Hamas and other similar groups who carry out terrorist attacks purportedly on behalf of the Palestinians have been labeled as outside agitators in our press. But the same information is glossed over when it comes to talking about the settlers.
Unfortunately both groups have far too much in common. For their own personal prestige and power they will manipulate and destroy the hopes and dreams of the people they claim to represent. Neither the Palestinian authority or the Israeli governments seem able or willing to control these elements within their society.
Promises have been made in the past about and from both elements either promising a respect of a cease fire, or a withdrawal of people, and been broken so often that it is hard to believe anyone’s word any more.
Without guarantees from these and other parties any talk of peace is just that, talk. While the threat remains of civilian death how can either side be expected to trust the other enough to relax vigilance.
After years of stalling, Ariel Sharon and the Likud party are finally accepting the inevitable. But they have continually played a shell game with the settlers. With one hand they withdraw them, but with the other they’ve pushed them forward. Their latest measures to crack down on them seem like a step in the right direction.
Peace for this troubled part of the world rests on their ability to follow through on this promise as much as it does on the cessation of anti Israeli terrorist activities.
India and Pakistan are proving with their current negotiations over the Kashmir border dispute that long held animosity can be overcome when both sides are willing and able to make concessions.
Almost 60 years and thousands of deaths later, it would be nice to see the other survivors of partition lay down their arms.
.jpg?t=20120527181101)
Article comments
1 - The Proprietor
An interesting historical tidbit is left out of this discussion - the role of the Mufti of Jerusalem, the notorious Haj Amir Al-Husseini, whose rabid antisemitism inflamed the Arab populace (his infamous quote "Remember, Abbady, this was and will remain an Arab land. We do not mind you natives of the country, but those alien invaders, the Zionists, will be massacred to the last man. We want no progress, no prosperity. Nothing but the sword will decide the fate of this country" was the blueprint for his later actions). Husseini of course instigated the 1936 Arab rebellion which killed hundreds of Jews and Arabs, with the active use of Nazi money and arms. Husseini of course spent the war years in Berlin as the guest of Hitler, who had promised Husseini a vernichtungslager of his own in Nablus once he took Palestine from the British.
This man is revered as a Palestinian national hero and was a mentor to the senior PLO leadership. While there is undoubtedly plenty of blame to be shared amongst the Israelis and Palestinians for many things that have happened, there has been a pernicious, vicious stream of anti-Jewish hatred from the Palestinian "leadership" since the 1930s, (if you ever listen to the original Arabic when hearing a Palestinian talk about Israelis, the word you hear is "el Yahoud" - the Jews, not "the Zionists") it's unsurprising that trust is in short supply on the Israeli side.
2 - Victor Plenty
Shameful prejudices can be found on both sides of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
Such "tidbits" can be allowed to poison the negotiation process. They could also be allowed to fade into historical obscurity like the slurs and prejudices common on both sides during the American civil war of the 1860s, or during the European religious wars of the 1600s.
That choice, like the land itself, is shared by both peoples.
3 - The Proprietor
I find the author's comment about "Jewish Nazism" to be both inflammatory and very telling of the author's prejudices, especially considering the Palestinian leadership was quite cozy with the genuine article.
4 - Victor Plenty
Calling Palestinians vermin is no better than calling Jews vermin, and ranting nonsense about "pure Jewish blood" is no better than ranting nonsense about "pure Aryan blood."
There is no "pure blood" in the world, and in fact there never was. If you hate something in another human's ancestry, you have chosen to hate yourself too. That same bloodline is also somewhere in your own ancestry.
5 - theSliver
Palestine was never part of the British Empire, it was administered under a UN Mandate after WWII and under the Treaty of Versailles before that from 1918. The UN Mandate came to an end in 1948, the British had to leave.
As it also happens the notion of a Jewish State as a part of a State of Palestine was defined in the Balfour Doctrine.
Yes the Mufti provoked riots with what he said but its also true that Israelis took over Palestinian property which had been abandoned by fleeing Palestinians, not all of those flights were unjustified.
6 - gypsyman
I would like to thank the silver for correcting me on the specifics of the history, I had honestly forgotten the Belfour decleration and that the Brits were being controled by the U.N. The point I was trying to make was that partition had not been the best solution in India and was a mistake again. Whether it was the Brits or the UN the result was the same. The Brits were still the force responsible for the keeping jewish refugees fleeing Europe out of Palastine, and the occupying army. My impression was that they did what they wanted and were controlled by the League of Nations/U.N. in name only.
As for my positions on Israel do not presume to speak for me... As a person of Jewish descent with family who died in the camps, I have long supported the right and the need for the state of Israel, just because I don't happen to like the form it takes on occasion doesn't mean I'm opposed to it.
My country right or wrong has never been my philosophy about Canada, and it's not going to be my philosophy about Israel.