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Politics : Al Gore vs George Bush: the moderate's perspective -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cosmicforce who wrote (1724)	10/9/2000 4:02:20 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10042

There is a real problem with extremist Jews in Israel. Oh.. and I guess all the Palestinians are just a bunch of pacifists... Extremism in Israel has GROWN over recent years as a response to Palestinian intifadas, ambushes, and intransigence like what we're currently seeing. It doesn't make Israelis completely innocent, but I have the sense that Palestinians just haven't been negotiating in good faith, especially Arafat who mistakenly believes he can hold out for a better deal by the use of threats. But Barak doesn't seem to be willing to back down this time and the rising extremism amongst Jews is preventing him from being conciliatory. And since the worst thing that can happen to Arafat at this time is to be as weak, this thing can REALLY explode at a moment's notice. Israelis were willing to work on a "land for peace" agreement for many years despite opposition from Likud and other reactionaries, where the Palestinians never were willing to compromise. But if this latest violence results in open conflict, Israel will likely be targeting for a decapitation shot, including the arrest of Arafat and his deputies. Let's face some facts there... After the War for Independence in 1948, WHEN ARABS ATTACKED ISRAELIS, the Palestinian partition, consisting of the West Bank, was absorbed by Trans-Jordan. The Palestinians were absorbed COMPLETELY into Jordan (which is already 80% palestinian). It was not until 1967 when the Israelis routed all of its Arab neighbors in a pre-emptive strike and captured both the Sinai and the West Bank. Technically since the Palestinian partition had already been conquered by Jordan in 1948, it effectively ceased to exist as a political entity. When Israel conquered it in 1967, it was Jordanian territory and thus considered "spoils of war" (Jordan attacked Israel in 1967 despite being notified that Israel had no intentions of attacking Jordan, and Israeli urgings that Hussein remain neutral). For this reason alone, the Israelis have pretty much every right in the world to kick every Palestinian out of the region (not that it would be politically efficacious to attempt it). And it is one more reason why the Clinton/Gore adminstration has failed. We are now even more vulnerable to OPEC blackmail than we were during the Yom Kippur war in 1973 that ignited the Arab Oil Embargo.. Something else to think about..