bibi also missed out another golden opportunity to diminish hamas by accepting the power arrangement of the Palestinian Authority, but instead he walked away and accelerated the settlement programs. There have been way too many missed opportunities by Israel to negotiate an actual peaceful arrangement at this point, especially if they continue to insist that all of the settled land is part of the official state of Israel. they can't have it both ways by pretending to be a partner in peace, then destroying any possibility of peace by expanding settlements and building bigger and stronger walls on the borders.
Because the first would not be the kiss of death for ANY Palestinian faction (remember when ARAFAT told them to lay down arms for is negotiated peace with Israel? Remember how well that did NOT work)? Israeli construction firms moving into Palestine for new building (necessarily overseen by armed IDF soldiers) would not prompt mass public hysteria about "occupation" and new Israeli settlements?
Palestine is its own country now; Israelis duty and "opportunity" to wet nurse ended with the two-state solution Palestinians demanded at gunpoint. This is basically suggesting Israel make Gaza a Palestinian kibutz: Tried that; failed disastrously, even with Palestinian Knesset ministers. Plus they have their own sovereign national government now; something tells me offering to make them an Israeli developed Israeli province with local autonomy would not work well.
Krauthammer has a point that—after decades of insisting Palestinians would build themselves a modern industrialized democracy if the IDF just stopped bulldozing their homes to build Israeli condos—they have instead simply built missile emplacements and tunnels into Israel. For people who wanted out of Israel badly enough to murder for it, they sure try hard to get BACK there—but to DESTROY rather than OBTAIN infrastructure. 
yes of course -- all Palestinians are terrorists, obviously 
there is a reason they are still called the "Occupied Territories" after 40+ years, and i am pretty sure you know the reason but i will spell it out anyway. Israel never finalized the terms of the land seized in the 6-day war, and so anything and everything they have done to treat Gaza and the West Bank as their own territory is de facto illegal by international law. fortunately for Israel, they have the US to veto any and all criticisms and resolutions that come through the UN. however, at some point Israel must deal with the fact that they either need to finally and totally annex the Gaza Strip and West Bank, accepting the Palestinians as Israeli citizens (albeit with limited rights compared to the Jewish population); or they need to cede the land to the Palestinians and work towards maintaining peace with their new neighbors.
Israel cannot continue blowing the shit out of Gaza every few years and expect the Palestinians to just give up and go away. it hasn't worked for the last 40+ years, and it won't work for the next 40+ years either. since Israel is the one who supposedly controls this land it is incumbent on them to figure out how they want to deal with it. 80+ years of warfare is not going to bring them the peace they claim to want, it is only going to encourage more extremism and more radical terrorists than Hamas has been.
"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman
- 18/07/2014 04:02:57 PM
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So much for shortening.
- 29/06/2015 08:46:35 PM
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