AUTHOR:G.
DATE:8/24/2002 03:28:00 PM
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Why is it in Israel’s interest
Do you know what’s the saddest thing about this ongoing conflict with the Palestinians? The saddest thing is that eventually there will be 2 separate states exactly like Barak’s offer to Arafat in Camp David.
Barak offered all that Israel can give and in return demanded that Arafat will declare on the “end of the conflict”. I guess that was the major problem for Arafat. I’m convinced now that the Palestinians are never going to abandon their aspirations of overtaking al of Israel, and Arab states support for that will not dwindle.
The question is so what can do to secure Israel’s future. In my opinion Israel current situation is very bad. Controlling 3 million hostile Palestinians is a huge burden on every aspect of life in Israel.
Some people think that the only solution is to achieve military victory, the problem is that there cannot be a military victory against civilians. The Palestinians are never going to accept Israeli control over them – and quite frankly, why should they? Thus there will always be new terrorists instead the one who’ll be killed. There are no army brigade, missile facilities nor navy to destroy.
How do the Palestinians manage to inflict so many casualties to Israel in the last 10 years, more than all other Arab countries all together. They manage to do so because they act from with in. Our presence inside their territories and the fact there is no real obstacle that prevents them to go freely into Israel – that’s the answer.
As I said earlier, I don’t see Palestinian acceptances of Israel in the next 10-20 years. But that doesn’t mean it is in Israel interest to stay mixed with them. Separation is a necessity for the existence of Israel. Today there are more than 200,000 Palestinians living in Israel illegally, and I’m not talking about the 1 million Israeli Arabs. Palestinians are move into Israel on a daily basis. They live in Arab villages, marry Israeli Arabs and get by that Israeli citizenship and social care payments. That is why the Palestinians are so afraid of from the building of a wall between Israel and them. They believe that if the current situation of immigration into Israel plus Israeli Arabs crazy birth rate, soon there will be Arab majority in Israel. And we all know what will happen next.
We need to get out of most of the West Bank and all of Gaza, build a high wall and stop it. It’s much easier to defend against an enemy that ‘s behind a clear defended line and not strolling in your cities freely.
How and when to do it are hard questions to answer.
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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:8/23/2002 10:59:00 PM
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No connection to realty what so ever
A long debate (in proportion to the usual in my blog anyway) followed my last couple of posts. I recommend on reading them all. I guess I pissed some people off and many comments came are the outcome. All the commentators were deeply concerned about the situation in Israel and all sorts of ideas – most of them, I’m sorry to say, were so far from reality. Some of them are so unrealistic that I’ve actually heard them here for the first time. It’s very clear that most of the commentators don’t know jack shit about what’s really going on in Israel and in the West Bank & Gaza Strip. Now I don’t say that if you aren’t in Israel you can’t come with a suggestion to solve things, you sure can. But keep in mind that if your only feed is the media and stories you here from others, I promise you lack a lot of important information..
I want to refer one more time to the idea of deporting the Palestinians, an idea that was very popular among commentators. First of no Arab country would take 3 million Palestinians. If you are thinking: “so what who asks them?” Well it’s one thing to deport a few dozens of people to another country that rejects that, it’s a whole different story with 3 millions.
And here are a few pointers on deporting people:
If I recall right the Serbs tried to deport a few millions of people from Kosovo – it didn’t work, the US attacked Yugoslavia because it was a terrible thing that they were doing. There are no nice deportations.
Moledet, the party who calls for transfer is and always was a tiny party, widely unpopular – and we are talking here about Israelis who live in this conflict every day since birth. Why is that? It’s because they know talk about transfer is delusional and has no chance in realty.
Think how hard it was to deport 13 known terrorists from the Church of the Nativity, and you are talking about 3 million people, most of them not terrorists.
The all mighty USA is having major troubles in deporting thousands of people staying illegally in America.
And to finish it off: from Chris K comment: “As for those of you who think that expulsion is an option: no population will ever move in a "managed" way, only force and terror would make it happen. Ask Milosevic. It's an injustice and a crime, and I expect of any Jew to know enough about the religion and history of its own people to know better than what I have read in this discussion.
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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:8/22/2002 07:03:00 PM
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J.P on Blogging
The Jerusalem post has an interesting article about Israeli and Palestinians Blogs. You can even find my name mentioned there. You can go read it here (you need to register first – it’s free) or if you want you can read the entire text over at Renata.
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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:8/21/2002 01:14:00 AM
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Why the hell do I need them in my state?
The Palestinians (or if you insist they are not a people merely Arabs who live in the West Bank and Gaza, it really doesn’t matter). Yes most of them are hostile, most of them do not wish to coexist with Israel, most of them support terrorism (they even cheered when the twins collapsed), their culture and moral standards fit the middle ages not the 21 century and you can say about most of them that they are barbaric, cruel, mean, evil and so on.
