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THE "ROAD MAP" AND U.S. STRATEGY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
What is the Bush Administration seeking to accomplish with its "Road Map" for Palestine and Israel? Answering this question is key to understanding the current diplomatic offensive undertaken by Washington in the aftermath of the Iraq war.
THE "ROAD MAP" AND U.S. STRATEGY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
By Richard Becker, International Action Center, June 2003
What is the Bush Administration seeking to accomplish with its "Road Map" for Palestine and Israel? Answering this question is key to understanding the current diplomatic offensive undertaken by Washington in the aftermath of the Iraq war.
While facing growing opposition to its colonial-style occupation in Iraq, the administration is moving forward very aggressively to reorganize and subjugate the entire Middle East, and the "Road Map" is a key element in their plans.
The defeat of Iraq and the destruction of its government and state were seen by Washington as necessary pre-conditions for opening a new round of negotiations with the Palestinians.
Since the beginning of his administration, Bush has previously refused to even speak with the leadership of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). During that time, he has hosted Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the White House on eight occasions, more than any other foreign leader. The U.S. has continued, during the same period, to funnel massive economic and military aid to Israel.
Since the start of the second Intifada in Sept. 2000, Israel has re-occupied the Palestinian cities, towns and villages in the West Bank and Gaza. Economic life has been largely destroyed, unemployment has risen to 80% or higher in many areas, and poverty and hunger have skyrocketed. In the past 32 months, three times as many Palestinians - more than 2,200 - as Israelis have been killed. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been injured and more than 10,000 imprisoned. Those jailed are routinely beaten and tortured by the Israeli authorities.
Despite facing overwhelming firepower (the Israeli military is rated as the 4th most powerful in the world) and widespread suffering, the Palestinians have not been defeated.
But with the crushing of Iraq, Washington views the Palestinians, and Arab people as a whole, as in a weakened position.
It was a similar combination of factors that impelled the first Bush administration to open the Oslo "Peace Process" after defeating Iraq in the 1991 Gulf war.
U.S. DEMANDS NEW PALESTINIAN LEADERS
Before officially announcing the Road Map, the U.S. insisted that the PNA reorganize itself, and choose a prime minister acceptable to Washington, namely Mahmoud Abbas, a long-time associate of PNA President Yasir Arafat. Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, has been critical of the Intifada and has called for an end to armed resistance to the Israeli military occupation.
Officially entitled, "A Performance-Based Road Map to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," the document projects three phases leading to a final resolution by 2005. Overseeing the plan is the "Quartet" - the U.S., European Union, Russia and the U.N., though the pre-eminence of the U.S. role is beyond doubt. Made absolutely clear is that it will be the Palestinian "performance" that is judged.
Overwhelming emphasis in Phase I is placed on "Security," which translates as ending Palestinian "violence and terrorism." Section after section focuses on re-organizing PNA security forces, cutting off funding to Palestinian resistance organizations, creating a U.S.-Jordan-Egypt "oversight board" to train and monitor the PNA police and security. (Egypt and Jordan, it should be noted, both maintain large police forces funded by the U.S. to ruthlessly control their respective populations.)
While Israel is called on to take "no actions undermining trust," the words "violence," "terror," etc, are nowhere in the document linked to actions of the Israeli military.
As Andrea Anderson, director of Harvard University's Middle East Initiative noted in a recent commentary: "the conditionality of the agreement only applies to ending Palestinian violence."
The Israelis are supposed to stop expanding their settlements in the West Bank, which have nearly doubled in population to 235,000 since the Oslo process began to be implemented in 1993, and dismantle a small number of lightly populated "outpost" settlements.
Phase II is envisioned as beginning later this year - presumably after the Palestinian resistance has been terminated: "In the second phase, efforts are focused on the option of creating an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders and attributes of sovereignty . . " (Our emphasis - RB).
Speaking in extraordinarily patronizing and colonial tones, the Road Map continues: "As has been noted, this goal can be achieved when the Palestinian people have leadership acting decisively against terror, willing and able to build a practicing democracy based on tolerance and liberty."
In other words, when the Palestinians have "shown they are worthy," they will be awarded not self-determination, but autonomy.
