Some thought provoking ideas on the Israeli Palestinian conflict at RealClearPolitics.com. I have to say that I agree with quite a bit of what is in the article regarding ways to move forward to accomplish something. RCP is quickly becoming one of my favorite sites on the Internets to visit.
I read the article and it all sounds good and so did giving up Gaza but that didn’t lead to anything peaceful. Personally, I believe this conflict will only end once one side completely obliterates the other. There cannot be a political resolution when only one side is really a country with a true government. And even then, they hate each other so much (and let’s be honest, really only the Arabs seem to do the true unfounded hatred thing) that it will only take one person acting on their own to topple any such agreement.
In my opinion, this would be like saying after 9/11 we should have sat down and talked with the Taliban about not supporting people getting on our planes and flying them into buildings in our country. I am not highly educated in the world of terrorism, but to the extent to which I read about it and understand it, these are not negotiating types of people. They use death as a negotiation tool, not really much discussion to be had there. And how do you “punish” a group of people for not following the agreement when they are already more than willing to die for what they are doing? They will kill themselves on purpose in order to kill one or two of you. What sort of negative consequences can you possibly build into an agreement to hold someone with that mentality accountable?
It is kind of like a bully but no way to expel them from school. So he comes and forces you to give him your lunch money and if you don’t he’ll beat you up. So you comply. The next time he wants your lunch money and your Nintendo DS. So you comply. And on and on and what you’ll find is that there is no end to the demands because he just wants to dominate you. Talk all you want, but the motivation and the method are what he responds to and until you refused to be dominated and kick his butt, he will come and take more. There is no negotiation when the options are total compliance or total annihilation. That is an unfair negotiating position and it is not possible for a sane person to adequately reply to that being the opening demand.
And the article points out the argument that is always made against Israel but doesn’t seem to be made against terrorists – civilians. So Israel (and the US) is supposed to go through painstaking efforts to avoid even one “innocent” person from dying even when we may be justified in our actions and yet the same people yelling about civilians in those cases seem to be quiet when Hamas or any other terror group targets ONLY civilians. Again, how can you possibly win or negotiate when those are the unequal standards applied? Israel gets plastered in the media when a kid dies in an airstrike of a school building housing Hamas people and weapons and yet not much of anything is made of Hamas launching missiles into only civilian areas of Israel. So how can you ever be “right” if any response will lead to your public crucifixion while the other side seemingly escapes unscathed?
Seriously, if people in Mexico were randomly bombing folks in Texas as a way of getting their land back from so many years ago, would we expect ourselves to respond with negotiations? And so let’s say we do negotiate and give them the lower part of Texas back. Then they start doing the same attacks to Oklahoma and the rest of Texas because they want the whole thing. We should seriously sit down and talk to these people? And what will they offer in return to us? What is the benefit to us to negotiate? Oh, that’s right, they won’t kill us, that’s the only negotiation tool people like this offer. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but there is no such thing as world peace. There never has been and there never will be. So you take what you can get and you try your best to keep what you have and the whole time others are doing the same thing with very different viewpoints, very different motivations, and very different ideologies. One mind and one peace will never occur, so you either accept or eliminate those who refuse to learn to hold themselves in check. And even that is all relative to your perspective.
So my question is this: which side would you prefer there were more of in this world? People who randomly blow up other people when they don’t get everything they want or people who will defend themselves when provoked but for the most part know how to leave others alone?
Answer that question and then pull for your side. And I know, I sort of went off on this didn’t I? And I realize that I type this while living in a country created through the domination of one over another, which really just makes my point about peace. Go ask an American Indian.
http://townhall.com/news/world/2009/01/15/iran_president_not_feasible_for_israel_to_live?page=full&comments=true
There’s a link to another article that I believe proves my point. You’ll notice it talks about Israel shelling the “crowded downtown, sending terrified residents fleeing for cover” and “An Israeli airstrike Thursday evening killed prominent Hamas figure Said Siam, and witnesses and U.N. officials said Israeli shells struck the United Nations headquarters building that serves as a shelter for hundreds of people, setting it ablaze.”
See what I mean? All this focus on “innocent civilians” and no comment on the fact that the terrorists hide amongst their people or that the only reason Israel is even doing this is because they were attacked…AGAIN. Also, nothing in this article talks about Hamas doing the exact same thing on purpose. Israel responds to defend itself and their are casualties of war – shame on them. Hamas specifically targets civilians and it’s no big deal. And now the idiots in the UN are meeting to condemn Israel’s actions. Seriously? I want to see the leader of Iran get punched square in the face and do nothing about it, then I will believe this crap.
One comment on the site makes a great comparison – “If the guy who lives three doors down from me says it is not feasible for me and my family to live in my neighborhood, you better believe I’ll do something about it.”
Where is the UN special meeting to condemn Iran’s idiotic leader for again saying that Israel should not exist? Where is the UN special meeting about Hamas as an organization and their actions? Oh wait, that’s right, we defend terrorists but pursue their victims with a vengance. By the way, the fabulously brilliant thinkers in the UN just named Iran the Chair of a multi-billion dollar UN Development Program. Does China still chair the Human Rights committee?
We will suffer greatly from not dealing with these people as they should. Just because they aren’t German with a mustache doesn’t mean we’re not reliving history. Look at where peace treaties and negotiations got us with Hitler. And yet we still do not learn.
To quote the latest Batman movie “There are some men who just want to watch the world burn.” If that is your motivation, then what is there to negotiate?
Leaving aside the bit about “idiots at the UN,” Steven, I don’t think there are very many people – at the UN or elsewhere – who would deny that intentionally firing rockets into civilian areas is a horrible moral act.
However, were you aware that Israel has been firing white phosphorus into crowded areas of Gaza? If not, check out what that stuff does to human bodies, and then tell me that Israel is “just responding to defend itself.” You don’t use what the jarheads refer to as “Willy Pete” if you’re just trying to defend yourself.
I’m not a middle-east expert by any means, but I don’t think I’m stepping outside the bounds of either common knowledge or the reality of the situation if I say that the divisions and tensions in that part of the world go back further than most countries have existed. But even in just the modern age alone, I’d say there’s very little likelihood of any chance at peace there until a genuine two-state solution is within reach, not just within sight or imagining. And for every story of rockets launched into Israel from the occupied territories, there is a story of IDF forces using tactics like the above. It’s just not as simple as “Israel is merely defending herself.”