Uh, so you agree that Israel did fail to pacify the Palestinians? I'd never think that I'd get that much of an admission out of you.
For one, I don't believe you and I have ever discussed the topic.
Two, I'm pretty sure (almost 99.9%) that I've never stated that I concurred with a policy of "pacification", or even referred to it as such...
Listen.. the Palestinians and Israelis hate one another, we all know that. The Israelis obviously would have been better served had they driven out all the inhabitants of West Bank and Gaza back into Jordan and Gaza, respectively and just annexed them as conquered territory, as was their right at the time.
But they didn't, and with demographic trends (something you call a "potential", and I call a "probable", problem) they knew the Palestinians would eventually outnumber them and become unmanageable.
And with the relatively non-violent first intifada, they recognized they could no longer govern the occupied territories, or take advantage of the cheap labor, so they resurrected Arafat as a party they could negotiate with (but hopefully controllable this time) in order to help create a governing power they could actually negotiate with (since King Hussein wisely abdicated his responsibility to the West Bank), not just a group of people.
But the second intifada Arafat unleashed, he opened the door to participation by Hamas and other Islamic militant groups who have NO DESIRE to "wage peace" with Israel, even if it means they all have to die in the process. And guess what? Hamas and the other "tigers" Arafat was trying to ride have essentially "eaten" his Palestinian regime. (that and his complete inability to bring economic prosperity to his people)...
The bottom line is that the Palestinian economy is STILL symbiotically linked to the Israelis. They need Israel for jobs, markets, and technological expertise. But they have discovered the Israelis don't need them as much.. So they are building a wall/fence to divorce themselves from that source of cheap labor they now feel they are better off without.. And I say let them build it. It will help keep a degree of separation between them. And they can always tear it down later, should they finally reconcile.
But let's also face facts... The PA is a sovereign government. As such it has a responsibility for maintaining order within whatever boundaries it claims to control. And if the PA is unwilling, or afraid, to crack down upon Hamas, and other militants, then the Israelis have EVERY RIGHT, if not obligation, to wage war upon these elements.
After all not every German was a Nazi, were they? But their government conducted war against neighboring states and that made them just as culpable as any goose-stepping Brownshirt. And they suffered a similar fate as war was waged back upon them..
The Palestinians have a question they have to face... Any government seeking to disengage themselves from the Israeli economy has to provide an alternative, or fail. They will be a Palestinian "weimar republic", ineffective in ruling their fractious political elements, and ripe to be replaced by a dictatorship, or worse, a totalitarian theocratic Islamic state, where militant clerics effectively deny young Palestinians the very future they claimed to be seeking to take back from the Israeli occupiers.
Hawk |
