reply to post by Nailer
Looks like Israel has George Bush eating out of its hand. George Bush even said he will defend Israel if Iran attacks.
Once upon a time I was an ardent supporter of the State of Israel.
See Note 1. I now believe the momentum for a just and peaceful
accommodation between Arabs and Israel underwent a sea change after the 1967 Six Days War. That was 40 years ago. Two generations in the prolific
Middle East. We can argue over WHEN but there is near unanimity of opinion that the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995 shut down the
pro-peace Israeli LEFT. That ended any prospects for a genuine peaceful fair resolution of the Arab Israeli issue. All that remains is a
straight-forward power struggle who will occupy all of the old Palestine Mandate.
Rabin was the last of Israel’s politicians who had fought in the 1948 War of Independence - the Israeli name - and thereby had a built-in authority
that no other politician now has. After his death hard liner no quarter given Ariel Sharon become prime minister.
See Note 2. On January 6,
2006, Sharon suffered a stroke that has rendered him unconscious. He is not expected to ever come out of the coma he has been in since the ‘06 brain
hemorrhage.
Sharon and his successor Ehud Olmert are both right wing hard-liners who have no intention of accommodating the Palestinians. In fact, I have
described their policies as blatant ethnic cleansing of the West Bank. Bush43 may or may not be influenced by the Evangelical fundamentalist belief
that the Jews must be “called home” to Israel BEFORE the Rapture, and that will be followed by the Battle of Armageddon and then will come the
triumphant RETURN of Jesus Christ. Under this ignoramus theology anyone helping the Jews will be rewarded and any one hindering the Jews will be
punished.
Back to the real world. It is said that Israel has no fewer than 50 and likely no more than 300 nuclear weapons. Nukes are expensive to maintain. It
seems most likely the Israelis got the required fissionable material from France which in turn got it from the US. Regardless, the Israeli citizen who
blew the whistle 35 years ago is still in an Israeli prison. So much for Old Testament mercy. It is reliably reported that in 1973, the Israeli prime
minister warned Egypt that should Israel be overrun by Egypt, the Israeli’s last and final act would be to “blow the Aswan High Dam.” The
ensuring rush of waters would probably drown 25 to 50 million Egyptians and wreak havoc all along the Nile River to its exit into the Mediterranean
Sea at Alexandria.
Let me close this overlong discourse with two observations. The first is that the Jewish occupation of the Temple Mount which is the Number 3 Holy
Site in Islam will continue to be an open sore and an endless source of Muslim recruits from around the world until it is restored to the Arabs. The
Dome of the Rock and the al Aqsa Mosque are on the Mount. “Temple” is the Jewish name referring to Solomon’s Temple. This seemingly simple move
is complicated by the fact the Mount is supported on one side by the West Wall or Wailing Wall, the Most Holy Site in Judaism. The apparent
archeological fact that there never was a Solomon’s Temple is of no import to the faithful Jewish persons.
My second observation is this: The best possible solution would be to offer the Arabs the 2 ancient provinces, Galilee and Samaria, known today as the
West Bank. In toto. Sans all Jewish persons. Throw in East Jerusalem. Add to this the one place nobody wants, the Gaza Strip. A grade separated
connecting road should be provided so the Israelis cannot continue to harass the Arabs. Obviously, the Palestinian state must remain unarmed other
than what Is usual for police.
Only the United States can enforce a solution on Israel. No other country gives a dam and none would go to war over this arid place known best for
“growing” rocks. The US would have to furnish 10,000 men to guard the new borders for perhaps 10 years. The US would have to give $6 b. a year to
each country to develop their economies, for at least 5 years. Then there could be peace in the Middle East, Osama bin Laden could go back to Arabia,
we could settle in on repairing our own infrastructure and cancel this stupid WoT.
Note 1. Like a lot of young people in 1948, I cheered when Truman and Eleanor Roosevelt rammed through the UN General Assembly the creation of the
state of Israel. At last the Jewish people would have a homeland where they could be safe from Christian persecution. Although Jews and Arabs have no
irresistible love for each other, they have gotten along much better than have Jews and Christians. In fact, the longest and best time Jews had
anywhere outside of old Judea was in Moorish Spain, from 711 AD to 1492 AD. When the last Muslim Moor was expelled from Spain, the Most Catholic King
immediately instituted a Jewish pogrom which ended with forced conversions to Catholicism or death for Jews. Christians of all stripes have
contributed mightily to Hitler’s Nazi Holocaust by labeling Jews as “Christ Killers” for 1,000 years.
Repentant and sorrowful Christians GAVE half of Palestine to the Jewish survivors of World War 2, but failed to ASK the Arab inhabitants if they had
any objections. And here we are today. We have never asked the Arabs.
Note 2. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Rabin directed Israeli operations in Jerusalem and fought the Egyptian army in the Negev. In 1949, he
helped draft an armistice agreement with the Arab countries that was signed on the island of Rhodes. In 1964 he was appointed Chief of Staff of the
Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Under his command, the IDF achieved victory over Egypt, Syria and Jordan in the Six-Day War in 1967. In 1992 Rabin was
elected as chairman of the Israeli Labor Party. Rabin played a leading role in the Oslo Accords which created the Palestinian Authority and granted it
partial control over parts of the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
Prior to signing the Accords, Rabin received a letter from PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat renouncing violence and officially recognizing Israel, and on
the same day, September 9, 1993, Rabin sent Arafat a letter officially recognizing the PLO. Rabin also oversaw the signing of the Israel-Jordan
Treaty of Peace (1994). End of notes.
[edit on 1/6/2008 by donwhite]