----- Original Message ----- From: "Baardwijk, J. van DTO/SLWPD/RZO/BOZO" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2001 5:02 AM Subject: RE: Tragedy in Israel > > Do you believe that waging war against the Arabs is the way to go, then?
It depends on what type of war you are talking about. It seems that self defense is reasonable, even when it includes war. For example, in 1973, Israel was justified in defending its borders. But, Israel would not be justified in H-bombing Damascus and Baghdad because Israel felt that it would reduce the threat. There are times when I do disagree with the response of the government of Israel to attacks. I disagree with their settlement policy. I have stated that this is the main difference I have with the policy of Israel. Given the history of the last 50 or so years, it is very reasonable for the people of Israel to believe that they are at risk for further attacks. Thus, any agreement between Israel and the Palestinians needs to include both finality and provisions for Israel to maintain defensive positions within the lands. That finality cannot include any right of the Palestinians to return to Israel. If it does, then it is reasonable to assume that Israel will just become another Arab state in the next 20 years. That last point was the sticking point. The deal for land was finalized to the point where all differences of any substance were eliminated. An agreement on Jerusalem was made in principal. But, the Palestinians insisted on the right to return to Israel at will. Israel did not agree to this. Requiring that it did would require Israel to cease to exist as the state it has been for the last 50 years. > Personally, I would try to get the various Arab governments to revise their > education materials so they will reflect actual history rather than lies. > That was agreed to at Oslo. It hasn't happened. It wasn't even a demand of Israel in the last negotiations. When the answer is NO NO NO NO NO, why do you think it will change? > > Have you ever asked yourself, what precipitated the renewal of violence > > on a massive scale after about 10 years of relative peace? I wonder if > > the European press covered what actually happened. > > It probably did; I do wonder though if the US press did. But, don't you know? Let me tell you what happened. When the peace process fell apart, there was one Palestinian attack. Then Sharon visited the Temple Mount. I'm guessing it was to gig the Palestinians to provoke them to further violence to stop the peace process..which he opposed. At that point, Arafat overreacted to the gigging, and released terrorists that he had been holding in prison for years and restarted the war. IIRC, there were two more attacks, and then Israel responded. At which point, the Palestinians escalated things to the point where they are today. The most important point was that Arafat deliberately restarted the violence that had been on hold for about 10 years. He released people from prison who were known terrorists, allowing them to resume their work. His guess was that the threat of renewed war would push Israel into further concessions. Instead, the reacted by electing Sharon. To illustrate my > point: a German acquaintance of mine moved to the US a few months ago to > study (postdoc) at an US university. He quickly stopped getting the news > from the US media and turned to European news sites to keep up-to-date on > events in the world. According to him, the news he got from the US media > tended to be "biased and distorted". Well, it was from a different slant than the news he had received. It could very well be that he was reacting to a lack of bias. How does he know that the earlier news wasn't biased? I don't know about the Dutch or German press. I do know that the BBC has a reasonable reputation, and it just has a different perspective than CNN. Indeed, conservatives here think that the American press has a decided leftist bias. But, the source of my questions concerning the European press come from what you write. You have quoted newspaper accounts from Europe that accuse Israel of doing things that are physically impossible. That sort of nonsense doesn't even make it into American tabloids...only in white supremicist publications in the US. You have stated that you have never read anything good about Israel. That sounds tremendously biased to me. Dan M.
