GlobalSmiles

Palestinian prime minister calls for end to Hamas-Fatah violence - International Herald Tribune

Sorry again, stories like this that I have been hearing that at least made it sound like recent violence in Palestinian territories has more to do with in fighting then Israelis. If i was wrong then I was wrong, but your numbers show low numbers recently and don't include "friendly fire" numbers anyways.

Whats interesting to me is how Hamas has managed to corner Fatah politically and basically is probably going to go with a more abrasive approach to the Israelis then a more peaceful one. Yet their support continues ?

TheKentuckian

Israel certainly shows more restraint than the US would in similar circumstances.

I honestly wouldn't blame them an iota for taking all disputed territories and repatriating the "Palestinians" back to Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Egypt, etc.

The "Palestinians" are a protest population and in any event Israel took those disputed territories in a war of self defense. I see no reason at all to give them back, the Arabs should have thought of these concerns prior to launching a unified attack and should count themselves luck that Israel did not take more.

Israel should, in fact be much more aggressive in protecting their interests. No other nation on earth sits so quietly for the kind of terrorism that it's citizens must deal with daily.

Kerreh

Those you call terrorists are also called resistence fighters, and many would say that all Israel has to do to stop the terrorism is to stop committing acts of violence against Palestinians. Just because you choose to dismiss one narrative does not stop it from being relevant in reality.

All you are doing is accepting Israel's narrative and helping to ensure the circle of violence continues. You say Israeli actions are a response to Palestinian terrorism, but the Palestinians assert that their attacks are in response to Israeli occupation. Let's remember that within the occupied territories Israel had a long reign of nonviolence from the Palestinians there. The Israeli occupation was heavy handed and did cause resentment and the explosion which was the first intifada, but all of this is neither here nor there. Both sides have created this mess, and both sides are to blame for the ongoing violence. The only thing that matters, in my opinion, is who now has the ability to create change. I see the Israelis as the only ones who are realistically capable of bold action that may change the status quo.

A few weeks ago in the Hebrew press there was a report by a well known, respected military correspondent attending a meeting of high Israeli military officials discussing the military tactics in the Intifada. One of the officers asked for information about ordnance: How many bullets got fired? The information came back from the IDF (the Israeli army) that "in the first few days of the Intifada [Sept 30th 2000 and the next few days] the IDF fired a million bullets." There was some surprise, it sounded high, and one officer said kind of bitterly (they don't necessarily like the orders they're given to carry out): 'That means approximately one bullet for every Palestinian child.' Remember what was going on then, some teenagers throwing stones. The same article reported another military source who gave a graphic illustration of how it works. He reported that an official from the Palestinian authority who had a European visitor in the first weeks of the Intifada wanted to illustrate to him how it works, so he had his body guard shoot a single bullet. That was followed by two hours of heavy Israeli gun fire aiming at no particular target in response to a single bullet that was fired. In the first month of the Intifada (according to Israeli sources) the ratio of deaths was about 20 to 1 (75 Palestinians / 4 Israeli soldiers in the Occupied Territories)....
We could go on from there up till today, and trace it back to the earliest days of what has been from the beginning a harsh and brutal occupation. In which for the most part Israel itself was immune from retaliation from within the territories. It carried out oppressive, brutal often murderous policies - mainly the usual imperial techniques: humiliation, degradation, making sure that what are called the 'Arabushi' (Hebrew slang for 'niggers') don't raise their heads and if they do they get beaten down, meanwhile taking the land and resources, with the US army. It's a US-Israeli operation which continues until today. All of that was fine. It's only when the Arabushi did raise their heads and the niggers started bombing us that it becomes a horrifying atrocity. It is an atrocity, but it's not the first and it's not the largest, something we would easily recognise if we were able to rise to the level of looking in the mirror, thinking about ourselves and what we do."

And already, Israel has already imposed a blockade by land, sea, and air. Because of this blockade, goods can't go out, basic supplies (including chlorine to purify water, cement for housing construction, and fuel to run the power plant) aren't allowed in. Today 95% of Gaza's industrial activity has shut down, unemployment is at 40%, and there's a 20% shortfall in the electricity supply for hospitals, sewage treatment, and water supply, to say nothing of ordinary home uses. A quarter or more Gazans don't get running water anymore because there's isn't the electricity to pump it, hospitals are relying on generators and even then don't have pwoer for 8-12 hours a day. Food prices have shot up, 70% of households are earning less than $1.20 A DAY!!!

All of this is being done against an area where 56% of the 1.5 million people there are children.

Well congratulations Israeli government ~ you created the world's largest ghetto.

__________________
Only YOU can stop stupid posts.

oxymoron

What would the France,India, Japan or any other nation do if a democratically elected goverment of another Nation lobbed rockets into its civilian areas, kidnapped soldiers, attack border sites? I think they would declare war and use ever single weapon they had in their arsenal for such actions to stop. Israel is showing immence restraint in the face of open warfare unleashed upon them day in day out.

__________________
"The Greatest Freedom, is the Freedom to oppress others"

Kerreh

Declaring war is one thing, Committing acts of mass terror like collective punishment, bulldozing civilian in fracture, and caging 1.5 million people in style like ghettos with no access to basic human needs for survival is another thing all together.

__________________
Only YOU can stop stupid posts.

africanhope

Wrong question, Oxymoron. the right question would be - what would France, India, Japan or any other nation do if the elcted government of another nation who has large parts of it's terrotry occupied by France, India or Japan, launches rockets into disputes terrotry. That is a more accurate question, is it not?

And one that can be answered. Let's take France - they had something sililiar happen in Algeria, and after a while, they gave the people back their land.

AH

__________________
“The subject no longer has to be mentioned by name. Someone is sick. Someone else is feeling better now. A friend has just gone back into the hospital. Another has died. The unspoken name, of course, is AIDS.”
“From the point of view of the pharmaceutical industry, the AIDS problem has already been solved. After all, we already have a drug which can be sold at the incredible price of $8, 000 an annual dose, and which has the added virtue of not diminishing the market by actually curing anyone.”

oxymoron

Palestinians never had a Nation, they fought the Jews for the land on which both groups lived for centuries they lost.

__________________
"The Greatest Freedom, is the Freedom to oppress others"

africanhope

Nope. Much of the land was in their hands, or in the hands of other nations surrounding Israel. There is no doubt, even from Isreals friends, that they are on occupied land.

AH

__________________
“The subject no longer has to be mentioned by name. Someone is sick. Someone else is feeling better now. A friend has just gone back into the hospital. Another has died. The unspoken name, of course, is AIDS.”
“From the point of view of the pharmaceutical industry, the AIDS problem has already been solved. After all, we already have a drug which can be sold at the incredible price of $8, 000 an annual dose, and which has the added virtue of not diminishing the market by actually curing anyone.”

oxymoron

Ummm no the land belonged to Great Britain prior belonged to the Ottoman Empire.

__________________
"The Greatest Freedom, is the Freedom to oppress others"

africanhope

Thus not hte isreali's?? And I am refering to land previously belonging to Lebanon and Siria.


AH

__________________
“The subject no longer has to be mentioned by name. Someone is sick. Someone else is feeling better now. A friend has just gone back into the hospital. Another has died. The unspoken name, of course, is AIDS.”
“From the point of view of the pharmaceutical industry, the AIDS problem has already been solved. After all, we already have a drug which can be sold at the incredible price of $8, 000 an annual dose, and which has the added virtue of not diminishing the market by actually curing anyone.”