Ariel Sharon doesn't want peace

Oct 4 06:31 UTC 2003

From wire reports--

"AP, JERUSALEM
 
Saturday, Oct 04, 2003,Page 1 
Israel plans to build more than 500 new homes in Jewish settlements in 
the West Bank, violating a US-backed peace plan and angering 
Palestinians already seething over plans to build a security barrier 
deep into the West Bank.

Tenders for the new housing units appeared in an Israeli newspaper on 
Thursday, inviting contractors to bid on the projects, despite the 
strictures of the peace plan.

The "road map" plan requires a complete freeze in all construction in 
some 150 Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip, 
which Israel seized during the 1967 war.

However, an Israeli official said Israel did not have any 
responsibility to meet its road map obligations until Palestinians 
crack down on militant groups.

"The road map is stalled as long as there is no action taken by the 
Palestinians to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure," said Zalman 
Shoval, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The Israeli government says it needs the new buildings to account for 
what it calls the "natural growth" of the settlements, but the road map 
freeze does not make exceptions.

The government announcement that it planned to build 565 housing units 
in three West Bank settlements came a day after the Cabinet approved a 
portion of a security barrier of fences and walls that runs into the 
West Bank to shield key settlements -- as well as Israel -- from 
suicide bombers, who have killed hundreds of Israelis over the past 
three years."

How can anyone look at this latest development and come to any 
conclusion but that the Sharon administration does not want peace, and 
doesn't intend to make peace possible.  Sharon knows that it is vitally 
important to the Palestinians, and would have to be a part of any peace 
plan, to stop construction on the West Bank.  The West Bank ISN'T 
Israel.  This is like if the U.s. decided to build new towns, intended 
for only its citizens, across the border in Mexico.  You can't have 
peace unless you respect the sovreign rights of the other people in the 
region.  This is a blatant attempt to take over the whole West Bank and 
expand Israel.  Sharon must think these are still Colonial days or 
something.

Israel is in dire financial straits and yet Sharon does something that 
will blatantly prolong the conflict indefinitely, and may well cause a 
reduction in U.S. aid.  This is a U.S. peace plan that they are 
violating by building these settlements.  It is a peace plan that is 
not open for interpretation.  This peace plan flatly says Israel will 
agree not to build further in the disputed lands.  Why SHOULDN'T the 
U.S. reduce or cut aid to Israel if they are going to act so pompous 
and arrogant as decide for themselves when they feel like being bound 
to peace agreements and when they don't feel like being bound.

I also don't like this story that Israel is going to build a big 
security wall deep in the West Bank.  It sounds like Berlin during the 
Cold War.  The Soviet Union found out that it didn't work to build 
walls and keep everyone out and try to have their own world to 
themselves.  Israel seems determined to repeat their mistakes.

The Palestinians, and I'm not talking Arafat, but the regular hard 
working Palestinians who are innocent victims in all of this, have 
every reason to be really upset over this.

response 2 of 197:

Oct 4 09:34 UTC 2003

Israeli kill palestinian, palestinian kill Israeli. Arafat accuse 
Sharon, Sharon accuse Arafat.

response 4 of 197:

Oct 5 06:13 UTC 2003

Can you say "slaughter of innocent civilians"?

response 6 of 197:

Oct 5 10:05 UTC 2003

They retaliated. 

"Hours after the bombing, an Israeli Apache helicopter fired at least 
two rockets at a house in Gaza City, Palestinian security sources 
said. There was no information about any deaths or injuries in that 
attack."

and 

"The Israeli Army attacked a Palestinian training camp in Syria 
following a suicide bombing in Israel that killed 19 people, Israel 
Defense Forces confirmed Sunday."

response 10 of 197:

Oct 5 19:55 UTC 2003

This "eye for an eye" mentality can't work.  Israel thinks if they build
walls and kill all the leaders of groups like Hamas, that they can control
this war by force.  This won't happen.  You kill leaders, and other
leaders will emerge.  And when you kill leaders, you simply harden the
resolve of the followers, you make the hatred more intense.  When you have
people willing to give their lives to be suicide bombers, you are clearly
dealing with strongly held feelings and beliefs.  This war will go on and
on and on, UNTIL both sides negotiate a peace.  This war is killing
Israel's economy and Sharon has only made things worse and worse the last
couple of years.  The Palestinians need to find another leader besides
Arafat, and the Israelis need to have another election and get power away
from Likud and into the hands of more moderate factions.  Hard line
militancy simply doesn't work, hasn't been working, and will continue to
not work.  The bloodshed will continue until saner minds on both sides
prevail.

The U.S. also needs to cut aid to the region.  Indirectly, its aid helps
subsidize the war, and U.S. money has become lighter fluid to stoke the fire
as opposed to water to put the fire out.  We must rethink our policies in this
region.

response 12 of 197:

Oct 5 21:17 UTC 2003

The U.S. is reducing its aid dollar-for-dollar for any amount spent on
new settlements.  That's a good start.

response 16 of 197:

Oct 6 02:42 UTC 2003

I think Isreal has shown great restraint.  If another country bordering the
U.S. started sending in Suicide bombers I would vote to invade that country,
forcibly arrest those responsible, and imprison or execute them for as long
as it took to cause them to surrender.

I know people who feel the Iraqi's have not suffered enough, adn that is why
they insist on resisting the U.S. military still.  If we had bombed them back
to the stone age as we did the Germans, perhaps we could have broken their
spirit.  Perhaps the Isrealis are begining to think in similar terms.

response 20 of 197:

Oct 6 16:04 UTC 2003

no, they are in fact a minority here in the U.S.  WE supprt them for several
reasons.  

They are a democracy.  We like democracies.
they are a stable country.  We like stability.
They were badly abused in WW II.  We did not like what happened to them then.
We supported the establishment of a jewish state in palestine.  We were the
first nation to recognize that state when teh british pulled out.
They are our allies.  WE support our allies.

response 24 of 197:

Oct 6 18:21 UTC 2003

#20, Bru come on, you know those aren't the real reasons we have always 
supported Israel.  The United States is largely a christian country, 
the government is run mostly by christians.  Many christians hold dear 
the notion of the Second Coming, and the jews returning to Palestine is 
part of the Biblical prophecy.  Our policies towards Israel over the 
years have been pushed by the religious views of our lawmakers, and 
also the desire to support a largely white judeo society in the middle 
of a muslim part of the world.  Those factors, religious and racial, 
were far more important in our support of Israel's establishment than 
their being a democracy (we have supported plenty of countries that 
aren't democracies) or our taking pity on them over their plight in 
World War II.  Because of the Judeo-Christian connection to Israel, 
they are like the U.S.'s favorite child.  It is unfair and the rest of 
the world knows it is unfair, and it is part of what causes a great 
deal of resentment towards us, particularly in the Muslim world but 
also in Europe and Asia.  

I think that so long as we keep treating Israel like a favorite child, 
we will continue to have credibility problems internationally.  Even if 
we like Israel's society more than muslim societies, it is not the job 
of the U.S. to dictate morality and beliefs to people in other 
countries.  When we do that, we are saying OUR society and OUR beliefs 
are better than anyone else's, and that makes us come across as pompous 
and arrogant.  We NEED the rest of the world.  We NEED allies.  We 
cannot act like we can take or leave the rest of the world.  
Isolationism is and has always been a short sighted policy.  It is time 
we cut the umbilical cord to Israel.  It is time we showed them tough 
love and showed the rest of the world that it is not our intention to 
play favorites.  You can't build a true global community unless you 
stop playing favorites and show everyone mutual respect.