Text 4604, 105 rader
Skriven 2007-06-22 13:59:00 av Bob Klahn
     Kommentar till en text av Alan Hess
Ärende: Israel still screwed
============================
 AH> From the Baltimore Sun
 AH> Palestinians' power shuffle leaves the deck stacked against
 AH> Israel

 AH> Cal Thomas

 AH> June 20, 2007

 AH> ARLINGTON, Va. -- The Bush administration's announced goal
 AH> for Israel and the "Palestinian people" has been two
 AH> states, living side by side in peace. The administration is
 AH> two-thirds of the way there. There are now two states - one
 AH> in Gaza, headed by the militant Hamas organization, which
 AH> shot its way to power,

 Actually, Hamas won power in th election. They had to seize the
 power they won from those who refused to accept the election
 results.

 ...

 AH> Whatever their names, be they groups such as Hamas, Fatah,
 AH> Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and al-Qaida, or states such as
 AH> Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran, their objectives are
 AH> identical: the annihilation of the democratic Jewish state
 AH> and the elimination of all Jews, either by death or
 AH> displacement, from the land. To argue otherwise and to

 The locals may well want Isreal gone, and their land back, but
 the outsider's I believe, are in it for power. Very few Arabs
 give a damn about the Palestinians. To them, esp the Arab
 National leaders sponsoring the groups, having an enemy is a
 necessary condition to taking or holding power. They learned
 that long before "Brave New World".

 AH> Hamas won't stop with Gaza. After its victory over poorly
 AH> directed Israeli forces in Lebanon last summer, why should
 AH> it?

 Uh... that was Hizbollah, not Hamas.

 AH> The one thing terrorists understand is weakness. They
 AH> perceive Israel, under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, as weak,

 Many Israelis appear to perceive Israel as greatly weakened.
 Weakened by 4 decades as an occupying power. The Israeli
 military has been bled much like the US military is being bled
 in Iraq. Slow attrition, and diversion from the focus on
 preparing for war to conducting police type operations against
 what are really gangs, has sapped the army.

 In his book, "Where The Right Went Wrong", conservative
 commentator Pat Buchanan said perpetual war destroys
 democracies. I believe he was right about that. I have come to
 believe that perpetual occupation duty corrupts armies. Over a
 generation is enough, it appears.

 AH> and they are going for Israel's jugular. Benyamin Elon, a
 AH> conservative member of Israel's Knesset, said, "The Fatah
 AH> is diminishing in front of our eyes, and a group of
 AH> gangsters is taking over. Israel can wake up now from the
 AH> delusion of an independent Palestinian state."

 Isreal has few choices in the matter. The Jerusleum Post talks
 of using Fatah as a counterweight to Hamas. OTOH, wasn't Hamas
 originally encouraged by Israel as a counterweight to Fatah? Now
 Israel is supposedly thinking of using their original enemy
 against their own creature? Seems a bit like somebody isn't
 catching on.

 ...

 AH> Israel has two choices: Surrender now,
 AH> or prepare for all-out war with catastrophic results.

 Gwynn Dyer gives Israel two choices, a two state solution, or
 complete unification into Israel.

 The first choice requires giving land back to the Palestinians,
 and accepting all the risks. That will be an expensive and
 dangerous route.

 The alternative leads to giving the Palestinians full Israeli
 citizenship, or having a resident second class population. The
 first means the end of Israel as Jewish state. The second means
 the end of Israel as a democracy.

 I give Isreal a third choice, perpetual war. Well, not really
 perpetual, because sooner or later the rest of the world will
 decide that is no longer in their interest, and support for
 Israel will dry up.

 None of these solutions look good for Isreal. Only if they can
 find a way to a just and lasting peace will Israel find a way
 out. Just being the means to lasting.

 ...


BOB KLAHN bob.klahn@sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

... If you want peace, work for justice. <- Pope John Paul II
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