Posted on 08/19/2005 6:59:11 AM PDT by Warhammer
"The armed struggle is the only strategy that Hamas possesses...As long as Palestinian lands remain under occupation, Hamas won't lay down its weapons." -- Khaled Mashaal, leader of the terrorist organization Hamas.
"Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son." -- Dean Wormer, Animal House (1978)
The world has been witness to an extraordinary, emotional event: the Israeli pull-out from the Gaza Strip. This political gamble by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon marks substantive forward movement on the Road Map for Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The question now is whether the Palestinian militants -- and in a more complete sense the entire Arab World -- have the wherewithal to understand that this is an opportunity to exist on this planet peacefully with others or whether they want to continue their march toward oblivion.
It is time for the Arab world -- and those who identify with it -- to start living in the land of reality.
Israel isn't going to cease to exist. No matter how many suicide bombers Hamas, al Aksa Martyrs Brigade, Hezbollah or any of the myriad racist, anti-Semitic terrorist organizations send to kill innocent Israeli women and children, Israel will remain. Israel has survived the invasion of armies sanctioned by the Arab League and gained territory in spite of the waging of war by Arab nations. Israelis have not been persuaded to "disband" their nation even as anti-Semite barbarians spew their hate-speech calling Jews the descendents of pigs, even as their "civilized" brethren decapitate other innocents in the name of religion across the broader Middle East.
Israel has literally won every major conflict it has ever had with the Arab world.
The fact Ariel Sharon has demonstrated that he, even in the face of political suicide, intends to keep his part of the bargain where the Road Map for Peace is concerned, is telling. But more than being just a simple action of sincere resolve it presents an opportunity for the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world to demonstrate they can do the same.
Palestinians and the larger Arab world must match Sharon's move by making sure terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah cease their thirsting for Israeli and Christian blood. They must seek to terminate the apocalyptic rhetoric used by their fanatical religious leaders against Jews and the West. They must embrace a moment in time that would see them leave the barbarism of the past behind in deference for the hope the future affords. It is through actions, not rhetoric, that true peace will be attained.
But, if the Palestinians and the Arab world ignore this opportunity by viewing the sincere and generous gesture of the Israeli pull-out of Gaza as a victory won by acts of terror, who could blame the world community if it chooses to say that it has had enough of them and their methods? Why shouldn't the world community as a whole condemn their intractability and insistence on the status quo?
I don't believe that I am going out on a limb when I say that the peace loving people of the world have grown tired of listening to the Arab street justify terrorism and murder. We have grown tired of their barbarity. We have grown tired of their apathy. It is long past time for the Arab world to condemn terrorism, anti-Semitism and their religion's bloodlust for world domination. If Arab nations want to sit at the world table as equals then it is time for them to embrace the responsibilities of humanity.
It is a crime against humanity to encourage suicide bombers, in the name of religion, to strap on pounds of C-4 in order to murder innocent women and children on buses especially when their justification is retaliation for a war lost 38 years ago.
It is a crime against humanity to kidnap aid workers, in the name of religion, only to torture them by exploiting their terror in front of a video camera in the final moments before their heads are sawed off.
It is a crime against humanity to stone women to death, in the name of tribal honor, because she smiled at a male stranger or went to the market unaccompanied by a male family member or wore clothes that some backward-thinking cave dweller believed scarred his honor.
This situation presented on behalf of the Israeli people -- and peace-loving people all over the world -- is a chance for the Arab world to save face. It is an opportunity to end the savagery ingrained in their society, end the terrorism and offer their people a future that isn't mired in poverty, ignorance and butchery. It is an opportunity to correct centuries worth of wrongs.
The peace-loving people of the world must hope that the Palestinians and the Arab world recognize this moment and pray that they choose the path to peace. But if they fail to capitalize upon this historic opportunity, instead continuing the psychotic crusade they have waged for centuries, we should be prepared to rectify the problem once and for all.
We can only hope...
I'm afraid all the Gaza pullout has and will accomplish is to embolden the violent among Arabs. Their methods have obviously been effective.
FFC
???
This is as blatant a case of rewarding terrorism as I can imagine. The PA has given absolutely nothing, in promise let alone action, to have Israel take this step aimed at pacifying them.
The PA understands only one thing and that is absolute, complete and total defeat. Rush Limbaugh has said it for years, no peace ever comes without the total defeat of one side or the other.
There are only two things that will bring about peace in the middle east, a mass conversion or a total defeat of one side. Neither seems likely since the Arab nations are too smart to start a formal war with Isreal.
Hamas only wants peace. A piece of that and a piece of this etc. etc.. When are people going to figure out that these people cannot be appeased?
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There was a time when that thought may have started seeping into the Arab consciousness.
No longer
What Israel has done- under US pressure- is made sure that every Arab woke up this morning believing exactly that: that it is possible to destroy Israel. If X number of terrorist events cause them to flee Gaza, X times 2, or 3 or 10, will cause them to flee Tel Aviv.
They are also calculating how many will cause the US to flee Iraq and the greater Mideast.
We will all live with the consequences. While many will die.
Sharon has place the Palestinians in a position that favors Israel. They either step up to the plate and demonstrate to the world that they are civilized enough to accept this olive branch, or they show us that they are a barbaric nation full of hate that cannot be reasoned with.
The Israel Palistinian problem is spelled out quite clearly in the bible.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, ... saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan;
Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places:
... But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.
-- Numbers 33: 50–52, 55 (KJV)
Hamas has betrayed the Palestinians.
The Palestinians have already shows they are a "barbaric nation full of hate that cannot be reasoned with." Israel giving them Gaza proves to the Palestinians/Hamas/Islamic Jihad etc, that terrorism works.
Just like a child who throws a temper tantrum everytime they do not get what they want, a parent can either take them to the car and teach them a lesson, or give in to their demands, causing further tantrums. Today's missle strike is just the first round of the tantrums these people will not engage in.
Hope on dear friend. Ain't gonna happened. You have just seen the beginning of the march towards Jerusalem. There is no peace. And the bloodshed has just begun. I hate to be negative. But I have read the Bible. It speaks of what is to come. When the world is absorbed in the subject of Jerusalem. It becomes a troublesome stone on the neck of every nation. And those that come against Jerusalem will be cut to pieces.
"Just like a child who throws a temper tantrum everytime they do not get what they want, a parent can either take them to the car and teach them a lesson, or give in to their demands, causing further tantrums."
In my opinion Israel can spank the Palestinians until they bleed. They have the ability and have demonstrated it several times. The problem as I see it is the rest of the world. These unruly barbarians are getting away with their tantrums NOT because of a lack of resolve from Israel, but because of a world that seems to support the Palestinians. Support that frankly I don't understand. I've been watching this conflict since the '67 war and I just don't see how any civilized person can support the Palestinians.
I believe the steps that Sharon is taking now are designed to demonstrate to the world the resolve (or more aptly lack of) of the PA, and is the beginning of a defensive position for future hostilities. It has to be nearly impossible to defend 8,000 settlers in the middle of 1.3 million hostile people.
Regardless of how "right" the Israelis seem to be, continuous fighting is tiring and expensive. It's one thing for us thousands of miles away to say "hey, stand your ground, you're in the right", it's an entirely different position to be the one looking over your shoulder every moment of your life.
fat chance
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