I clearly stated, that I think the only thing Palestinians can be reasonably given is borders based on pre-67, with Palestinians giving up the right of return and all claims to any other land, and any monetary compensation.
On what legal basis?? The Palestinians were Jordanians up until 1989. Are the Jordanians going to pay compensation to them for being annexed in 1948?
Should Israel pay compensation to a people which attacked it in 1967, leading to their defeat and occupation for decades because their government was unwilling to enter into a peace treaty??
Doesn't that set a VERY nasty precedent?? If I attack you and you kick my @ss and occupy my territory, why should you be required to pay compensation to me?? And why should I, as a government, be permitted to abandon those people into your hands without offering compensation to the people living there??
Especially if you offer to give it back to me in exchange for peace and I decide to abandon all claim to it, while not granting my citizens living there to be absorbed by my country. You should pay me compensation??
Hell, I should pay these people compensation for abandoning them, after annexing their territory and making them my subjects (of course, I'm speaking from the perspective of a Jordanian). After all, I attacked you and you defeated me.
This is what is so disturbing about the Palestinian problem. The Arab world has abdicated their political and social responsibilities and made pawns out of these people.
So far as I'm concerned, both Israel and Jordan share equal responsibility for the disposition of these people on the West Bank, just as Egypt shares responsibility for the people in Gaza.
We're setting a dangerous trend here SFD, by permitting blatant aggression to go unpunished and without repercussions. The entire situation of the Palestinian people was created as a result of military aggression in an attempt to destroy the Israeli state (within its boundaries set by the UN in 1947). The Arabs were defeated and Israel RIGHTFULLY exercised its options to modify its borders for security and economic concerns (spoils of war)..
After all, I don't see any compensation being offered or paid to Israel for all the people who died at the hands of over 50 years of ongoing Arab aggression?? Will Syria ever pay compensation to Israel for permitting the PLO to attack from Lebanon?? Will Arafat ever pay compensation for permitting Hamas and PFLP to attack Israel from the PA??
And as I stated in my last post to you, I'm not sure the Palestinian people/society has anything meritorious enough to justify setting such a precedent.
If the Palestinians want a state, they have to be willing to do the same thing that Jordan and Egypt have done.. Establish a peace treaty with Israel that takes into account the security and economic needs for both sides.
And the Palestinians should accept the fact that neither Jordan, nor Israel will countenance their becoming a military threat to either side. They would be well off to just accept this and focus on creating the greatest amount of economic growth and progress that they can, and doing what's required to justify all the trouble creating their "homeland" has caused.
Either that, or return the territory to Jordan, on condition that it remain demilitarized.
But somehow I don't see King Abdullah doing what his great-father, and namesake, did in 1948...
Hawk |
