Israel/Palestine
In reply to the discussion: Why Israel Should Withdraw From the West Bank—Now [View all]Bradlad
(206 posts)I first thought of writing a reply to each of your paragraphs. Then I realized that the problem here is that we each have very different views of human nature and of the reality of this conflict. These differences are probably insurmountable logically. So let me just try to express how disconnected from reality your views seem to me.
Here are some facts that I factor in to the equation because I believe they are the essential facts that any state (or person) trying to avoid conflict while protecting their loved ones (or citizens) would have to consider:
Since 1947 the Palestinians (and the Arabs generally) have reacted with violence to every single overture for peace offered by Israel (or anyone else like the UN) to settle the conflict without violence,
Since 1947, Palestinians holding leadership positions have consistently claimed in their speeches and their political charters that they would never ever accept a Jewish state in the ME under any conditions,
To drive the nail in further, since 1947 no Palestinians holding leadership positions have ever come forward on their own with a sincere and plausible plan of conditions they would accept for peaceful coexistence with Israel,
Since 1947 Palestinians civilians have generally confirmed in polls and interviews, notably with religious officials, their desire to die, and for their children to die - in violent conflict to destroy the state of Israel rather than accept any peaceful coexistence with Israel.
But still, your response is (paraphrasing) certainly this time if Israel would just withdraw from the WB (baring its throat to thousands of Hamas Jihadist rockets that would need only 60 seconds or so to land after being fired), certainly then the Palestinians will realize that they have something to lose that will cause them to throw away what has driven their messianic quest to destroy Israel for three generations now.
I don't mean this as an insult at all because I am sure I am capable of harboring delusions too if I believe strongly enough about something - but I can only wonder at the power of the beliefs that must exist in your mind on this topic to allow you to reach this conclusion.
I would be encouraged if you could show me just once in the last 65 years when any respected Palestinian leader - or any Arab leader for that matter - had actually made a believable and sincere move toward peace. Don't you think that if any significant number of Palestinians actually preferred peace with Israel over war to end Israel - that some leader would have had the guts to present his reasonable conditions for achieving it?
That's a real question (not rhetorical) that seems necessary to me as a minimal precondition for Israel being willing to ever give up anything again to the Palestinians. Every singly time Israel has tried to return land for peace - the land was pocketed and the peace overture laughed at. Even Sadat bragged that Israel gave up a land mass three times the size of Israel for a piece of paper.
But you say just one more time will do the trick. I think Israel now realizes it has made a big mistake in following the leftist ideology that was stronger in Israel in the past. Fortunately it seems Israelis are starting to get the picture. It pretty much took the rising strength of the anti-Israel Muslim revanchists fueled by oil income and the West's cowardly appeasement of them for this to happen. But I think the majority of Israelis now see that there's really nothing they can do to achieve peace except deal a decisive defeat to those who attack Israel or to those who seriously threaten Israel's existence. I only hope they haven't waited too long to figure this out.
I don't know if you are Jewish or not - buy I have met Jews online who have admitted that if Israel is destroyed because of its attempts to make peace against all sensible evidence that peace is even possible - that they'd rather see that happen than see Israel survive by waging war. Perhaps this is your view and that would explain your conclusion. But other than that I can't imagine any sensible person who would expect Israel to put itself in that position of vulnerability in the hopes that the Palestinians who have never changed one inch toward accommodating Israel as a peaceful neighbor - are now going to reverse the last six decades of their consistent and violent racist rejectionism - out of some sense that they'd have something material to gain from it.
Sorry to be so negative about your proposal but maybe you can explain for me just where your conclusion comes from. As a non-Jew I'd really like to understand. Maybe I'm the one who's failing to see the reality here.