I think that Sharon is too often used as an excuse for Palestinian terror"... with Sharon in charge, Palestinians have no alternative...". But what about Barak? What about Peres? What about anyone else? It's not like the bombings started with Sharon in power.We are agreed however, that as long as the Leader of Israel and the Leader of the Pallestinian Authority have such personal hatred of each other.... this will slow things down.
What was the excuse when others were in power? Unfortunately the one common denominator to all Israeli PM's is Arafat.
I disagree. I think that there's enough loyalty to him that would allow him to win it. Even with any doubt now, why wasn't it done 10 years ago when he had a full strong police force armed to the hilt and supplied with Israeli guns, as required by Oslo? Arafat truly made his own bed.I have said before; even if Arrafat did start a civil war by going after Hamas, then he'd lose it.
No leader will deliberatly start a civil war, especially one he cant win.
I think Israelis wish Arafat would pull a Ben Gurion wrt the Altalena.
http://www.recordonline.com/archive/...5/715colum.htm
In 1948, he gave the order for the Israel Defense Forces to fire on a ship full of fellow Jews. The ship was called the Altalena. It was carrying weapons for a Jewish resistance group called the Irgun, which was one of the groups fighting for Israel's independence from Britain. Aboard the ship was a future prime minister of Israel, Menachem Begin. He lived, others died. It's impossible to imagine now, standing in Sde Boker, how this decision must have weighed on Ben Gurion. The Holocaust was still ever-present in the minds of Jews. Israel was meant to be a safe haven for Jews. And now its leader saw no choice but to shoot at Jews. No matter what the outcome, no matter how necessary, this could only be a hideous tragedy.
But Ben Gurion was the prime minister. He wasn't going to have heavy weapons in the hands of an independent militia operating in Israel. That could only undermine the new government. It could only put the army – which he had founded – at great risk. And in 1948 Israel was already coping with enough risks.What about Oslo that gave limited sovereignty to the PA? What about Israel coming very close to electing ultimate dove, Shimon Peres? Both these things brought more suicide bombings, not less.The only way to reduce the influence of the "Religious" organisations, is to show that the "Nationalist" one is getting somewhere.
But really, what should Israel do wrt groups like Hamas? They roam freely, bomb indiscriminately, and brag about how they won't stop until Israel is destroyed. What will Hamas do now? Say that they really really won't stop until Israel is destroyed? Like we know, successful attacks have gone down the past year.And in the meantime, Israel has successfully created another Martyr.... well done them
Bombers will get through. But ridding the region of people like Rantissi will only get everyone closer to peace.
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