Purists try to split hair, claiming that most of those groups are not in it together… Nonsense.
Terrorist groups will do whatever is required to build a following...
If they can "add" Israel to their list of official targets, they hope to create the impression that the US and Israel are tied at the hip..
Which means the onus is upon the US to truly drain the swamp, hopefully creating the conditions where the Israelis and Palestinians can find a peaceful resolution...
But so long as Arafat has financial and logistical backing of Saddam and Assad (and others).. he'll have little reason give up his violent struggle, making way for the moderates to do the final negotiating..
But I still have considerable heartburn in supporting the creation of a Palestinian state that is not economically viable, and which has no inspirational values justifying their independence (democracy, women's rights.. etc)..
Had the Jews been engaged in suicide bombings and threatening genocide against all the Arabs, I wouldn't have supported the formation of Israel either...
They just has to be something more valuable than mere national "identity", when it comes to carving out space for new national states. They need to add something to the international society as a whole...
Let the Palestinians be a democratic state, and non-militant, and my attitude, and likely that of most Jews, will change...
And I wager the attitudes of Arab states who previously supported the Palestinians would change as well, since democracy in such a state would be direct threat to their own legitimacy.
Hawk |
