comments are closed on this review, click here for worldwidereview home
From: John
Category: Other stuff
Date: 19 February 2004
How many times have we heard this one? It seems like the most common cry of the attackers these days is that they attacked us first. Israel say that Palestinians send suicide bombers in to their cities to kill their people. Of course they do, and the reason is because Israel sends in troops and aerial attacks against Palestine. The Palestinians have limited resources and a tight budget, unlike the US backed Isrealies, and so they have to use primitive methods. How can a people with a budget as small as they have fight a force with US$3 billion / year?
But, of course, the Palestinians are not blameless. Their appear to be radical splinter groups within the Palestinian state fighting ther enemy any way they can. The Palestinian state is now so fragmented that I doubt Arafat has much control left. It's not his fault. He has done everything he can to keep them together, but Isreal has been doing everything it can to reduce his power over his own people. Sharon, who himself has been fingered as someone with a dubious past, seems hell-bent on what in Bosnia was called Religous Genicide.
The UN has been calling for Israel to withdraw from Palestinian areas for many years, but Israel continues to build settlements on the West Bank. Some 380,000 settlers now occupy Palestinian land there. For the last 100 years Israel has constantly forced the Palestinians in to ever smaller and more fragmented areas, sapping their water resources, eroding the land available for a viable Palestinian state and causing major conflict. By 1949 700,000 Palestinians had been forced from their homes which had been confiscated. Israel seems to desire nothing other than the demise of the entire Palestinian state.
History is full of these sorts of things. One group moves in on anothers land and slowly pushes them out. Differences between the two seem to remove all hope of their living together in peace. The whole thing degrades into a mess of tit-for-tat attacks. Eventually you end up with to sides so torn with hatred of each other, and so violently opposed to even trying to sort things out that the only answer either side is willing to accept is the total destruction of the other side. This seems to be the situation we now have in the middle east.
This is not a good thing. Palestine has many friends. Arabs around the world are very upset at what they see happening to their brothers in Palestine. This is only natural and is fueling more hatred for America and Israels other friends, and creating more reasons for the "terrorists" the the US fears so much to strike back. It is my opinion that Israel has overstepped the boundries and should be reigned in, yet the US seems keen to let them rage on until Palestine can no longer exist. How can the US expect any decent communication with other Arab states when it funds and supports Israels rampage?
But all we get from the US are pathetic little comments. How can anyone call a massed attack and destroy mission, killing hundreds of innocent people, demolishing peoples homes and removing Arafats powers .... "Unconstructive". Thanks for those strong words Mr. Bush. I'm sure that'll reduce the slaughter.
I am a jewish man just looking for peace, ISRAEL is the bigger nation so they must stand up and right this wrong.
comments are closed on this review, click here for worldwidereview home