After presumably meeting many more similar requirements, the Palestinians will enter Phase III sometime in 2004-2005. Then, and only then, will such fundamental issues as the Palestinian right to return and Jerusalem even be discussed.
The right of Palestinians living in exile is especially critical. In 1948, to make way for the establishment of the state of Israel 780,000 Palestinians were evicted from their homeland, or fled the fighting. Their lands, orchards, shops and homes were seized without compensation. Hundreds of thousands more were driven out in the 1967 war when Israel seized the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and Sinai peninsula. Today there are an estimated 4.5 Palestinians refugees and their descendants living in exile, many existing in extreme poverty in camps in Jordan, Lebanon and elsewhere.
According to Israeli law, any Jewish person from anywhere in the world has the right to "return" to Israel and immediately claim citizenship. Yet, not one Palestinian refugee has ever been allowed to return to their homeland. This despite UN Security Council Resolution 191, of 1949, that stipulated that all Palestinian refugees must be granted the right to return.
The Bush administration has conveniently left UNSC Res. 191 out of the resolutions mentioned in the Road Map. Moreover, the Sharon government has stated from the very beginning that it will never consider allowing the Palestinians back.
Sharon and the entire Israeli power structure view are opposed to any Palestinian right to return, which they view as undermining the existence of Israel as an exclusivist state in which Jewish people are given special and superior rights. The U.S. rulers support the apartheid-like character of the Israeli state, seeing it as a guarantee that Israel will remain an outpost of western imperialism in the Middle East.
Many inside and outside Israel have been surprised that Sharon has agreed to negotiations at all, even with major conditions and reservations. Sharon's whole career - which spans the existence of Israel - has been dedicated to expanding the state. His bloody history of massacres and repression against the Palestinians is well known.
Two factors explain Sharon's "new look." First, there is intense pressure from Washington- Israel's economic, diplomatic and military lifeline- to get on board with the new Bush initiative.
Second, Sharon intends to annex large sections of the West Bank, and to relegate the Palestinians to disconnected pieces of territory surrounded by Israeli military power. In addition, Israel would retain control of the borders, airspace, water and subsoil rights of all of Palestine.
Under his plan, the Palestinians would be "self-governing" within small, controllable areas that would become labor colonies for Israeli businesses.
WHAT THE U.S. WANTS
The U.S. objective in this process is the same one Washington has pursued for decades: the establishment of U.S. hegemony over a pacified Middle East. Domination of the Middle East, due to its oil riches and strategic position, has been a central goal of U.S. foreign policy since World War II.
Crushing the Palestinian resistance - which is so central to the struggle in the region as a whole- is considered to be key to establishing U.S. hegemony over the entire area. Achieving that goal is what the Road Map is all about.
Elias Rashmawi, a spokesperson for the Free Palestine Alliance-U.S., said of the negotiations: "The Road Map is the ultimate formulation by the US to fully end all forms of resistance and fragment the Palestinian national unity. The plan brings nothing new to the Palestinian people. The claim that a Palestinian state will emerge is not any different from the 'Autonomy' project of the Seventies and the first Camp David agreement. Missing are all core and fundamental issues, particularly the right of return and the principle of full national sovereignty.
"In reality this is a 'security plan' designed to destroy resistance on all fronts. The ultimate goal is not Palestinian statehood and return, but the normalization of Zionist discourse and the Israeli polity throughout the Arab World.
"This plan is part of the overall design by the US to control the Arab World in full by gutting out the core liberationist effort - the Palestinian resistance.
"The ongoing attempt to bring the Palestinian National Authority into the fold along with other Arab regimes is a dangerous attempt to strike a wedge in the Palestinian society and to further strengthen the dependency relationship on the U.S. It is geared towards the transformation of the Palestinian national movement into a functionary entity in a globalized US economy and a militarized region subject to the garrisons of Israel and the U.S. Nullified are all aspects of independence.
"This is a plan that is in tandem with other ongoing US projects worldwide, including the transformation of the Philippines as a whole into a military base, the destruction of the Cuban model, the control of the Korean peninsula, and the total grip on Latin America."
