You are blinded by your bias. The Israelis are targeting children and civilians no less, no more than the Palestinians. When they go after Hamas leaders, they fire their missiles straight into crowded Gaza neighbors........."children and defenseless civilians" are always hit.
No Ted. The Palestinian terrorists are aiming at children and defenseless civilians. Even when their actions could have no impact on anyone else they we'll gladly kill innocent civilians. The Israelis may not be sufficiently careful to avoid civilian casualties at times (although at others they are extraordinarily careful). If this is so it may be a moral failing but it isn't the same as deliberately attacking civilians. And your statement about how "children and defenseless civilians are always hit", when Israel targets "Hammas leaders is far from true.
They aren't sneaking on to over overrunning Palestinian farms to slit the throats of children.
And the Israeli soldiers are killing Palestinian children in the streets while they play.
In one case you have deliberate murder. In the other you have people getting caught in a crossfire. The number of Palestinian children being killed in the streets by Palestinian gunman shooting at Israelis probably isn't a lot less then the number killed by the Israelis and the Palestinians are more often the ones who choose a battleground with a lot of children in-between the two sides.
Once again, your bias is showing.......the murderers are on both sides. The Israelis' AK-47s are no more blessed than the suicide bombers.
If someone is trying to kill you, and I shoot at him to save you but I miss and hit an innocent third party I did not commit murder. Even if I was reckless in my shooting it wouldn't be murder (even if it would then be a crime short of murder).
Yes, and the Israelis are using tomahawk and patriot missiles.
Neither is a weapon that is used much against Palestinians. The Tomahawk is a bit too big for the type of Palestinian targets the Israelis usually attack. The Patriot probably has never been used against the Palestinians because it is an anti-aircraft missile. In any case this is starting to drift away from any point that either of us was initially trying to make.
In many cases the Palestinian Arabs did not own the land. It was owned by foreign Arabs, or Turks, or later by Europeans.
That does not change the fact that ownership was a concept familiar to Palestinians. Its not a concept familiar to Indians.
It doesn't change the fact that ownership was a concept familiar to the Palestinians but it makes that fact rather irrelevant. If I rented instead of owned and my lease was up and my landlord sold you the property, the fact that I was familiar with the concept of ownership would not mean that I was victimized when you evict me and redevelop the property.
Also you have not supported the idea that the Indians had no concept of private or tribal property.
Why are the terrorist methods of the Zionists okay and the Palestinian methods not?
I didn't say they where. I said the mainstream and proto-government Jewish organizations denounced the Zionist bombings, while there has been no similar Palestinian denunciation. Either way its terrorism but there is a difference between terrorism from the fringe that is denounced by the center and terrorism that receives official support from all the relevant groups and most of the population.
There was no provisional gov't except what the Brits put in place in order to control their mandate.
Provisional governments don't actually govern anything. If a group tries to organize a government and later a lot of its structure becomes the government its reasonable to call it a provisional government. But if you insist I can drop the term because its not central to the argument. The organizations that helped form the government denounced the bombing. You link to a Ben Gurion bio but he was not part of the Irgun. Menachem Begin was but he didn't become prime minister until 1977, 31 years after the bombing of the King David Hotel and 29 years after the dismantling of the Irgun. If Arafat renounces terror today then fine why don't we accept him as a national leader in 2032.
The Irgun and their ilk where the radical fringe of the Zionist movement. Hammas and the various "martyr brigades" are at the center of the Palestinian nationalist movement. That's a big difference.
At the time of the UN partition, the Palestinians had been majorly screwed. During the past fifty years, what was offered in 1947 has been reduced further. The Palestinians would be stupid to take what Israel is offering now. I would fight to the bitter end. The Palestinians have little to lose; the Israelis a lot.
The 47 boundaries where not a "major screw". And after years of terrorism and warfare, Israel giving up control of enough land to leave it with something along the lines of the 67 borders wouldn't be either. But even if it was the 47 boundaries simply wont happen. Ending the war with Israel would benefit them far more then moving the borders a few miles in a few places. Not only because they wouldn't face the death from the war but also because their energy could go in to improving their lot in life rather then trying to kill and destroy.
If I were Palestinian, I would choose murder. I bet you would too.
If I were Palestinian I would try to emigrate to the West if possible, failing that to a moderate Arab regime. Failing that I would probably try to keep my head low and do what I can to improve my life. A much better strategy then extending a pointless conflict for another generation and then another...
The ancestors of "Native Americans"/"Indians" and American blacks where screwed but for the most part they didn't get violent about it. Black Americans now have dozens or times the per capita wealth that their distant relatives in Africa had.
Eastern Poland became part of the USSR after WWII, parts of Germany became Polish territory. 3.3 million ethnic Germans and over a million Poles fled or were driven out of their homes. Should Polish and German people's from those areas wage war to get their homelands back? Are Polish bombs going off in Moscow or German bombs in Warsaw? No they have gotten on with their lives as much as they where given a raw deal.
The Palestinians have as good of claim to have a state as any group that doesn't have one, but its one thing to fight for a state its another to fight for more generations because you want to shift the borders a few more miles, esp. when you are not primarily fighting the occupying army but seeking out and killing civilians.
Tim |
