> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- > Van: John D. Giorgis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Verzonden: donderdag 28 maart 2002 6:04 > Aan: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Onderwerp: RE: Child Soldiers RE: This week in the Middle East
> >And apparently, a part that is no longer listening to Arafat. Each > >time a bomb goes off, Arafat strongly condemns the attack -- not that > >it matters much, though, since the pro-Israel crowd is by now > >convinced that every Palestinian is a terrorist... > > The question is, why do you believe Arafat? Arafat condemns the > violence one day, and the next day says that his greatest wish is to > be a "martyr" for Jerusalem? Why do you support Israel? Their words speak of peace, but their actions speak of continued agression. Given the enthusiasm with which Israel launches strike after strike, killing several Palestinians for every killed Israeli, they give the impression that the Israeli regime is intend on going on till there are no Palestinians left alive. > Also, Arafat presides over an educational system that teaches kids > Anti-Semitic propaganda and teaches them geography on maps that show > "Palestine" as occupying the entire State of Israel. But then, George Bush presides over an educational system that, in parts of the US, promotes Creationism as truth and Evolution Theory as nonsense. Quite possibly, in the more fanatical religious Christian communities in the US, children are taught that Islam is evil. > Yet, you always seem to take these statements made before the cameras > of the Western Media (telling them what they want to hear) at face > value, and don't ever seem to consider what Arafat says and does in > private. This is surprising to me, because when it comes to just > about anything else (American Governments being just one example) you > are usually a healthy skeptic. Ah, now we are making progress. At least I am considered to be a healthy sceptic of US governments; quite an improvement over the "you are anti-American" attitude. :-) But, to get back to the topic at hand, if you would go through the archives and read my earlier posts on the subject (especially those from the previous discussion of this topic), you will notice that I do not blindly support the Palestinians, but actually am critical of some of the things they do. Including the teaching of anti-Semitic propaganda. > >They could be released as revenge for Israeli agression. Or they could > >be released because their was no (or insufficient) evidence to keep > >them in custody any longer. Are you so intimately familiar with every > >case that you can tell whether the release was justified? > > According to ABC News, he was found in his apartment with bombs and > detailed plans to attack Israelis. In that particular case, I would say that there is little or no doubt about the man's intentions. However, you are suggesting that all the prisoners that were released were terrorists. You can not call them all guilty simply because you know of one case where evidence against a terrorist was found. > And finally, I am deeply shocked and appalled that you would regard > release of terrorists as legitimate revenge for *any* sort of > aggression. Um, I suggest you reread my post. I said Arafat could have released them in retaliation for Israeli aggression; I did not say I consider it *legitimate* revenge. > >2. What do you think should the Palestinian Authority do with people > >that are suspected of planning a terrorist attack? Jail them for a > >long time (or even execute them) based on that suspicion alone, or > >give them a fair trial and release them if the accusations can not be > >proven? > > I believe that they should be jailed, tried, and convicted. If you > can show me any evidence that Palestinian terrorists are being > released solely because of lack of evidence by an independent > judiciary, I will happily concede the point to you Jeroen. I do not have to show such evidence. You are the one accusing Arafat of releasing prisoners who were proven to be terrorists, so it is up to you to provide evidence for that. > >3. Is a Palestinian who is living under Israeli occupation justified >>in fighting Israel? > > No. This war was caused by an act of naked agression by said > Palestinian's government. As such, the war is unjust, indeed as the > intent of the war was genocide, downright evil. The moral obligation > of the Palestinian is to pressure his government to sue for peace. Many of the Palestinians alive today were not even born when Israel was founded. You are saying that, even though those people never were involved in a war against Israel (because they were not even born then), they are not allowed to fight back. In other words, you are condemning them to a life under Israeli occupation in punishment for what previous generations did. Jeroen _________________________________________________________________________ Wonderful World of Brin-L Website: http://www.Brin-L.com Tom's Photo Gallery: http://tom.vanbaardwijk.com
