I can't believe that once again Isreal has decided to ignore international law and any sense of morals.
If you are Isreal you don't have to worry about building relationships with your neighbours because if they threaten you, the USA will bomb them, and if you threaten them you can bomb them yourselves without fear of reprisal.
If you are Isreal, every Jew killed by terrorists requires the lives of several palestinians in retribution, the destruction of another village and another turn of the vice that is crushing Palestine economically.
If you are Isreal it is OK to sink a US warship that happens to be witness to genocide.
If you are Isreal it is OK to strangle the economy of your region because you get financial aid while your neighbours starve.
If you are Isreal it is OK to import as many people as you can to 'settle' the land belonging to another nation.
If you are Isreal it is OK to break International Law and ignore UN treaties.
If you are Isreal the only history that matters is the Holocaust, any other history can be ignored because Jews are the only victims in the middle east.
If you are Isreal then its OK to fire missiles into residential areas killing dozens of civilians, its okay to flatten houses killing the inhabitants and its ok to lay seige to poverty stricken towns preventing access to aid and hospitals.
All because some US president decided that Isreal deserved special treatment and was above the Law.
This has to stop.. The United Nations needs to impose sanctions stopping Isreal from accessing arms and aid. The united states needs to switch its aid from Isreal to Jordan and Palestine. The united kingdom needs stop any more arms going to isreal.
The whole thing is a bloody mess and will continue to be so - there can be no peace when two militant groups want exactly the same thing without reservations.
Jason
PS: As a side note, thanks for posting to my Journal - added you as a Friend so I can read more here.
Re:Awfully one-sided
TeeJay on 2002-07-23T19:41:32
I think you should look into the facts.
The UK, Spain and other european countries has suffered from terrorism, counter-terrorism with some exceptions was handled through intelligence and the security forces - Terrorists were taken to trial rather than bombed in their beds alongside anybody living in the same area. (with the notable exception of The affair of 3 IRA suspects shot in cold blood by the SAS).
When the UK armed forces have shot anybody - regardless of their being suspected of terrorism their is a trial and investigation.
Isreal regards itself as above the law and rather than supporting Palestines attempts at policing itself only desteroys its prisons, security forces and undermines any moderate palestinians by choosing violence and ethnic cleansing over dialogue.
The United States has a very blinkered view of the problem in the Middle East. Jordan, Palestine and Iraq all suffer from a lack of food and medicine. Palestine is economically crippled by the Isreali ring of steel that leaves food to rot in fields and prevents access to aid and hospitals to refugees living in shanty towns. Jordan has to tow the US party line if it wants any aid and Iraq has to sell oil on the black market to pay for food and medicine (regardless how much is spent on arms - its a pittance compared to how much African and other countries that have poverty problems spend).
You should really look into the problem - try reading the British and Indepedant media instead of relyin on Biased US sources.
Re:Awfully one-sided
pdcawley on 2002-07-24T08:26:18
Who the fuck cares who is right? People are getting killed in ludicrous numbers on both sides and nobody seems to have the will to look at any solution that doesn't involve of killing more of them than they kill of us.
And everyone else looks on and does nothing.
Somebody, some day has to step back from this, but as long as Israel continues to act with impunity and as long as there are significant numbers of people in Palestine who see no better future for themselves than to go out in a blaze of glory and a welter of blood on a semtex powered ride to paradise the whole situation is buggered.
Personally I think stopping arms sales to Israel and Palestine, massive aid (non military) aid to both sides and immediate recognition of a Palestinian State might be a start. No, given their current behaviour they don't deserve it, but, as the stick patently isn't working, maybe it's time to try the carrot.Re:Awfully one-sided
TeeJay on 2002-07-24T12:47:35
Thats the problem.
A handful say maybe 30 out of population of hundreds of thousands have blown themselves up.
Another say couple of hundred militia are taking potshots at settlers on occupied terrortory - this is of course repaid in kind by armed settler militia and isreali soldiers.
Saying that the people of palestine don't deserve liberation is unfounded. The people of palestine have no access to international media, no access to the United Nations, no representation except the PLA and Hammas - The PLA is rendered ineffective by Isreals lack of dialogue and constant undermining (politically, economically and also by shoting and bombin the security infrastructure) it so Hammas and extremist organisations in Iraq who can offer some way of fighting back and also hard cash for the family.
The people of palestine don't just deserve aid they need it - currently they are being punished for the sins of a negligable minority and the only carrots offered are from extremist organisations. As long as this continues then the problem will worsen.
As for Isreal getting aid - it is richer than any of its neighbours and still receives far more aid which it spends on populating settlements and 'security' (i.e. bulldozing palestinian villages and farms to make the locals easier to shoot or bomb).
Isreal continues to bring violence on itself by refusing to offer anything to palestine but more violence. The extremists are in a position to destroy the peace process because each time peace is within grasp, the extremists blow up some isreali civilians, then the isrealis walk array from peace and turn the violence up a notch.
The biggest problem is that Isreal continues to persue a policy of violent retaliation, genocide and ethnic cleansing as it has done since 1967. The only reason peace was acheived in Northern Ireland is because both sides chose not to get drawn back into a violent cycle which and instead chose to work together to acheive some of their own goals - 2 years of dialogue have brought far more to the Republican movement than 30 years of 'armed struggle' the unionists and isreal share the position that they have nothing to gain from dialogue but peace and in itself they don't feel that its worth exchanging land, policies or pride for peace.Re:Awfully one-sided
yudel on 2002-07-30T15:10:52
You seem to forget that Israel did try the carrot and the path of compromise -- in 1993 with the original Oslo agreement, with bringing Yasser Arafat in to head the Palestinian Authority, with making far-reaching offers at the negotiating table at Camp David in 2000.
Frankly, I'm glad to see Israel going after the Hamas terrorists -- and their families -- rather than after the Palestinian infrastructure. And given the Hamas belief that all who die in the battle with the infidel go to heaven, I'm not quite sure what the fuss is about. Seems like a classic win-win situation to me.
I assume that soon everyone who can get out, will, leaving the usual left-behinds to fight it out to the death: the impoverished working class, "religious" wingnuts, and the (pseudo)military.
