The Palestinians had jobs to before their leaders permitted terrorists to assume control...
Face it, the PA now has "control" over all of the West Bank and they can't maintain the peace. They have 35,000 heavily armed "policemen", yet they cannot track down the Hamas terroist cells. Their police chief is having mortar shells manufactured for himself instead of preventing mortar attacks...
As for disingenuous behavior, the PNC didn't revoke that clause of their charter until 1998 (kicking and screaming all the way). Thus, they didn't fully comply with Oslo until that point. And discussions on permanent status would be set to begin by 2001 after they fulfilled that requirement and maintain peace and tranquility in the territories.
But there hasn't been any peace since then, now has there?
And without peace, the Israelis are going to keep on improving their settlements because they don't have the political ammunition to fight off their orthodox extremists who claim there will never be peace anyway.
And then Arafat completely violated the Wye River accords last year by releasing all of the Hamas leaders and terrorists that were held prisoner in PA jails:
jpost.com
THAT IS A DIRECT VIOLATION OF EVERY PEACE ACCORD they have negotiated.
It's little wonder that the Israelis figure they will continue their settlement program until they have clear and convincing evidence that the Palestinians want peace and are displaying that desire for peace..
There hasn't been a week that has passed in Israel and the West Bank since Oslo was signed without some form of attack being launched against Israel. From mobs of children being permitted by their parents to go out and throw rocks or molotov cocktails, to infiltrations and shootings.. and now they're using mortars.
So excuse me if I don't have much sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians. If Arafat can't control his own people (or chooses not to), and he's willing to release terrorists to attack Israel, then screw him and screw the Palestinians.
Obviously, you and I are not going to settle this dispute between the two of them.. But at least we can agree on Vietnamese food... :0)
Hawk |
