Text 19110, 68 rader
Skriven 2008-07-28 18:11:06 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
  Kommentar till text 19070 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: Make work
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Michiel van der Vlist wrote to Robert Bashe on Monday July 28 2008 at 13:40:

DD>>> Why is USA so far up Israel's arse?

RB>> Who attacked whom in 1947, when Palestine was partitioned by the UN
RB>> and Israel declared independence?

MV> Taking the land of the Palestines to accommodate the Jews was a big
MV> mistake.

Only one flaw in that argument: the land the Jews occupied prior to 1947 was
_purchased_ from former Arab owners, not "stolen" by anyone. And another thing:
most of Israel except for the coastal regions is - or was in 1947 - desert or
wasteland, with a few nomads here and there. Now it's valuable farmland and you
can guess who made it that way.

If I'd sold somebody wasteland, I'd clap my hands with joy to have found such a
sucker. And if I were a Palastinian who then saw that wasteland turned into
good farmland, and saw the price it would fetch then, I'd want it back too. I
might even be willing to give the original purchaser his money back ;-)

MV> Something that none of the parties involved is willing to admit, let
MV> alone correct.

How would you go about "correcting" it?

Due to their aggression, the Palastinians now have less land than they received
at partition in 1947, so it's not entirely the fault of the Israelis (who had
no other place to go anyway and had, after all, _bought_ their land) or the
British (whose mandate it was), or the UN (that partitioned Palestine). The
Arabs had a "slight bit" to do with the mess too. I also seem to remember that
NO Arab country except Jordan offered it's "Arab brothers" much in the way of
support beyond the hot air from big mouths.

And at the present time, there's no realistic way to "correct" anything even
assuming both Arabs and Israelis could forget the last 60 years and start
again. No chance of a viable Palastinian state without the Palastinians giving
up Gaza and receiving an extra chunk of the West Bank as compensation, to give
them contiguous borders. And that's something both Palastinians and Israelis
will reject out of hand. Then there's the problem with who gets Jerusalem - and
remember, there's no Palastinian land contiguous with Jerusalem, so an Arab
capital in the eastern part would be a little like Berlin during the Cold War.
With an excellent chance that it would turn hot.

MV> I say there will be no peace in the region until either all the
MV> Palestininans are eliminated...

...or start to think with their brains instead of their emotions...

MV> ... or the powers that be are prepaired to admit to the mistake and
MV> act on it.

I'd forget the "or" since I don't see anything that can realistically be done.
Anyway, things in that area change slowly, over centuries. Israel has only
existed for the past 60 years. Wait another 100 and maybe you'll see some
change.

Cheers, Bob

P.S. My personal guess is that if _everyone_ had been reasonable back in 1947 -
Jews AND Arabs - eliminating any need for partition, we would have no
particular problems nowadays. The Jews were a large, well-educated and
productive minority in the region and were well tolerated as long as they only
bought land to settle. The big problem came with partition and the declaration
of statehood. But there's no way to turn the clock back on that.

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