Depends whether "the last year" means "the last 12 months" or "2002". Turns out that Hamas & PIJ have been edged out this year by Al Aqsa, but the big spate of bombings last December was all theirs, so they're still ahead for the last 12 months. ict.org has a searchable database
But my point was that the AA has edged out the Hamas & PIJ - and that stands. I said last year or so - which means APPROXIMATELY. But what are we arguing over? The point was: the AA is now becoming the dominant force and so you can't say that the suicide bomber is simply the religious fanatic... something that has never been true except in a tiny number of cases.
You keep trying to deny simple facts. Israel is an occupying force. They are trying to annex land beyond their internationally recognized borders (settlements). This, will be met with resistance, it is a simple human reaction. And it is not Arafat or anybody else who is recruiting or "tricking" people into defending their land. The street, in fact, is far more radical than Arafat. They are moved by the daily injustice of the occupation, and the systematic theft of their lands. THIS is the source of the problem.
There have been some incidents, but the number of settlers dying in attacks is well over a hundred and the number killed by settlers only a handful, twenty at most. Who's stopping the settlers from machine gunning Arab markets in revenge? The IDF. Who's stopping Hamas from suicide bombing every Israeli they can? Also the IDF.
You have made the assertion that there were NO attacks by settlers and that they are controlled all by the IDF. Nonsense. My point was: NOBODY can be expected to control 100% of their extremists. You cited the settlers as being controlled. I showed that to be nonsense. They do not control them 100% - which is exactly what I claimed. So do not expect that of the PA either. Yes, there were fewer Palestinians killed by settlers - but there are many more Palestinians than there are settlers! So by percentage, the settlers come out WORSE than the Palestinians in the "terrorist" department. Plus, it is quite natural for the Palestinians to fiercly defend themselves - their land is being STOLEN by the settlers... quite natural that they'd react, and their reaction would be stronger. But the bottom line is: NOBODY controls their extremists 100% and it is hypocritical of Israel to demand that of the PA.
Yeah, Israel will be nine miles wide at Netanyah, and the PLO will say: Phase I of the Plan of Phases accomplished. Didn't you read Faisal Husseini's last interview, the one where he said that Oslo was a Trojan horse? The PA has shown very little interest in building a state. Their chief interest (like the Greeks who built the original Trojan Horse) seems to be in destroying one. They don't even care if they destroy themselves in the effort. You really think such neighbors will bring peace to anyone?
Well TRY it. First of all what are we talking about? That land is not Israel's to decide about - it is STOLEN land that needs to be returned. Period. Second, give peace a chance. Actually, when there was hope for peace with total Israeli withdrawal to pre-67, the vast majority of Palestinians was willing to live in peace w/ Israel. There were many polls to that effect. The number of terrorist attacks dropped drastically. There were long periods of no attacks - and what did folks like Netanyahu do? They used that time to stall, sabotage and continue stealing land. Seeing that, the Palestinians understood that refraining from armed struggle brings them nothing but betrayal (Netanyahu clearly sabotaged and broke the Wye agreement as soon as is was signed). So you already HAD long, long times of peace, time used to simply steal with impunity.
And you ask whether Israel pulling back to pre-67 would bring peace? Again, look at Lebanon. You will not stop ALL terrorist attacks. Anymore than any country can stop all crime. But you will drastically cut down on them - which is what you want... it is not realistic in this world to stop it all, especially not after Israel has been busy creating oceans of hate and generations of haters. There will be the hard core. But what you will do, is to remove the support for the radicals by their societies. In fact, cooperation between PA and Israeli security services is possible, and happened before, quite effectively - but for that to be possible you need the Palestinian PEOPLE to support this. This is a double good for Israel - it cuts down on the number of those willing to support the terrorists cutting down their numbers and you multiply your power to stop them (addition of PA security forces).
The result is that while you cannot stop ALL terrorism, you can cut it down to almost nothing. That is far better than breeding ever greater number of terrorists, who one day, god forbid will gain bio-WMD. Give up the land that is not yours. Stop the injustice. Israel cannot solve the problem militarily. It must stop the injustice. |
