<< Jolkovsky seems to have a strange view of the concept of war, though. He
says that "the time has come that Arafat be given war". Exactly what does he call decades of occupation and oppression? An act of *peace*? He also writes "What Israel faces now is a stirring toward genocide in all but name". Given that the Palestinian death toll is a lot higher than the Israeli death toll, I wonder if Jolkovsky realizes that it looks more like Israel is committing genocide in all but name, rather than the Palestinians. >> Very few Israelis have ever called for mass murder of Palestinians, any Palestinians, wherever they happen to be. Many Palestinians do call for the murder not just of Israelis but of Jews, any Jews, wherever they happen to be. The "decades of occupation and oppression" have come about because no country in the Arab country (which are no strangers to "oppression" themselves - ask the people of Hama in Syria - if there were any of them still alive) would make peace in the years after 1967 when the Israelis were DESPERATE to give back the territories they had occupied. What Israel is doing now is wrong, but it didn't spring out of nowhere. The Israelis didn't just wake up one morning and say, Gee, let's be oppressive. Nobody would make peace with them - were they just supposed to give the territories back? To whom? Jordan wouldn't take them. There is a history here, and not all the iniquity is on the Israelis' side. What anti-Israelis refuse to see is that the Israelis are SCARED OUT OF THEIR FUCKING MINDS. You see a lot of Israelis oppressing a few Palestinians. The Israelis see 150 million Nazi concentration camp guards - they don't distinguish between the Palestinians and the rest of the Arabs. As Tom Friedman said on today's Imus program, at the Arab summit about to take place, there will not be one single democratically elected leader attending. You can't say that about any other part of the world, not Asia, not Africa, not Latin America, that at a regional summit there would not - could not - be a single democratically elected leader in attendance. You Israel haters and Arab lovers would actually hate living in any of the Arab countries you so adore. Okay, I'm straying off the point here. The point is, there was a time when the Israelis were desperate to make peace and give back the territories - and could not find a single Arab country willing to make peace with them. The Israelis were always being required to trade land for peace. Nobody - NOBODY - ever pointed out that this meant the Arabs should be required to trade peace for land. NOW the Israelis (or at least their democratically elected leader Ariel Sharon - whom I cannot stand and consider a murderer who got away with it) are locked in a situation that appears hopeless. As always, innocent people on both sides are suffering. The solution is - MAKE PEACE!!!! Each side has to stop trying to score points and stop trying to eliminate the other. The problem is, there are many Israelis saying this in Israel. There are almost no Palestinians or Arabs with the guts to say this in their own language in their own countries. Blaming Israel may assuage your anti-Semitic fantasies, but it does not contribute to peace. Tom Beck "I always knew I'd see the first man on the Moon. I didn't realize I'd also see the last." - Jerry Pournelle
