Israel/Palestine
In reply to the discussion: The Global March to Jerusalem, a brave and admirable attempt to awaken the world’s conscience [View all]Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)The closest I came to that was that Begin's "autonomy" proposals wouldn't have given Palestine a great deal more control of their internal affairs than China offers Tibet. Begin wasn't going to guarantee that he would stop arresting elected West Bank city council members and mayors, for example. Even if that was a slight exaggeration, you would have to admit that it was never realistic for Begin to actually expect Palestinians to settle for "autonomy", knowing that it wasn't real and could be taken away at any moment.
Israel doesn't have to have troops all over the West Bank to be secure. Having them at the border would achieve that. I didn't say that Israelis have no security concerns, either. I said that there were better ways of dealing with those than the methods used at present...such as actually ENDING the conflict, something you refuse to accept is even possible(and, for all I know, something you may not even WANT to see happen).
It's not as if the way things are now keeps Israelis safe. All it does is leave the issues that have stoked Palestinian anger unresolved and simmering...eventually to boil over. There's nothing to be gained from the present Israeli security tactics, which basically amount to stalling for time until...what? every INCH of Palestine is covered by the illegal settlements?
Why are you so loyal to an unsustainable situation? How is keeping things the way they are good even for Israel, let alone the Palestinians? It hardly helps that country that the militarization of life is becoming more and more ingrained.
I care about Israelis as much as about Palestinians. That's why I disagree with your approach...the things you defend simply don't do any good.