ZN, I appreciate your posting of news articles concerning the Gaza strip. But are they part of a point? Do you think those of us that have criticized Israel's expansion think that when Israel withdraws from its settelements all happiness and peace is going to erupt?
I post recent news articles concerning the Gaza strip to debunk that Palestinian "resistance" = "Israeli expansion". I post recent news articles concerning the Gaza strip to debunk that IDF "retaliation" = "a cycle of violence". Those myths are sold by the useful idiots, some of whom are professional apologists for terror - See: Saeb Erekat - or have unwittingly become apologists for terror. Allow me to present my argument.
Back in 1993 Israel and the PLO - a terror organization - signed the Oslo Accords. The accords called for withdrawal of Israeli forces from
parts of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, not
all of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. The accords also called for the Palestinian right to self-government within those areas through the creation of the Palestinian Authority. Yitzhak Rabin, Bill Clinton, and Yasser Arafat shook hands on it in public. It was a historic moment in Palestinian and Israeli history, so what happened?
More Israelis were killed by Palestinian terrorism in the 5 years after the Oslo agreement than in the preceding years. Full stop.
Here's where I generally hear the "israeli expansion/settlements = resistance" or the "IDF measures = cycle of violence" myths. But that is nothing more than being an apologist for terror. Let's call the terror what it is, terror. This terror was organized by Palestinians who belonged to terror organizations who were sponsored by Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the Palestinian Authority. They were not "resisting the occupation" they were actively,
with malice aforethought, terrorizing civilians inside Israel regardless of their race, age, nationality, combat status or religion. The mandate of Hamas and Islamic Jihad is to destroy Israel.
Over 110,000 Palestinians came into Israel every single day to go to work
before the Oslo Accords and tens of thousands worked on Israeli settlements, feel free to look it up. Trade between Palestinians and Israel was strong. Then came the spike in terrorism after the PLO signed the Oslo Accords.
Strangely Israel's new peace partner, the Palestinian Authority never ever seemed to arrest the leaders of these terror organizations, here and there they arrested a few low-level militants but eventually they ended up releasing them quietly when no one was looking. Then it became well known and documented that Arafat through the Palestinian Authority was supporting the terrorism. It became well known and documented that the Palestinian Authority was sponsoring incitement against jews and Israelis in official PA-controlled media, schools, and mosques.
So who was left to stop the terrorists responsible for the spike in terror after the Oslo Accords? The IDF.
From 1993 through 1999 the IDF began to attack and kill the Palestinian terrorists who were responsible for the spike in terror after Oslo. These terror organizations were allowed to use Palestinian civilians areas for cover and concealment, and they used Palestinian Authority interests as bases of operations and firing positions.
Arafat's two-stage strategy of negotiation with Israel while sponsoring the terrorists resulted in the much-debated system of restrictions on the movement of Palestinian goods and the Palestinian people. This much-debated system of restrictions on the movement of Palestinian goods and the Palestinian people became - through the rhetoric of the useful idiots -
worse than the terrorism itself. Then in "great-moments-in-turnspeak" the useful idiots apologized for Palestinian terrorism as an inevitable side-effect of restrictions on movement of Palestinian goods and the Palestinian people.
Eventually the Palestinian economy suffered one of the deepest recessions in modern history because of Arafat's two-stage strategy of negotiation with Israel while sponsoring the terrorists. The Israeli checkpoints and closures to prevent Palestinian terrorism - which the PA was sponsoring - raised the cost of doing business, caused wide-spread unemployment and disrupted the predictability needed for orderly economic Palestinian life. Then came the failure at Camp David and the "second intifada". From there it just went downhill until the disengagement from Gaza.
The historic - though one-sided - disengagement from Gaza had one beneficial effect, it exposed the Palestinian terror organizations for who they truely are. Terror organizations. I post news articles concerning the Gaza strip as evidence of that fact. Even after the removal of all restrictions on movement of Palestinian goods and the Palestinian people in Gaza the terrorists
still terrorize Israel by firing rockets and sending their suicide bombers. Now not only have they continued to terrorize Israel they have begun to terrorize foreigners in Gaza, they terrorize other Palestinians in Gaza and the very Palestinian Authority who supported them all those years.