Now my question to all those who oppose a Palestinian state is:
Why the hell do I need 3 fucking millions of them living in the boundaries of the state of Israel?
I’m ready to hear the answers in comments section.
All of those that shout that there is no Palestinian people thus they shouldn’t be given a state – What then do you suggest to do? It doesn’t matter if they are a people or not they exist you can call them by any name you want but you just can’t ignore them. By doing that you are just smashing your heads into a wall? Another stubborn foolish idea is deporting all of them out of here – In my dreams I’d like that too, but lets be realistic – it‘s not going to happen.
The Arabs were stubborn and banged their heads to the wall through the years and it led them nowhere, why should Israel adopt this idiotic tactic. Being fanatic / extreme on every idea or belief is not good. We need to know how to seize opportunities not how to miss them.
I don’t want to keep all those Palestinians inside Israel. They live in very clear areas, those areas should be given to them under appropriate terms and conditions, when they are ready for that. And yes I’m aware that even then they are likely to continue to plot against Israel – that’s okay – it’s much easier to handle another state with clear border (that will be heavily secured) than the current situation that we are mixed with them.
Suggestions like keeping them in Israel but not giving them citizenship are crazy – that will quickly lead to a Muslim majority in Israel and soon afterwards to the end of Israel as Jewish state.
Don’t you get it that a clear cut separation is the best thing not for the Palestinians (this is why Arafat rejected Barak’s offer), but for the Israelis. The Palestinian territories are like cancerous tumor, it’s going to be painful but we have to remove it fast from the healthy body (Israel) before it will be to late.
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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:8/20/2002 08:42:00 PM
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Bin Laden beware
I guess you all watched the shocking Al Qaeda chemical tests video on CNN. Shocking indeed. So shocking that an Israeli animal rights activist, Eti Altman, is planning to register a complaint against Osama Bin Laden to the Interpol.
Altman demands that Bin Laden will be tried for war crimes against animals. What some people will do to be mentioned on the news…
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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:8/19/2002 10:00:00 PM
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Basic stuff
Here are a few basic facts and ideas that I think should be thought of in any kind of discussion about the Israeli – Palestinian conflict:
1) There are around 3 millions Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Soon there will be many more.
2) Israel is not going to deport 3 million people.
3) As any other people on earth the Palestinian deserve their own state.
4) Israel does not want to annex the Palestinian areas, give all the Palestinians citizenships and lose its Jewish majority.
5) Israel will not annex the Palestinian territories and won’t give the Palestinians a citizenship, thus making Israel an apartheid state.
6) Israelis do not wish to control other people.
7) All of the above lead to a creation of an independent Palestinian state on almost all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
8) Israelis want peace and want to put an end to the 100 years of Arab – Israeli conflict.
9) There are around 5.5 million Jews living today in Israel and they are not going anywhere.
10) Israel was always flexible and chose the practical solution, the Arabs/Palestinians always banged their heads to the wall hoping that will lead them somewhere – it didn’t. Israel needs to avoid from adopting this Arab tactic.
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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:8/19/2002 11:16:00 AM
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Phase one completed
Some sort of agreement was reached yesterday between Israel and the Palestinians. The Gaza Bethlehem Plan is supposed to get started this evening with the IDF pulling out of central Bethlehem and taking down a number of roadblocks in Gaza. The Palestinians job will be to calm the security situation and reduce violence.
You may remember that about two weeks ago the discussions about the Gaza Plan broke down. It turns out that my prediction was right: “I think on of the sides will fold, either Israel will agree to include Bethlehem or the Palestinians will agree not to include it.” It was Israel who folded back and I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. We have to give this plan a chance.
As for the rest of my prediction coming true, the probability for that is not too high. As I previously wrote I still think this plan may lead to somewhere. If you don’t remember the rest of my commentary you can read it over here.
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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:8/19/2002 10:35:00 AM
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Nuclear weapons, Israel, you’re kiddin’ me!
I’m amazed!!! According to this report Israel's F-16s are equipped to carry nuclear weapons. I’m so naïve. I thought it was the camels’ fleet job to carry Israeli nuclear weapons, but it seems that for some reason fighter jets were chosen for this mission.
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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:8/18/2002 07:48:00 PM
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Balagan
I met Renata of Balagan yesterday in Tel Aviv, she is a lovely girl and we had a nice chat. She had a lot of stories to tell about her new life here in Israel and they were all so interesting. As an “Ola Hadasha” (new immigrant) she has a new perspective on things, some of them I’d never thought of as I’m used to it leaving in Israel all my life. Without her own computer it’s not easy for her to update her blog frequently but the blog is still alive and kicking. You won’t find another blog like hers in the all blogosphere and it’s only a click away.
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