International Action Center, 2489 Mission St., Rm. 24
San Francisco, CA 94110, 415-821-6545
By Richard Becker, International Action Center, June 2003
What is the Bush Administration seeking to accomplish with its "Road Map" for Palestine and Israel? Answering this question is key to understanding the current diplomatic offensive undertaken by Washington in the aftermath of the Iraq war.
While facing growing opposition to its colonial-style occupation in Iraq, the administration is moving forward very aggressively to reorganize and subjugate the entire Middle East, and the "Road Map" is a key element in their plans.
The defeat of Iraq and the destruction of its government and state were seen by Washington as necessary pre-conditions for opening a new round of negotiations with the Palestinians.
Since the beginning of his administration, Bush has previously refused to even speak with the leadership of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). During that time, he has hosted Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the White House on eight occasions, more than any other foreign leader. The U.S. has continued, during the same period, to funnel massive economic and military aid to Israel.
Since the start of the second Intifada in Sept. 2000, Israel has re-occupied the Palestinian cities, towns and villages in the West Bank and Gaza. Economic life has been largely destroyed, unemployment has risen to 80% or higher in many areas, and poverty and hunger have skyrocketed. In the past 32 months, three times as many Palestinians - more than 2,200 - as Israelis have been killed. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been injured and more than 10,000 imprisoned. Those jailed are routinely beaten and tortured by the Israeli authorities.
Despite facing overwhelming firepower (the Israeli military is rated as the 4th most powerful in the world) and widespread suffering, the Palestinians have not been defeated.
But with the crushing of Iraq, Washington views the Palestinians, and Arab people as a whole, as in a weakened position.
It was a similar combination of factors that impelled the first Bush administration to open the Oslo "Peace Process" after defeating Iraq in the 1991 Gulf war.
U.S. DEMANDS NEW PALESTINIAN LEADERS
Before officially announcing the Road Map, the U.S. insisted that the PNA reorganize itself, and choose a prime minister acceptable to Washington, namely Mahmoud Abbas, a long-time associate of PNA President Yasir Arafat. Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, has been critical of the Intifada and has called for an end to armed resistance to the Israeli military occupation.
Officially entitled, "A Performance-Based Road Map to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," the document projects three phases leading to a final resolution by 2005. Overseeing the plan is the "Quartet" - the U.S., European Union, Russia and the U.N., though the pre-eminence of the U.S. role is beyond doubt. Made absolutely clear is that it will be the Palestinian "performance" that is judged.
Overwhelming emphasis in Phase I is placed on "Security," which translates as ending Palestinian "violence and terrorism." Section after section focuses on re-organizing PNA security forces, cutting off funding to Palestinian resistance organizations, creating a U.S.-Jordan-Egypt "oversight board" to train and monitor the PNA police and security. (Egypt and Jordan, it should be noted, both maintain large police forces funded by the U.S. to ruthlessly control their respective populations.)
While Israel is called on to take "no actions undermining trust," the words "violence," "terror," etc, are nowhere in the document linked to actions of the Israeli military.
As Andrea Anderson, director of Harvard University's Middle East Initiative noted in a recent commentary: "the conditionality of the agreement only applies to ending Palestinian violence."
The Israelis are supposed to stop expanding their settlements in the West Bank, which have nearly doubled in population to 235,000 since the Oslo process began to be implemented in 1993, and dismantle a small number of lightly populated "outpost" settlements.
Phase II is envisioned as beginning later this year - presumably after the Palestinian resistance has been terminated: "In the second phase, efforts are focused on the option of creating an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders and attributes of sovereignty . . " (Our emphasis - RB).
Speaking in extraordinarily patronizing and colonial tones, the Road Map continues: "As has been noted, this goal can be achieved when the Palestinian people have leadership acting decisively against terror, willing and able to build a practicing democracy based on tolerance and liberty."
In other words, when the Palestinians have "shown they are worthy," they will be awarded not self-determination, but autonomy.
After presumably meeting many more similar requirements, the Palestinians will enter Phase III sometime in 2004-2005. Then, and only then, will such fundamental issues as the Palestinian right to return and Jerusalem even be discussed.
