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Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (387)	11/17/2001 9:08:51 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 32591

Is it in Israel's best interest to keep the war going by settlement building and other adverse actions against the Palestinians? Does this mean you are amendable to allowing the refugees to return? When you say "keep the war going" that implies that the settlements were the cause of the war and evacuating them would end the war. This is totally false. The settlements only started in the 80s; the war started long before. I'm no fan of the settlement policy but if you let the Palestinians convince you that the settlements are the cause of the trouble you are buying a bill of goods. Remember, in 67 and 70 and 74 and 79 the Arabs could have had all the territories back for a peace treaty -- no settlements then. They refused. When Sadat accepted in 79, he got the Sinai but refused to take Gaza back. Why should he when it's nothing but a headache to everyone? Also, it's just not a political reality that occupied territory will be kept untouched for 10, 20, 30 years, particularly territory that is strategically vital (without the West Bank, Israel is less than 10 miles wide at its narrowest) and historically part of the Holy Land. I do think a negotiated settlement should include the refugees; but a blanket return of everybody Arafat says is a refugee is impossible (if it were discussed, you'd have 10 million refugees in a minute). A scheduled return of real refugees is something else; in fact, about 400,000 have returned during the Oslo process, 150,000 in 1999 alone. The PLO brought in their friends and families mostly.