semitic semantics, by the way! I do agree with my opponent's point that Iraq is unstable, but so is Israel and while Iraq is moving towards peace and stability, Israel is moving in the other direction, and has been for over 60 years. Furthermore, if the Jews relocated to Iraq they would be setting up home in a country with a clean sheet. Also, Iraq is a far, far larger country than Israel so there should be no need to displace any locals. This solution would have the added advantage of freeing the Jewish people from the threat of "terrorist attacks" from groups such as Hamas, who disgracefully target innocent Israeli citizens, and as a result lose the moral high ground a resistance movement would normally have in an occupied country. Moving on to my opponent's second argument, he wrote: "The Roma, although not persecuted nearly as heavily as the Jews, have been subject to discrimination." I am not sure there has ever been any scientific comparison made but the Roma have always faced prejudice, and continue to suffer to this day, although there are many Jewish media barons, the Roma are grossly underrepresented in television and print so their persecution often goes unreported. When the Roma do get a mention, it is rarely favourable. For example, not so long ago, Britain's biggest selling humorous magazine: 'Viz'; published a cartoon strip entitled "The Thieving Gypsy B*stards" in which a Roma family were depicted as robbers and burglars breaking into people homes and stealing their posessions. http://psychskull.files.wordpress.com... I know it was supposed to be funny but can you imagine a top-selling magazine daring to publish a similar cartoon strip entitled "The Swindling Yiddo B*stards" in which a Jewish family were depicted as fund managers using Ponzi schemes to con unsuspecting investors out of billions of dollars? I don't think so. My opponent then went on to state that "The Jews did not and do not actively destroy Palestinian homes." Sadly, this statement is factually incorrect. The Jews destroyed Palestinian homes in their hundreds of thousands to create their "homeland". After the Second World War the Zionist terrorist organizations such as Irgun expelled by force over 800,000 Muslim and Christian Palestinians. http://www.jerusalemites.org... Furthermore, this invasion and destruction of Palestinian property continues today, not by Jewish extremists but by the Israeli government. This criminal activity has, of course, been roundly condemned by such respected, independent authorities as the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. http://www.un.org...= http://www.amnesty.org... http://www.hrw.org... However, with the backing of the successive American governments the Israelis can dismiss any criticism and although President Obama has sought to negotiate a two state settlement to resolve the issue, his hands are tied by the powerful Jewish lobby in America and Israel knows that. As Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in a recent interview: "The Obama Administration will put forth new peace initiatives only if Israel wants it to. Believe me, America accepts all our decisions." http://www.haaretz.com... Indeed, rather than make any apology for these crimes against humanity the Israelis boast and even joke about it, as illustrated by this cartoon published by the Israeli National News. http://www.israelnationalnews.com... My opponent argues that it would not be practical to relocate either Jews or Roma to Iraq or India and, in this, he may well be right, we cannot turn the clock back and right the wrongs of history. However, this does not prevent us from doing more to prevent both the Roma and Jewish diasporas from suffering any further oppression and, at the same time, ensure that the Israelis compensate Palestinians for their losses, allow them to return to their land and extend the same rights and privileges that are accorded to Jewish citizens of Israel. Thank you.