The right of Palestinians living in exile is especially critical. In 1948, to make way for the establishment of the state of Israel 780,000 Palestinians were evicted from their homeland, or fled the fighting. Their lands, orchards, shops and homes were seized without compensation. Hundreds of thousands more were driven out in the 1967 war when Israel seized the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and Sinai peninsula. Today there are an estimated 4.5 Palestinians refugees and their descendants living in exile, many existing in extreme poverty in camps in Jordan, Lebanon and elsewhere.
According to Israeli law, any Jewish person from anywhere in the world has the right to "return" to Israel and immediately claim citizenship. Yet, not one Palestinian refugee has ever been allowed to return to their homeland. This despite UN Security Council Resolution 191, of 1949, that stipulated that all Palestinian refugees must be granted the right to return.
The Bush administration has conveniently left UNSC Res. 191 out of the resolutions mentioned in the Road Map. Moreover, the Sharon government has stated from the very beginning that it will never consider allowing the Palestinians back.
Sharon and the entire Israeli power structure view are opposed to any Palestinian right to return, which they view as undermining the existence of Israel as an exclusivist state in which Jewish people are given special and superior rights. The U.S. rulers support the apartheid-like character of the Israeli state, seeing it as a guarantee that Israel will remain an outpost of western imperialism in the Middle East.
Many inside and outside Israel have been surprised that Sharon has agreed to negotiations at all, even with major conditions and reservations. Sharon's whole career - which spans the existence of Israel - has been dedicated to expanding the state. His bloody history of massacres and repression against the Palestinians is well known.
Two factors explain Sharon's "new look." First, there is intense pressure from Washington- Israel's economic, diplomatic and military lifeline- to get on board with the new Bush initiative.
Second, Sharon intends to annex large sections of the West Bank, and to relegate the Palestinians to disconnected pieces of territory surrounded by Israeli military power. In addition, Israel would retain control of the borders, airspace, water and subsoil rights of all of Palestine.
Under his plan, the Palestinians would be "self-governing" within small, controllable areas that would become labor colonies for Israeli businesses.
WHAT THE U.S. WANTS
The U.S. objective in this process is the same one Washington has pursued for decades: the establishment of U.S. hegemony over a pacified Middle East. Domination of the Middle East, due to its oil riches and strategic position, has been a central goal of U.S. foreign policy since World War II.
Crushing the Palestinian resistance - which is so central to the struggle in the region as a whole- is considered to be key to establishing U.S. hegemony over the entire area. Achieving that goal is what the Road Map is all about.
Elias Rashmawi, a spokesperson for the Free Palestine Alliance-U.S., said of the negotiations: "The Road Map is the ultimate formulation by the US to fully end all forms of resistance and fragment the Palestinian national unity. The plan brings nothing new to the Palestinian people. The claim that a Palestinian state will emerge is not any different from the 'Autonomy' project of the Seventies and the first Camp David agreement. Missing are all core and fundamental issues, particularly the right of return and the principle of full national sovereignty.
"In reality this is a 'security plan' designed to destroy resistance on all fronts. The ultimate goal is not Palestinian statehood and return, but the normalization of Zionist discourse and the Israeli polity throughout the Arab World.
"This plan is part of the overall design by the US to control the Arab World in full by gutting out the core liberationist effort - the Palestinian resistance.
"The ongoing attempt to bring the Palestinian National Authority into the fold along with other Arab regimes is a dangerous attempt to strike a wedge in the Palestinian society and to further strengthen the dependency relationship on the U.S. It is geared towards the transformation of the Palestinian national movement into a functionary entity in a globalized US economy and a militarized region subject to the garrisons of Israel and the U.S. Nullified are all aspects of independence.
"This is a plan that is in tandem with other ongoing US projects worldwide, including the transformation of the Philippines as a whole into a military base, the destruction of the Cuban model, the control of the Korean peninsula, and the total grip on Latin America."
International Action Center, 2489 Mission St., Rm. 24
San Francisco, CA 94110, 415-821-6545
For more information:
http://www.actionsfbay.org
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The Road Map for peace was a good move by Bush. It will finally put the onus on Palestinians to decide whether they want REAL peace with Israel and a state of their own. Unfortunately, I hold not much hope. It will expose the Palestinians for their true agenda - the total annihilation of Israel. It is really what all the unrest in the Middle East is about - the existence of Israel. It is any wonder, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Arafat's organization Al Asqa, rejected the roadmap and pledged to continue homicide attacks on innocent Israeli citizens
Israel already has 1.3 million Arab citizens. They can vote, hold jobs and run for public office. The laws are not Koran-based, but Muslims are free to pray and worship as they wish.
