"Arafat isn’t perfect, but unlike his neighboring leaders, he was elected. This means we have to deal with him. Shelling his headquarters doesn’t help the peace process. "
Far from perfect…he sponsors and permits violence…but hey he is doing his job pretty well. I give him this: yes he was elected. We have to deal with people all around the world, elected or not (who elected Al Sharpton???) You see, the Israelis isolated a leader conduction a “behind the scenes” war with israel…buying weapons, permitting attacks, and having attacks conducted. Now, personally I’m not sure if surrounding him in one room making him a step away from matyrdom is a smart thing to do, but i am no general, and nor do i know how intense Arafat’s network of violence was.
“Israelis defending their land? In 1948, it was the Palestinian’s land, but the Israelis came in with better weapons and American support and took it from them because their “ancestors” 2000 years ago lived there.”
Yanny, please read this: HUGE MISCONCEPTION. The jews ALWAYS LIVED IN THE MIDDLE EAST. OVer a million before israel became a state…they are a middle eastern minority in numerical terms. But they have been there, and always were. They were there before islam…Judea was a state before the seljuk turks conquered that part of the Byzantine Empire. So I believe during 600 hundred something AD, the jews were conquered (they always were) and were controlled by a different nationality (as always since the BC era.) Now, THAT DOESN’T MEAN JEWS WEREN’T ALREADY LIVING THERE! They lived peacefully until a little after Zionism came along. Now you see, the Arabs “aka palestinians”, lost WW1, and the British controlled “palestine.” Then the british wanted to give the jews something they want, a jewish homeland. That doesn’t mean that only jews can live there however, and remains that way till this day. Arab countries, wanting to increase their own borders, attack israel…so weren’t they trying to steal land that wasnt’ theirs?
IMO land doesn’t belong to any true nationality, and after ww2, when the big powers on earth carved up borders, we have to learn to deal with it. Plus the fact that the jews historically lived in that land, I don’t see how they stole it.
Jews from Europe immigrated to israel, and 800,000 throughout the middle east were forced that way, so a majority of jews live in the “jewish state.” I understand why israel doesn’t want Arab immigration…they don’t want to be taken over!
So Yannster, the jews didn’t live there 2000 yeasrs ago…they HAVE been living there SINCE 3500 years ago.
