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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Don Hurst who wrote (12492)	12/3/2001 12:52:01 AM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Those dead kids were just awful. But it was a mistake, for which the IDF expressed regret. Nobody denies that the same spot has been used repeatedly to fire mortars into Israel; the mortar-firers were the target. If it had been the other way around, it would still have been awful, but for Hamas, it not have been a mistake; it would have been a success. Just as the dead teenagers in Jerusalem were a success. Only the Palestinian suicide bombers target civilians. Only the Palestinian side began this so-called intifada, this military campaign in an effort to sweeten the deal at the negotiation table. Only after Arafat had clearly made a mockery out of his obligations to maintain security and punish terrorists did the Israelis begin going after the Hamas bombmakers themselves. What would you have them do? Open the border and wave 'hi' to the suicide bombers? The approach that the Guardian recommends is exactly equivalent to saying "Do give the Sudatenland to Mr. Hitler, Prime Minister Chamberlain. After all, he says it is the root cause of the trouble." Anyone who thinks that you stop terrorism by appeasement is a fool. Arafat has given free rein to Hamas and Islamic Jihad and by now they all but run the show. Seen their mission statements? Their goal is to "liberate occupied Palestine" -- all of it. That's actually Arafat's goal too; he only says something different in English when he's in Washington. In Arabic he's always been clear. You may be right about Europe -- did you see yesterday's piece in the online WSJ about how Europe has hated Israel since it stopped being a) the underdog b) socialist -- but you're wrong about the US, thank heavens. There is a limited store of sympathy here for a people who pursue their cause by machine-gunning bus stops and blowing up shopping malls. Especially after they turn down an offer for over 90% of what they claim to want, without so much as a counter offer.