Israel will not let in millions of Palestinians, because they know what would happen next. If you think the killings are bad now, wait till the Arabs don't have to cross a border, or get through a checkpoint to find a Jew to murder. Wait till they live right among the Jews and they can kill a Jew just by walking across the street and shoving a knife in his gut. Does the word "kristallnacht" mean anything to you?
The Palestinians are a culture that produces waves of sneaky civilian-slaughtering terrorists.
How do the Palestinians raise so many people who have no regard for human life? What kind of gutter do these animals come from? What kind of Evil could think it is an act of heroic and religious martyrdom to slaughter children waiting for buses, to blow apart people in their sleep, to kill women doing their marketing, to target the weak and defenseless. Why do the Palestinians clamor like voltures to take credit when they butcher Israeli school kids on a school bus. What kind of monsters are these people?
Israel already has 1.3 million Arab citizens. They can vote, hold jobs and run for public office. The laws are not Koran-based, but Muslims are free to pray and worship as they wish.
Israel will not let in millions of Palestinians, because they know what would happen next. If you think the killings are bad now, wait till the Arabs don't have to cross a border, or get through a checkpoint to find a Jew to murder. Wait till they live right among the Jews and they can kill a Jew just by walking across the street and shoving a knife in his gut. Does the word "kristallnacht" mean anything to you?
The Palestinians are a culture that produces waves of sneaky civilian-slaughtering terrorists.
How do the Palestinians raise so many people who have no regard for human life? What kind of gutter do these animals come from? What kind of Evil could think it is an act of heroic and religious martyrdom to slaughter children waiting for buses, to blow apart people in their sleep, to kill women doing their marketing, to target the weak and defenseless. Why do the Palestinians clamor like voltures to take credit when they butcher Israeli school kids on a school bus. What kind of monsters are these people?
The Palestinian People want their freedom, Someone once said Give me Liberty or Give me Death, Is that so Hard to Understand???
West Bank and Gaza are only 22% of what is today Israel, West Bank and Gaza.
PLEASE LOOK AT THE MAP IN THE FOLLOWING WEB PAGE:
The Orange areas are Israeli settlements in the already small 22% that is West Bank and Gaza. What kind of carved up mess will the Palestinian State be unless a solution like the above mentioned one.
CLICK HERE > http://mondediplo.com/maps/IMG/artoff3260.jpg
For there to be Peace and for there to be a reason for the Palestinian People to stop their fight for Freedom:
We need a Palestinian State with Reasonable Border NOW...
Send in a Joint, U.S., U.N. Peace keeping Force to the West Bank and Gaza for the sole purpose of trying to avoid conflicts between the Palestinian and the settlers..
Then have the Biased (biased because they will always be on the side of the settlers) Israeli Military retreat to the pre 1967 Israeli Borders, They can then concentrate their effort on guarding this Border..
(MAHMOUD ABBAS HAS SAID MORE THEN ONCE THAT HE WANTS U.S. OBSERVERS THERE, THAT IS THE ONLY WAY, THAT THE TRUTH OF WHAT IS REALLY OCCURRING WILL BE BELIEVED BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT.)
Example of a possible solution:
Set the Borders back to 1967...
In return the Refugees have no Right of Return inside the 1967 Israeli Borders..
The Refugees can be helped to settle somewhere in the new Palestinian State..
The Settlements are now part of Palestine...
If the some 300,000 Israeli Settlers living in Palestine do not like living there they can move to Israel...
If the 1,000,000 or so Palestinians who now live in Israel do not like living in Israel they can move to Palestine...
If 1,000,000 or so Palestinians can live in Israel, then some 300,000 Israeli Settlers can live in Palestine if they choose to stay..
If you take Israel, West Bank and Gaza, West Bank and Gaza is only 22% of the total area in Question, This small amount is not too much to ask for millions of Palestinians who must have their freedom to have a peaceful life.
