Erik Reuter schreef: > On Sun, Dec 02, 2001 at 04:30:29PM -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > It's funny, everyone always screams at Israel to trade land for > > peace. Nobody ever screams at the fucking Arab governments to trade > > peace for land. It's always Israel's fault. > > It seems to me there is plenty of fault to go around, on both sides. > > But assigning fault and blame is not likely to accomplish much. I prefer > to discuss possible actions to take. As far as finding a solution, I > think Israel is in a much stronger position than Palestine. They are > richer and much more powerful. Israel is not realistically in any danger > of being displaced, not with their military might and the full might > of the US behind them. They were in danger in the past, but Israel > demonstrated in 1947-48, and again, decisively in 1967, that they are > the force to be reckoned with in the region. > > The acts of murder by the Palestininan groups are evil and > counter-productive, and are deserving of the strongest condemnation and > opposition. Still, it is so easy to forget that there are many dirt > poor Palestinians who have nothing to do with the acts of terrorism, > who can realistically do little about terrorism, and are simply trying > to live with their families in a horribly war-torn area, in some cases > having been driven off their land by soldiers or having had their homes > destroyed by attack helicopters. > > I'd like to see Israel halt all new settlements, comply with UN > resolution 242 and the UN partition plan of 1947, and provide > humanitarian aid to poor and homeless people in the area. I don't think > such actions pose serious risk to Israel, and they seem to have at least > a glimmer of hope of starting to solve the problem, or at least starting > to build some bit of trust. > > But it is very hard for Israel to do this. Palestinian terrorists are > murdering Israelis, and it is very hard to separate the horrific acts of > murder of a few evil terrorist groups from the innocent, poor, suffering > masses of Palestinians. But it needs to be done. The U.S. should demand > that Isreal immediately halt new settlements and comply with UN 242. > The US should make this a condition for further financial and military > aid to Israel. If Israel refuses, then the financial aid that was going > to Israel should be diverted directly to humanitarian aid, and some > sort of reconstruction plan, for the Palestinians. The Middle East > desperately needs a good Marshall-type-plan in several regions. I think > that helping to build up the living conditions and economy of former > enemies is the best way to make peace. > > One of the things that should come with the humanitarian aid to > Palestine is teaching non-violent protest to the aid-recipients. Teach > them about Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Encourage them to not > accept injustice (and there have been some grave injustices done to the > Palestinians) but rather to make their protests known in a non-violent > manner. I think they would get a lot of sympathy from the US if their > story were to come out in this way, and the US has a lot of leverage > over Israel. > > -- > "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.erikreuter.com/
What he said. Sonja
