Michael, You made some very good, thought-provoking points. I'm apparently speaking in more of a naive, wishful-thinking mode, you in a more pragmatic one. <sigh> -Ben
At 03:06 PM 6/9/02 -0400, you wrote: >> >> But in terms of the modern State of Israel, the West Bank was not part of >> the original borders. >Actually, it was. It was seized by egypt during the first war and held onto until the last one. Of course, egypt never built a palestinian state on the land. >> Had the Arabs decided to "leave the Jews alone", as you so aptly put it, >> end of problem <ha>. >basically. >> >> I will not dispute the necessity of the Six Days' War in 1967 for the >> survival of Israel against attack after attack by its Arab neighbors. I >> will not dispute the right of the State of Israel to live within secure, >> defensible borders. >> >> However, the existence of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, in land the >> Palestinians think of as their homeland and hopefully state, is undeniably >> a tremendous irritant to the Arabs, as is the presence of the Israeli >> military, seen by them as an occupying army of a colonial power. >Again, when we tried to give it back all we got was the current oslo war. > >> Much smarter people than I have yet to find a solution to this. But my gut >> level feeling is that there will have to be "some" border, wherever it is >> drawn, beyond which there are *no* Jewish settlements. None. And then any >> violent incursions across that border into the State of Israel by Arabs >> would be both de facto and de jure acts of war. >And what will Israel do then? It's still at war with lebanon and its master syria. There are still attacks over the UN declaired border on almost a daily basis. One such attack that was observed by the UN resulted in the kidnapping of 3 israeli citizens and the UNs response was to cover up their part in it all. >But lets say that Israel pulls up all (or most) of the settlemenst and a palestinian state comes into effect. They keep attacking Israel because that's the 'second step. Israel invades this terrorist nation and what will be the result? World condomnation. All Israel wants is for the palestinian state to be created and not be a threat. If the arabs (and I say all of them) can't stop killing Jews for just a week, then how can we trust them to stop later? >Actions have to back up their words. >> >> -Ben >> >> >> >> At 02:35 PM 6/9/02 -0400, you wrote: >> >>It took my country 400 years to decide that colonies are not worth it. I >> >>hope the people of Israel make up their mind faster. >> > >> >Israel's not a colonizer, and it never has been. I hope it takes the Arabs >> >less time to decide to leave the Jews alone. They've been trying to kill us >> >for at least 1400 years. >> > >> >Judith >> > >> > >> > ______________________________________________________________________ Your ad could be here. Monies from ads go to support these lists and provide more resources for the community. http://www.fusionauthority.com/ads.cfm Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