If this solution was implemented there is a good chance the so called terrorist (seen as freedom fighters by the oppressed Palestinian People) would stop their fight, if not they would be very foolish because then Israel would have a just cause to fight back and the U.S. would have a just cause to help Israel fight back.
Otherwise we will continue to have:
Israel: We have to confiscate Palestinian land and demolish Palestinian homes because there are suicide bombers???
Palestine: We have to defend ourselves because Israel is slowly confiscating all our land and demolishing our homes. We have no military to defend ourselves and our land. If we do nothing, we will soon have nothing at all???
The era of colonization is past, We can not expect to oppress millions of Palestinian People and still have peace.
West Bank and Gaza are only 22% of what is today Israel, West Bank and Gaza.
PLEASE LOOK AT THE MAP IN THE FOLLOWING WEB PAGE:
The Orange areas are Israeli settlements in the already small 22% that is West Bank and Gaza. What kind of carved up mess will the Palestinian State be unless a solution like the above mentioned one.
CLICK HERE > http://mondediplo.com/maps/IMG/artoff3260.jpg
For there to be Peace and for there to be a reason for the Palestinian People to stop their fight for Freedom:
We need a Palestinian State with Reasonable Border NOW...
Send in a Joint, U.S., U.N. Peace keeping Force to the West Bank and Gaza for the sole purpose of trying to avoid conflicts between the Palestinian and the settlers..
Then have the Biased (biased because they will always be on the side of the settlers) Israeli Military retreat to the pre 1967 Israeli Borders, They can then concentrate their effort on guarding this Border..
(MAHMOUD ABBAS HAS SAID MORE THEN ONCE THAT HE WANTS U.S. OBSERVERS THERE, THAT IS THE ONLY WAY, THAT THE TRUTH OF WHAT IS REALLY OCCURRING WILL BE BELIEVED BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT.)
Example of a possible solution:
Set the Borders back to 1967...
In return the Refugees have no Right of Return inside the 1967 Israeli Borders..
The Refugees can be helped to settle somewhere in the new Palestinian State..
The Settlements are now part of Palestine...
If the some 300,000 Israeli Settlers living in Palestine do not like living there they can move to Israel...
If the 1,000,000 or so Palestinians who now live in Israel do not like living in Israel they can move to Palestine...
If 1,000,000 or so Palestinians can live in Israel, then some 300,000 Israeli Settlers can live in Palestine if they choose to stay..
If you take Israel, West Bank and Gaza, West Bank and Gaza is only 22% of the total area in Question, This small amount is not too much to ask for millions of Palestinians who must have their freedom to have a peaceful life.
If this solution was implemented there is a good chance the so called terrorist (seen as freedom fighters by the oppressed Palestinian People) would stop their fight, if not they would be very foolish because then Israel would have a just cause to fight back and the U.S. would have a just cause to help Israel fight back.
Otherwise we will continue to have:
Israel: We have to confiscate Palestinian land and demolish Palestinian homes because there are suicide bombers???
Palestine: We have to defend ourselves because Israel is slowly confiscating all our land and demolishing our homes. We have no military to defend ourselves and our land. If we do nothing, we will soon have nothing at all???
The era of colonization is past, We can not expect to oppress millions of Palestinian People and still have peace.
Listen you ignorant fool, ISRAEL + WEST BANK + GAZA is only 20% of what "Palestine" was before 80% of it was taken away and made into the actual palestinian state, JORDAN.
Secondly, NO, all palestinians DON"T just want their own freedom. A huge chunk of them also want israel's destruction regardless of what israel does, AND THAT'S THE PROBLEM. Amazing how you can post here every single day and not even get the main point.
Secondly, NO, all palestinians DON"T just want their own freedom. A huge chunk of them also want israel's destruction regardless of what israel does, AND THAT'S THE PROBLEM. Amazing how you can post here every single day and not even get the main point.
You're one of the few on this board to make sense with respect to this ongoing conflict. One can hardly call it a "war" when only one side is armed now, can one?
The so called Road Map was a joke. Sharon's stating that he was going to start removing "settlement outposts" was hysterical. For once I agree with Arafat when he said it was only a matter of moving one trailer from here to there.