Right now, there is a clear cut border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. There are not Israeli settlers in the Gaza Strip to muddy the waters between terrorist attacks incited because of Israel's placement of settlers into the Gaza Strip and terrorist attacks which are aimed at the destruction of Israel.
Exactly. And the rockets and suicide bombers
still come.
The people of Gaza now have a clear cut choice. End the chaos or deal with the repercussions of not being able to prevent terrorist attacks from their soil.
They have had that choice since 1993 and I shall not be "told" that they have not. The Palestinian Authority working as an agent for the Palestinian people signed many treaties obligating them to prevent terrorist attacks from their soil. And the perpetrators of the "chaos" - Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah's-own Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - have been operating in Gaza for over 10 years.
Can you imagine that it might have been difficult to develop a significant consensus in the Gaza strip that the peaceful accomodation of Israel's territorial goals might not be the best way to go?
Hamas and Islamic Jihad want to destroy Israel. They say it over and over and over again. Israel's "territorial goals" are an excuse for terror.
So there was violence before and there is violence now. Does this mean that Israel should just keep expanding?
Even when Israel leaves all of Gaza it is still "expanding". Next step in that evolution is even when Israel is no longer in Gaza it is still occupied.
To me it is just evidence when a country is founded with massive immigration on land that other people see as their own there will be violence.
That's an apology for terror. Sorry dave.
Eventually, violence will subside as it becomes in the best interest of everybody to accept the new status quo.
60 years and still counting dave...
But if Israel never defines stable borders and continues to expand...
Back to the expansion excuse for terror. Hamas and Islamic Jihad want to destroy Israel. They say it over and over and over again. Israel's "territorial goals" are just an excuse for the terror of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
...then it is pretty reasonable to expect that the process of acceptance and the end of violence is not going to start.
The disengagement from Gaza and the failure of that move to end Palestinian violence in Gaza is your red flag that it's time go beyond blaming Israeli expansion and Israeli immigration for Palestinian terrorism.
It is obvious, that Israel has no choice to do what is necessary to stop them.
And the IDF has had that responsibility since Israel was formed in 1948.
There is undoubtedly an overwhelming consensus in Israel to do what is necessary to prevent them.
Israelis don't like buses, restaurants, shopping malls and nightclubs to be blown up by fundamentalist Palestinian suicide bombers just like Iraqis don't like insurgent suicide bombers blowing up there or Londoners don't like suicide bombers in London either. Crazy huh?
And the Gaza strip citizens realize that there can be no stability in the Gaza strip while rocket attacks on Israel take place from Gaza Strip territory.
Honestly Dave, if they haven't realized that already since 1993 and through two intifadas than I dunno what to say.
I wonder if you personally want them stopped.
...and here comes the strawman...
You seem to find solace in stories of Palestininan violence.
Strawman #1.
It seems that in the stories of Palestinian violence you see a justification for the establishment of Israel and its continued expansion.
Strawman #2 and the expansion excuse for terror again.
Something like the Palestinians are so bad that they deserve whatever has happened to them.
Strawman #3, I do not think
all Palestinians are terrorists.
To me, your views are exactly analogous to how the American settlers felt about the Indians. The Indians felt that they needed to resist the American expansion into territory they considered theirs. The Indians resisted with the same kind of brutal terrorist attacks that must be deployed by the side in any dispute that is outgunned. At the time of the American expansion the Indians were reviled and portrayed as lessor humans that deserved their plight. Eventually peace came when the Indians had accepted their plight and the Americans had clearly defined the limits of their expansion. Not exactly, a just solution from the Indian's stand point but with time and with some generosity on the part of the Americans eventually there was peace and there is a widespread understanding and empathy for the Indian throughout the general American population.
Emphasis mine. With all due respect that was nothing more than attacking your three previous strawmen.