Originally Posted by Somebody Else:
It would please me greatly to seal them all off in some room somewhere to sort it out on their own. However, they happen to be sitting on one of the most interesting pieces of land in the world. (And I'm pretty thankful I managed to visit between intifadahs).
Then wait until it's peaceful again before visiting. One of the London bombers (the ringleader) was radicalised by a trip there, and I'm not inclined to look kindly on others who want to make that trip.
Originally Posted by :
As for Israel continuing to encroach on Palestinian land, one of the first acts of the current head of state was to withdraw from perceived Palestinian territory - of course, this cannot be done immediately - people cannot be moved like cattle - regardless of the past. The wall was built in order to regulate the movement of possible bombers.
They withdrew from Gaza, but they're still on the West Bank. One solution I came up with after discussion on another forum was for the wall to be demolished, the settlers to remain, but for any settlers remaining on what is internationally recognised as Palestinian soil to cease being Israeli but to assume Palestinian citizenship with all its attendant rights and responsibilities, including paying taxes to the PA.
Israel has no legal authority over the West Bank, however you wish to argue it. These lands are internationally recognised as Palestinian. If the settlers want to claim right of habitation, then they must also accept the authority of the legal owner of that land, which is the Palestinian state. If they do not accept that authority, then they are by definition squatters. If they wish to contest that authority with force, then the are by definition invaders, and the Palestinians would be within their rights to ask the UNSC to help them eject them from their land (as happened with Kuwait in 1990).
Read this op-ed from the Hamas PM, and see how it differs from the popular (western) view of Hamas.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...071001108.html
Originally Posted by :
Do you know what it's like to live in a city where people actually jump if a car backfires?
I grew up with the threat of IRA bombs constantly in the background. I'm a regular tube user along the lines and stations that were bombed last July (both the successful and unsuccessful attempts). I'm still slightly edgy around dark skinned people carrying backpacks on trains, especially when approaching Liverpool Street. Does that count?
Originally Posted by :
Talks never managed to stop them coming across, strikes didn't, what will?
The period when Arafat and Rabin were engaged in productive talks was the most peaceful in the past couple of decades, according to Israeli accounts.
Originally Posted by :
Anyway. Regardless. What's Hezbollah's involvement pray tell? Are they a concerned third party? In which case why not act through the Lebanese government, of which they are a part, in order to put pressure on the Israelis to concede. Instead, they resort to all they understand. And kidnap. And bomb. Those aren't the acts of an organisation I can imagine anyone wanting anything to deal with.
One could say the same about the IRA when they bombed Canary Wharf in their last spectacular. Did the British government send in the Harriers? Even better, they sent in Scotland Yard and activated their intelligence network. Even after Omagh we didn't respond with geometrically reciprocal violence, but treated it as a crime to be investigated by the police. Wouldn't you say the UK-IRA relationship is currently healthier than the Israel-Palestine relationship?