The attack on Tuesday by Israeli helicopter gunships on Hamas members on a busy street in Gaza was done to destroy the Road Map and for no other reason. Reporters on the scene said it was so deliberate an attack that it could only mean Israel wanted to destroy the peace proposal.
When Hamas (freedom fighters, as you say, to the Palestinian peoples) responded, as Sharon knew they would, suddenly Bush's "anger" at Israel is turned to Hamas. Had he and Powell threatened to cut all aid to Israel unless it stopped its assassinations one might have seen a different picture today. But no.. The US immediately blamed Hamas for a damn attack that Israel started.
There won't be any peace, Angel, until every last Palestinian is murdered and the rest of their bit of land and hovels taken over and destroyed by Israel. That is the one and only goal. Either that or a little serfdom surrounded by fences, curfews, etc. just as it is today.
All you have to do is read some of the comments on this board to see the hatred spewed at myself and others from people whose filthy minds and words only signify hate. A case in point is the attacks on me here last night because I was seeking clarification on the various sects or branches, whatever, of the jewish religion. Go read them and see for yourself.
If any country is going to send forces into the region, I'd suggest the US military stay out of it. It would be as senseless as Britain putting its own soldiers in Northern Island. I think the US has caused enough damage in the Middle East to last a lifetime. Forces from countries such as Canada, Norway, France, Australia, Britain, etc.,. would be much more appropriate.
I have no hope right now of anything but additional slaughter coming out of this nightmare. And the innocent are the ones who will suffer most.
The so called Road Map was a joke. Sharon's stating that he was going to start removing "settlement outposts" was hysterical. For once I agree with Arafat when he said it was only a matter of moving one trailer from here to there.
The attack on Tuesday by Israeli helicopter gunships on Hamas members on a busy street in Gaza was done to destroy the Road Map and for no other reason. Reporters on the scene said it was so deliberate an attack that it could only mean Israel wanted to destroy the peace proposal.
When Hamas (freedom fighters, as you say, to the Palestinian peoples) responded, as Sharon knew they would, suddenly Bush's "anger" at Israel is turned to Hamas. Had he and Powell threatened to cut all aid to Israel unless it stopped its assassinations one might have seen a different picture today. But no.. The US immediately blamed Hamas for a damn attack that Israel started.
There won't be any peace, Angel, until every last Palestinian is murdered and the rest of their bit of land and hovels taken over and destroyed by Israel. That is the one and only goal. Either that or a little serfdom surrounded by fences, curfews, etc. just as it is today.
All you have to do is read some of the comments on this board to see the hatred spewed at myself and others from people whose filthy minds and words only signify hate. A case in point is the attacks on me here last night because I was seeking clarification on the various sects or branches, whatever, of the jewish religion. Go read them and see for yourself.
If any country is going to send forces into the region, I'd suggest the US military stay out of it. It would be as senseless as Britain putting its own soldiers in Northern Island. I think the US has caused enough damage in the Middle East to last a lifetime. Forces from countries such as Canada, Norway, France, Australia, Britain, etc.,. would be much more appropriate.
I have no hope right now of anything but additional slaughter coming out of this nightmare. And the innocent are the ones who will suffer most.
Yehh. There you go again. Palestinians are so powerful. They even attracted Intel to build their advance semi fab factory near the homes of the Palestinians. Okay, it's in Israel, but still considered near Palestinians.
The Israelis are subjected to searches, raids to their homes at the will of the Palestinians.
The Palestinian's unemployment rate is not even 100%. Look. Israel is in deep economic trouble because Uncle Sam has to help them with lots of aids and money.
Yehhh. Palestinians are almighty and Israel needs more help from Uncle Sam. YEHHH, YEHH, Yehh, Yehh...yehh, yehh, ye....
The Israelis are subjected to searches, raids to their homes at the will of the Palestinians.
The Palestinian's unemployment rate is not even 100%. Look. Israel is in deep economic trouble because Uncle Sam has to help them with lots of aids and money.
Yehhh. Palestinians are almighty and Israel needs more help from Uncle Sam. YEHHH, YEHH, Yehh, Yehh...yehh, yehh, ye....
