Posted on 08/29/2005 4:57:05 AM PDT by SJackson
Bet you thought that as soon as Israel finished its dramatic withdrawal from Gaza and the upper West Bank, the Palestinians would roll up their sleeves, get to work building new lives and forge peaceful ties with their neighbors in the Jewish state. Guess again.
Israeli forces were still in the process of removing settlers from their homes and synagogues when ministers in the Palestinian government began whining that Israel's withdrawal from Gaza was nowhere near enough. Many Gazans dismissed it all as a PR "charade."
Other Palestinians warn that a third and bloodier intifadeh is on its way. And Hamas, the increasingly powerful Islamist terrorist party, says Gaza and even the entire West Bank aren't enough. "All of Palestine is our land," says Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar.
That, of course, includes Israel.
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has done dangerously little to strengthen his control over Gaza. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other fanatic militias are still armed and operating. And after Abbas met some of their leaders in Damascus last week, they announced that he'd agreed not to disarm them - which leaves Israel vulnerable to renewed terrorist attacks.
Abbas faces another gauntlet: a key rival, the Tunis-based head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Farouk Qaddumi, a man who has never renounced his dream to destroy Israel, moves to Gaza soon, reportedly with a "volunteer popular army" of 1,500.
Abbas doesn't face an easy task. He has to balance the threat of civil war against demands of Israel and the U.S. for a crackdown on terror gangs. But unless he faces down his extremist rivals and establishes tough rule, Gaza will never rebuild.
Billions in aid have disappeared over the years, much of it stolen by corrupt Palestinian officials. With Gaza returning to Palestinian control, the world is ready to clean the slate and help again.
The U.S. and the European Union have allocated mega-millions. The oil-rich United Arab Emirates announced it would donate $100 million to build a new city for some 30,000 Palestinians in the Gaza settlement of Morag. And a group of American-Jewish philanthropists has contributed $14 million so Palestinians can buy the lucrative network of hot houses that Israelis built in Gaza.
Palestinians have the chance to improve their lives if they stop feeling sorry for themselves. Possibly 600,000 of them fled the 1947-48 war that Arab states launched against newly born Israel, and 60 years later they still consider themselves "refugees." Now the Palestinians claim they number more than 5 million - and that the world still owes them a living.
Here's my advice to the Palestinians. Get your act together, work with what you have and build up global trust. Most importantly, convince the Israelis you want peace - not to destroy Israel. Until you do, you won't get anything more - and maybe you'll get even less than you already have.
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Duh. Appeasement ... that will make Islam happy. Duh
Let them concentrate on killing each other for a while BUMP!!
Its been going on for a thousand years, why stop now? It will be decided with the last man standing.
So Saudi Arabia blew 100 Million dollars to rebuild the houses that the Palestinians insisted be torn down because they were Joo houses.
Idiots flock together I see...
This fighting for a "thousand years" thing has been repeated so often that it is near universally accepted. The fact is that it is not true. Go back about a hundred years if you wish. The thousand year cliche makes you look uninformed at best and silly at worst.
Other Palestinians warn that a third and bloodier intifadeh is on its way. And Hamas, the increasingly powerful Islamist terrorist party, says Gaza and even the entire West Bank aren't enough. "All of Palestine is our land," says Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar.
That, of course, includes Israel.
Israel should make no concessions to the Arabs believing that they will get peace in return. The only peace they are going to get is an armed peace, and they already have that.
Israel should only make those moves she considers necessary to achieve a defensible border. If PR dictates that it be sold as a "concession" to the Arabs, fine, but there should be no real concessions to people who are determined to kill you whatever you do.
Once a defensible border has been established, and it is sealed, and all of Israel's citizens are on the safe side of that line, any cross-border attacks should be answered by pushing the line forward. A hundred meters for each mortar shell lobbed over the line, whatever, but they should not imagine that you can negotiate with these people. Make your decisions unilaterally and execute them unilaterally. Let the diplomats and PR people handle the damage-control.
Gaza makes perfect sense. It will become a state that will attract every terrorist known to mankind. They will flock to Gaza to join forces and destroy the Jewish state on behalf of the United Nations and their design on a world government.
Why does this make sense? Because the Jews are Gods children and as Gods children, the Jews have been given the responsibility of eradicating the scourge of the earth. What better way then to congregate all of the trash in one place and then destroy it.
Everyone knows, from Israel to the Arab world that the Palestinians and the Jews will never live together. Everyone also believes that once the Iranians get the bomb, they will use it on Israel. I guess no one has asked the question yet. "If Iran destroys Israel, where will the Palestinians live? At least the ones who are left alive?"
The other question remains, "If Israel retaliates, what is the world going to do when the Iranian oil fields are turned into glass?" It seems only China is making contingecy plans with Mexico and Venezuela while American politicians worry about mating Caribou on a postage stamp in the Alaskan tundra.
The showdown is coming and there is no way to stop it. So what is the gameplan? IMHO there is only one solution. Blow up the Iranian nuclear facilities, destroy Gaza and march into Syria. A war is coming. And right now, the US is positioned right where we belong. 100,000+ troops that can move either east or west into the belly of the beast.
Rebuild?
Rebuild what?
Don't you have to have built something before you can "rebuild" it?
Hopefully that's what is going to happen. The border won't be moved, but I hope terror will be addressed forcefully.
Their munitions supplies, trained terrorists, I can't think of much else.
Israel is not the only country in the region threatened by a terrorist state. Iraq, the Saudis, Egypt, the PLO has formal designs on Jordan.
Me? No.
You're confusing me with George W Bush.
"The thousand year cliche makes you look uninformed at best and silly at worst."
OK, its a 100 years, but what will he final result be? Everlasting peace or mutual destruction? Sorry if I'm uniformed or silly, but I don't see everlasting peace there until only one or the other remains standing. To me its like one piece of land occupied by two opposing ant hills that are out to eat each other. With the Palestinians there appears to be no end in sight unless the Israelis move to another continent or are wiped out.
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