john,
the chomsky article that i forwarded placed ultimate blame not with israel
nor palestine but with washington. until this is understood no peace is
possible.
gav
>From: "Jonathan B. Marder" <jonathan.marder@newmail.net>
>Reply-To: moq_discuss@moq.org
>To: moq_discuss@moq.org
>Subject: RE: MD israel, palestine and the US
>Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2002 21:49:31 +0300
>
>Hi Bo, Gavin, Rasheed and all,
>
>I suppose that since I am definitely the closest to the current MidEast
>woes, it is about time I chime in.
>The present situation is horrible. Over 400 Israeli's were killed in
>terrorist attacks over the last 18 months.
>The vast majority of them were civilian non-combatants. I also cry for
>the tens, maybe hundreds of innocent Palestinian victims, but not for
>the many hundreds of Palestinian aggressors. I don't buy the figure of
>over 1000 Palestinian victims - most of them weren't victims at all.
>Israel's 6 million population suffered over a 100 civilian deaths to
>terrorism in March. Imagine the USA suffering a similar casualty rate
>(4000 people) - the USA would probably bomb the hell out of the
>perpetrators and anyone supporting them!!!!!!!
>
>I do believe that the violence will end, but I think it is simplistic
>just to blame Israel. I wish it was in our hands to find a smarter,
>higher quality way to proceed, but I have no magic solutions. Let me
>remind everyone that the MoQ is supposed to be a pragmatic metaphysics -
>requiring us to learn from experience and history, so for the benefit of
>all, I will provide a history lesson.
>
>Let me start off though by mentioning that for several days now, things
>have been reasonably good for something close to a million Palestinian
>Arabs. They've been able to go about their normal lives, and have not
>been among the victims of terrorist suicide bombings as in previous
>weeks. CNN won't tell you this.
>I'm talking about those Palestinians who are citizens of Israel - the
>ones who live in Haifa, Jaffa, Nazereth and dozens of other towns and
>villages in Israel as they have for decades. Just like all other
>Israelis, they have now enjoyed several days without turning on the news
>to hear about another suicide bombing!!!!!
>
>The reason I am talking about Israel's Arab citizens is to draw a
>contrast between them and their Palestinian brethren living under siege
>in the West Bank. The two groups took alternative paths in 1948 - by a
>mixture of personal choice and circumstance. Anyone proposing rolling
>back history by a few decades should make sure that they understand the
>history properly. In 1947, the UN decided that the territory of
>Palestine then under British mandate should be split into a new Jewish
>state (Israel), a new Arab state and a internationalized area that would
>include Jerusalem. This plan was violently rejected by the local Arab
>leadership and the surrounding Arab states. After a costly war, Israel
>had managed to hold onto most of its territory, but had lost a
>strategically important slice to Syria. Israel had also taken over some
>chunks of the proposed Arab state, but most of it had been occupied by
>Egypt (Gaza) and Transjordan (the West Bank). Jerusalem was divided
>between Israel and Transjordan. When people talk about Israel's pre-1967
>borders, they are talking about the ceasefire lines of 1949, not
>universally recognised international boundaries.
>
>This was a costly war for Israel, with about 1 per cent of the
>population killed. It was costly for the Arabs too - with hundreds of
>thousands became refugees, mostly ending up in Gaza and the West Bank.
>
>1949 would have been a great time to set up a state for the Palestinian
>Arabs, but with Jordan and Egypt holding most of the territory it didn't
>happen. Here is the scenario as it was . . . Israel was sitting inside
>the "1967" borders, absorbing millions of Jewish refugees from Europe,
>N. Africa and Iraq, and with a large population of Israeli Arabs
>coexisting peacefully. However, things were far from peaceful because of
>frequent terrorist raids from the West bank and Gaza (the Fedayeen raids
>of the 1950s and early 1960s). Although Israel was WITHIN the 1967
>borders now touted by the Saudi peace proposal, no Arab nations then
>offered Israel any sort of recognition. Had Israel been left in peace,
>she would probably STILL be inside those borders (and maybe still
>without recognition). However, the situation suddenly changed in 1967
>when Israel scored a massive military victory over her neighbours.
>
>1967 would have been a great time to set up a state for the Palestinian
>Arabs. The Israeli Government of the day was eager to reap the political
>capital and trade their territorial gains for a comprehensive peace
>plan. It didn't happen because of the Arab nations were still in a state
>of denial. It took another major war (1973) when Egypt's Anwar Sadat
>finally made a positive move towards doing something for the Palestinian
>Arabs (the Camp David agreement). Unfortunately, the Palestinian Arabs
>themselves didn't follow through and didn't realize any practical gains.
>The Palestinians themselves remained in denial till 1993 (the Oslo
>accords), when finally they accepted the idea of negotiating for a state
>alongside Israel (instead of a state to replace Israel).
>
>1993 would have been a great time to set up a Palestinian state, but it
>wasn't easy. By now, a large segment of the Israeli population had no
>trust whatsoever for the Palestinians, and some tens of thousands had
>pursued their dream of settling parts of ancient Israel outside the 1967
>borders. With a few horrific terrorist attacks from Palestinian
>extremists and the assassination of an Israeli prime minister, the
>momentum of Oslo was lost, never to return.
>
>The irony is that I believe that probably the majority of Israelis and
>Palestinians can imagine a mutually acceptable final scenario of living
>together in coexistence, but we don't seem to be able to find the path
>to get there. The bloody strategy pursued by the Palestinians has been a
>tragedy for both sides.
>
>
>Thanks for reading,
>
>Jonathan
>writing from somewhere inside Israel
>
>
>
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>
jon
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