"Listen you ignorant fool, ISRAEL + WEST BANK + GAZA is only 20% of what "Palestine" was before 80% of it was taken away and made into the actual palestinian state, JORDAN." (Quote by REALITY)
West Bank and Gaza are only 22% of what is today Israel, West Bank and Gaza. Words by ANGEL, The key word is today, if you want to go to the past then you could say before 1947 there was no Israel, If you want to go further back you could say that in the mid 1800s there were fewer then 6000 Jewish People in the Area we are concerned with. There were more then 700,000 Muslim and Arabs living in the area, Even under the Ottoman Empire they were more free then they are now. The Ancestors of the Palestinian Today were thise People, where as the Ancestors of MOST not ALL of the Jewish people living in this area came from Russia, Germany and other European Nations. Why should the Palestinians leave the land that they and their ancestors lived in for hundreds of years and take land from what is TODAY JORDAN just because Israel is committing the horrible atrocities of Land confiscations, home demolitions and the uprooting of their fruit trees and we could go on and on....
Everyone keeps talking about a Palestinian State but if you can and would take the time to look at the map in the Web Site Mentioned you can see what a carved up mess this State would be unless the Settlements were removed or they just become part of Palestine.
For Map (orange areas are Israeli Settlements)
CLICK HERE > http://mondediplo.com/maps/IMG/artoff3260.jpg
I am not anti-Semitic which is why I agree for Israel to exist on 78% of the land in question TODAY...
West Bank and Gaza are only 22% of what is today Israel, West Bank and Gaza. Words by ANGEL, The key word is today, if you want to go to the past then you could say before 1947 there was no Israel, If you want to go further back you could say that in the mid 1800s there were fewer then 6000 Jewish People in the Area we are concerned with. There were more then 700,000 Muslim and Arabs living in the area, Even under the Ottoman Empire they were more free then they are now. The Ancestors of the Palestinian Today were thise People, where as the Ancestors of MOST not ALL of the Jewish people living in this area came from Russia, Germany and other European Nations. Why should the Palestinians leave the land that they and their ancestors lived in for hundreds of years and take land from what is TODAY JORDAN just because Israel is committing the horrible atrocities of Land confiscations, home demolitions and the uprooting of their fruit trees and we could go on and on....
Everyone keeps talking about a Palestinian State but if you can and would take the time to look at the map in the Web Site Mentioned you can see what a carved up mess this State would be unless the Settlements were removed or they just become part of Palestine.
For Map (orange areas are Israeli Settlements)
CLICK HERE > http://mondediplo.com/maps/IMG/artoff3260.jpg
I am not anti-Semitic which is why I agree for Israel to exist on 78% of the land in question TODAY...
The Ancestors of the Palestinian Today ?
The Ancestors of the Palestinian Today ?
The Ancestors of the Palestinian Today ?
did I hear you right???????????????
The Ancestors of the Palestinian Today ?
The trouble with ignorance is that it picks up confidence as it goes along.
The Ancestors of the Palestinian Today ?
The Ancestors of the Palestinian Today ?
did I hear you right???????????????
The Ancestors of the Palestinian Today ?
The trouble with ignorance is that it picks up confidence as it goes along.
The Ancestors of the Palestinian Today ?
I Guess I deserved that, I should have said the ancestor of the Muslim and Christians who are living in the area Today, Since they do not have their freedom yet and they do not have the wonderful Palestinian State everyone is raving about in the Wonderful Road Map That does not start with a Palestinian State with Reasonable borders. But do you deny that the grandparents and great grandparents of the majority of Israelis came from Russia, Nazi Germany and other European countries.
Nazi Germany committed the atrocities of the Holocaust not the Muslim and Christians living in Israel, West Bank and Gaza so why are we Punishing them.
I Guess I deserved that, I should have said the ancestor of the Muslim and Christians who are living in the area Today, Since they do not have their freedom yet and they do not have the wonderful Palestinian State everyone is raving about in the Wonderful Road Map That does not start with a Palestinian State with Reasonable borders. But do you deny that the grandparents and great grandparents of the majority of Israelis came from Russia, Nazi Germany and other European countries.
Nazi Germany committed the atrocities of the Holocaust not the Muslim and Christians living in Israel, West Bank and Gaza so why are we Punishing them.
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