Quote:
Originally Posted by scaeagles
Here's the one reason that while as a people I feel sorry for the Palestinians, but do not fault Israel nearly so much as their neighbors.
Israel came into possession of of disputed territories after the were invaded in 1967 during the 6 day war. They were not the aggressors. These territories are now vitally important to them in terms of national defense. I do no blame them for looking to hang on to possession of them.
I do not believe it simply comes down to a Palestinian state. Arafat was offered a full 98% of all the territory he wanted and yet refused. This happened during the Clinton years. Why refuse that if you are Arafat and your goal isreally a Palestinian state? I think it is because he was, and a large portion of the Palestinian leadership still is, for the elimination of Israel as a state. Iran has threatened to obliterate them. Hamas is sworn to kill Jews.
I am certainly no expert in the creation of present day Israel except that there was an international agreement to do so in...1947? Not exactly sure. To the extent that the creation of Israel screwed over Palestinians I cannot speak but suppose that I wouldn't have been happy should I have lived there. This is indeed history and Israel isn't going away.
It seems to me as if cease fires are typically broken by Hamas or whomever, and Israel is supposed to simply accept missiles randomly launched into their country. They respond with overwhleming force......I might expect any country to do so.
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Yeah, this is the standard line that Jews everywhere are told. The thing is that when the international community (via Britian who technically owned the land) gave the territory to the Jews in 1948 they did not care who was already living there, and the people already living there were practically tribal villages without any idea what was going on. They did not have a united country or united culture, and now they had nowhere to live. It's much like simply telling the American Indians to pack up and move because we bought their land from an outside entity who had laid claim to it, except that we actually had a place for them to go.
Don't get me wrong, I am no fan of the tactics of the Palestinians. I think they have come to thrive on their victimhood. Any people who send children into battle and then cry foul when they are killed so that they can scrounge sympathy has some serious issues. But even so, more war OBVIOUSLY isn't the solution. I mean, hello, we all know what's been going on there for decades. Just within my lifetime it's abundantly clear that tit-for-tat simply creates another tit to tat and it will never end.
Here's a simpler way to look at it, through an American lens. These people are not represented by their government. The government is decidedly a "Jewish State" and by definition is not for them. They wish to have their own. Makes some sense to me.