Israel and the current conflict

[Ric.ror]

I have no idea why all this started - I mean why should the President of Iran say that Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth. Why did Yasser Arafat say the Palestines should drive the Israelis into the sea.

[WaldoMcFroog]

It's pretty worrying when it says "it is telling that they demand part (or all) of Israel's land when the Arab nations surrounding Israel have plenty of land."

Oh okay, I didn't realise they already had lots. Yeah, come on Arab nations, give it up. Israel's only got a tiny bit.

What kind of playground argument is that? Like size is the issue.

This is the problem. A friend of mine didn't know anything about the Arab Israel conflict and bought a 'Dummies/Idiots/Moron/Whatever guide to Middle East conflict' that sold itself as objective yet devoted whole chapters to any attrocity perpertrated against the Israelis, but mere paragraphs to equally bad acts against the Palestinians. I've not seen anything that's as equally biased the other way, but it probably exists.

You have to wonder if there's anything even approaching a balanced account.

[kempie]

Why did Menachem Begin (leader of the Zionist terrorist group Irgun and future Prime Minister of Israel), the day after the UN vote on the 1947 UN Partition Plan, state:

"The Partition of Palestine is illegal. It will never be recognized .... Jerusalem was and will for ever be our capital. Eretz Israel will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And for ever." ?

Why, after Menachem Begin and the Likud party won the Israeli election in 1977, was his government's foreign policy stated thus:

"The Jewish people have unchallengeable, eternal, historic right to the Land of Israel including the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the inheritance of their forefathers"

(along with the pledging to build rural and urban exclusive Jewish colonies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip)?

Why would Palestinian Arabs take offence at statements such as these which give the implication of their "removal from the map"?

All that being said, there is no good reason for the non-Arab Iranians being involved at all.

[Dizzieblonde]

Size is everything, McFrog ;)

[Playbill]

So, Israel gives up the Gaza strip in an attempt for some sort of peace. They leave greenhouses and irrigation systems intact so the Palestinians can use them for themselves. What happens? First the Palestinians smash the greenhouses, and anything else they feel like, then start launching attacks on Israel from the Gaza strip.
So much for a diplomatic attempt at peace.

[jonnythebosh]

After the holocaust the Israelis will never back down for anyone or anything again and at the moment i fully support their actions. They have withdrawn from Gaza and parts of southern Lebanon as an act of good faith and what happens, Hizbollah and Hamas immediately go in and start lobbing rockets at them. Israel ignored this for a while but when 3 of their soldiers are kidnapped then quite rightly they took action.

[jno]

Israel took action because three soldiers were kidnapped. As a result, about 50 Israelis have died.

Where's the sense in that? To kill 50 of their own people to save three (which they haven't actually succeeded in doing)? Have they completely lost it?

[mibn2cweus]

Until the essential human rights of every single individual on Earth are defended we are all loosers.

[Dom Tuk]

Here waldo...conduct this experiment. if you have a garden wall that you share with your neighbour offer to rebuild it at your expense. However, what you do is just widen your part of the garden by 2 inches, no more than 2 inches. Now never mind the number of times you will have shared drinks with your neighbour, never mind the age/religion/shared experiences/endless chats/dinners/shared DIY tools/baby sitting/family deaths etc. That 2 inches (even if it is riddled with weeds and slugs) will overtake yours and your neighbours life. Its human nature, there is a genetic mechanism in our bodies that revolts against what is taken away from us especially land.

[maxximus]

perfect, simple, easy to fathom common sense dom tuk. cheers!

[maxximus]

good post kempie, but i think the non arab(persian)iranians have got every right to be involved, after all it is their neighbourhood and always has been.

[Ric.ror]

Thanks for that everyone - its as clear as mud now and still they keep dying - I dont care if they are Muslim Jews Christians or Jedi knights!!

[WaldoMcFroog]

Dom, I agree. You've missed the point - or I expressed it badly.

I was exasperated with the link given in the first response stating that because they had lots of land, the Arabs should just accept Israel's claim - 'cos they've got loads more'.

I'm well aware the situation is very complicated and certainly not likely to be sorted out by such facile reasoning.