Posted on 09/29/2005 5:27:06 AM PDT by SJackson
The penny should be dropping now. For anyone who is still bewildered by the continuation of Palestinian terrorism, just look at Northern Ireland, where the Irish Republican Army this week decommissioned its weapons.
Not that the two conflicts are identical, of course. "The troubles" of Northern Ireland are by no means the same as "the situation" between Israel and the Palestinians, any more than they could be interchangeable with any other conflict that is currently raging around the world. But in this case, the parallels between Ireland and our land are too many – and too instructive – to ignore.
First, the obvious: The conflicts follow similar timelines, from their origin to the progress of peace talks. They involve protracted histories of killing, on ethnic and religious background, that have long been viewed as unsolvable. Like Palestinian groups, the IRA splintered into several factions over the years that partly complimented, and partly competed with, each other.
Operatives of the IRA and the Palestinian Liberation Organization have been known to train together and share their expertise with each other. On the political front, too, there are striking similarities.
The strategy of Sinn Fein – the political movement that, despite its denials, is considered intimately related to the IRA – was described in the 1980s as that of "the Armalite (assault rifle) in one hand, and the ballot box in the other." It was an eery echo of Yasser Arafat's speech to the United Nations in 1974, in which he announced that he had arrived with an olive branch in one hand and a gun in the other – threatening ominously, "Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand."
Most importantly, the strategy was a duplicitous ploy that, perhaps more than anything else, prevented peace: As long as the gunmen of the IRA were lurking in the background, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams's flowery pronouncements in peace talks were meaningless.
Undoubtedly, many in Northern Ireland are still skeptical of the prospects for peace there. After thousands of deaths on both sides and generations of hatred, that is only natural. But if there is reason for them to believe that the IRA's "armed struggle" has essentially reached its end, it is this: that the killing has stopped and that the weapons have been "put permanently beyond use."
And wouldn't you know it? These are the two things that the Palestinians have never been made to do. When the PLO became the Palestinian Authority, at best it became something like Sinn Fein, speaking of ballot boxes while using the murderous "rejectionist" groups as the trump card. Now Hamas is playing this double game as well, claiming that its true desire is to achieve political entree but refusing to hand over its weapons. This, as the Irish and the British already know, is not a genuine change in attitude but a recipe for more violence.
What was key in Ireland would be key here – and the key for Adams in leading his supporters toward peaceful engagement was the demand that violence be completely and verifiably abandoned before full political rights could be attained. Two realizations that certainly made that decision inevitable were:
1) that the "armed resistance" had failed to bring about its desired result, and that further fighting was destined to continue to fail as well;
2) that there was no longer enough money, or enough domestic or international support, for the fighters to continue their bloody battle.
All those governments that wish to help bring peace to our region would be wise to absorb these lessons, and apply them immediately. It must be made clear – both to the PA's Mahmoud Abbas and to the terrorist groups vying to share power with him – that continuing the armed struggle can only bring further misery to the Palestinian people, and that the international community will not support the false distinction between "political" and "military" wings of terrorist groups.
Unless the condition of complete disarmament is imposed on the Palestinian groups, there is no chance of Israel enjoying the luck of the Irish.
No second amendment rights for the Palis? Agreed that their miltias should be disarmed of military grade weapons, but shouldn't each household decide to be armed or not, like here in (some of) America?
Note: opening a discussion, NOT advocating a position.
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Second amendment rights only apply to human beings. ;-)
I have no problem with armed housholds. I have a real problem with terrorists that kill indiscriminately.
<< Note: opening a discussion, NOT advocating a position. >>
Sure.
At all costs, keep an open mind.
But not so open your brain falls out!
For, in America, not even the most passionate supporter of our Constitution's Second Amendment, like me, say, believes our death-cultists, hesperophobics, psychopaths, felons, mass-murderers and serial killers aught be heavily and indiscriminately armed.
Hmmmmmmmmmmm .... ?
Noraid and other supporters of the IRA in this country could not sustain the money flow post-911.
Also, while there is certainly a religious component to the Ulster Troubles, it is fundamentally a political issue. The Unionists want to maintain a British colonial existence, and the Republicans want their whole island unified under Irish control.
Not so with the Islamic jihadists who comprise the opposition to Israel. They have no intention of co-existing with Jews, and they want them all dead and Israel scrubbed from the map.
A more intractible condition, unfortunately.
Bump to read later!
Hmmmmmmmmmmm .... ?
I stand corrected. Since Islam is a mental disorder, no muslim should be armed. Come to think of it, neither should liberals!
An unfortunate comparison. The British invaded Ireland over 700 years ago. They murdered inhabitants, outlawed Catholicism, the Gaelic language, and split the country in two.
Dream on. The "interntional Community" promotes that false distinction.
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