Israel to withdraw troops from Bethlehem [In the face of terrorism]

Jerusalem Post ^ | Jun. 30, 2003 | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

[yonif]

Israel agreed to withdraw Wednesday from the West Bank town of Bethlehem, a Palestinian official said Monday afternoon.

The agreement was reached Monday in a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian security officials. The pullback is in line with a U.S.-backed peace plan, which calls for an Israeli withdrawal to positions held before the outbreak of fighting 33 months ago.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity.

[yonif]

Are we supposed to be fighting terrorism or allowing terrorists to breath and have living space?

[MEG33]

Yonif..perhaps the powers that be could use your expertise.

[DoughtyOne]

Don't worry Yonif. I have it on good authority that if this falls through and Israelis by the busload are killed daily, the ones that forced this on your nation will step down.

Yep, and if you buy into this you're soft in the head.

I can hear it now. Oops! My bad. Either that or Israel will be blamed plain and simple after caving on every issue but one, not wanting to be bombed and shot.

[yonif]

Yonif..perhaps the powers that be could use your expertise.

The IDF has the best experts in the world. They have been fighting for over 55 years against terrorism. I pray for my family and friends who are currently serving in the IDF.

[MEG33]

And I ,too.I want the best for Israel.

[LarryM]

Anyone who wants the best for Israel has to work for the retirements of both Bush and Sharon.

[MEG33]

If it weren't for Bush,there would be peace and tranquillity in Israel.I know your view.It's on every thread concerning Israel.

[LarryM]

Bush is the first President to declare his support for a Palestinian State. This is a fact. He was doing a great job by keeping his distance. Now he has morphed into Bill Clinton. I believe, actually, that he is much worse than Clinton in that his family is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Saudi dictatorship.

[Ann Archy]

Here's my take FWIW.

Israel has to do this to call the Palis bluff to see whether the cease fire can hold. If Arafat can stop his Fatah thugs from killing Jews for 3 months, then he COULD have stopped it all these years. It will FOREVER brand him as either an ineffective leader or a Killer/Terrorist. Either way, Bush has put him on the dustbin of history.

If they do kill any more Israelis, the Israelis will have everyone behind them to go in and SMASH the Palis!! And the US will help them do it!!

My only fear is that a Pali will kill another Pali thug and blame it on the Jews.....but until that happens I think this is the first real breakthrough EVER.

This has also shown the world that the leaders of the US NOW are VERY effectual.

How else was this to be solved? Surely you didn't think you could KILL them all.

[MEG33]

And I want you to realize how long this terror has been going on and just perhaps there may be a tiny sliver of hope.I believe your hatred for Bush is greater than your love of Israel.Nothing has worked for lo these many years.

[dennisw]

Written by Caton:


The Arab countries cannot attack Israel directly without facing immediate military retaliation -- a war they cannot win. That is why the Arabs have been using the PLO as their proxy in their war against Israel. But even the use of the PLO was dangerous, as any PLO attack launched from an Arab country meant an Israeli retaliation against that country.

Comes Madrid and Oslo. The Arabs have won a major battle, they have been able to deploy their proxy in non-Arab territory. Now the PLO can attack without any fear of retaliations against Arab countries. However, this doesn't work too well, because the IDF is able to enter PLO-controlled territory at will and significantly damage the terrorist infrastructure when it becomes too dangerous.

The next step, then, is to have this PLO-controlled territory protected from the IDF. Proclaiming a state won't do -- the PLO would then be in the same situation as any Arab country. Any political concession or recognition of Israel won't to either. So the only solution for the PLO is to get a military force in place to protect them, a force that Israel will not be willing to attack.

Since 1956 the Arabs have been keen to have U.N. troops deployed on their borders, knowing very well that those troops will protect them from the IDF while being porous to terrorism. It worked for Egypt, who could mass troops in Sinai in 1967 despite the cease-fire agreements, protected by U.N. forces. It works for Hizb'allah, protected by U.N. forces and still able to enter Israel at will, while the U.N. forces wave at them. It is the perfect Arab choice: an 'interposition' force that will let them go back and forth and only stop Israel.

Now the PLO wants its own 'interposition' force. The reason Arafat launched the second Intifada was to incite a massive military retaliation from Israel and use it to get such a force. Then, the PLO would have the impunity it wants while not having to concede anything. The PLO could keep building its terrorist infrastructure and attack Israel at will, and Israel could not retaliate nor defend itself.

That is the next phase of the Arab plan against Israel. Have the international community force Israel back to indefensible borders and grant impunity to the PLO, use the PLO-controlled territories to mass enough forces to destroy Israel and at the same time continue using terrorism to damage as much as possible the economy of Israel -- and its ability to fund and deploy defensive forces. Time is not a factor here. The Arabs will wait however long is needed.

Do you get it now?

[Prodigal Son]

Anyone who wants the best for Israel has to work for the retirements of both Bush and Sharon.

Anyone who wants the best for Israel ought to move there and become a citizen. I want the President to work for what's best for this country- not what's best for Israel (as a matter of policy).

[yonif]

Israel has to do this to call the Palis bluff to see whether the cease fire can hold.

Umm...what do you call the Oslo Accords (1993-2000)?

[yonif]

I want the President to work for what's best for this country- not what's best for Israel (as a matter of policy).

Support of Israel against the terrorists is good for this country, as these terrorists hate America as well, and have killed Americans.

[Prodigal Son]

I would argue against anybody who calls Bush a PLO terrorist out of hand. This has nothing to do with you.

[Jeremiah Jr]

What's a couple of towers between friends?

[yonif]

I would argue against anybody who calls Bush a PLO terrorist out of hand.

Who has said that?

[Prodigal Son]

LarryM.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/937953/posts?page=6#2

"The Bush Administration has turned into the PLO."

In my book, the PLO are terrorists. If he's saying the Bush admin is the PLO, he's saying the Bush admin are PLO terrorists. That is an incredibly extreme thing to say. When you say something like this, nothing at all seperates you from any other stripe of extremist. You get lumped right in there with greens, anarchists, communist agitators...

[Ann Archy]

A Joke. The US wasn't even involved...just held the signing at the White House, and that deal was made with the Killer/Trrorist Arafat. I'm sure you know that Arafat was Clinton's MOST FREQUENT White House guest. It took a man of Bush's integrity to brush him off like a scab.

[CobaltBlue]

There is a sizeable minority of Israelis - guessing from the makeup of the Knesset could be 20%, could be 40% - who want to exclude the Palestinians from the West Bank because that land belonged to the Jews during the Kingdom of Judea.

I expect them to do everything they can to undermine any attempt to resolve matters otherwise.

Calling Bush a terrorist won't be the half of it. I expect them to start calling him a Nazi soon (if they aren't, already). And Sharon is already receiving death threats that his body guard are taking seriously.