>Because that's not Sharon's primary concern.........he's much more concerned with security.
The reason for this is because of Israel's history. If one considers the two intifadas to be wars, Israel hasn't gone ten years without a war in its history (as far as I can calculate)... Israel cannot afford to be doublecrossed... and that seems to be what the Arabs are set up to do. The reason why Arafat walked out of Camp David in 2000 was because he wanted a Palestinian "right of return" to Israel proper. That would make any refugee or descendant of a refugee that ever left Israel could return and automatically be granted citizenship. Those people couldn't even be compensated monetarily- the Palestinians in fact are forced by Arafat's PA to sign a document that declares that they will not give up that right for any price. If the Palestinians get a right of return, they not only get their state, but they get all of Israel within 20 years when the Palestinians would be a majority in Israel. This is their plan... you'll notice on TV that if asked about this, Arabs will sidestep the issue, but if confronted directly about this and forced to answer, you'll hear an answer like "Jews have survived as a minority everywhere else in the world, they can survive this." Of course, there'd no longer be a Jewish state, which as we've already agreed, is unfortunately necessary.
Before the Arab summit, it seemed like the right of return would not be included in the Saudi plan, but as it turns out, it is.
>I know what I am about to say next will not be well received; however, I think he is a very dangerous man and should not be in power. There are too many clouds over his past and he feels to be very much out of control.
Eh... I hear that all the time... the biggest cloud hanging over his head is the massacre in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon in '82, when Sharon was defense minister... what happened there was that Israel went in to Lebanon because the PLO, which was stationed there at the time, had been staging attacks into Israel. They had been conducting the attacks from the refugee camp, so Israel went in to guard it so no attackers could come out to cross the border. Israel wasn't particularly successful, because they didn't have much of a mission and the attacks kept coming. At the same time, the Palestinians in the camps had also been attacking the Christians in Lebanon (which is largely Christian). The Christian militia was chomping at the bit to go after the Palestinians. Israel eventually realized that it wasn't accomplishing much, so Sharon called the military out of there. As soon as the soldiers were gone, the Christians went in and massacred the refugees. The issue is whether or not Sharon and Israel were responsible for the well-being of the people who were attacking them. I don't think that they should be held accountable, however, the Arabs blame Sharon much more than they do the Christians who carried out the attack. Sharon's not a wonderful leader, nor a great guy, but I don't think he's a tyrranous killer.
>I hope the Saudi peace plan sticks.
Then, as I said above, you're hoping for no more Israel (of course, you don't mean that). The Arabs have already made it abundantly clear that they're not willing to compromise on the terms one bit. Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt has said as much- "Take it or leave it". Of course, if the Israelis don't take it, they'll be vilified in the press, which is of course unaware of the problem.
-Z
P.S.: I was speaking to my Israeli friend a couple of minutes ago- he said that Arabs make up about 18% of the citizenship in Israel, however, the reason that they don't have equal representation is because most of them support the Labor Party instead of the Arab Party, since the Labor party, though Jewish, is attempting to give the Golan Heights back to Syria. Therefore, their vote is divided, and many vote for Jews. |
