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

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (26041)	4/19/2002 8:22:48 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

I don't like Arafat but he has the support of the Palestinian people. OK, I'll put you down as one vote for keeping the settlements. My vote is against. Here is the way I look at it. There are good reasons for keeping the settlements, and bad reasons. There are good reasons for wanting to get rid of the settlements, and bad reasons. I have read all the arguments, weighed them in my mind, and concluded that getting rid of the settlements carries the most weight. The reason you advance, security, is an important, and good reason, for keeping the settlements. I have also read that many of the settlements are not populated by IDF and former IDF, but by ordinary civilians who are not trained militarily, and must be protected by the IDF. So keeping the settlements for security is mixed. I have read that religious settlers, by custom, do not serve in the IDF, but must be protected by the IDF. I have read that the settlements require private access roads, protected by the IDF. You read a day or so ago that the IDF bulldozed someone's olive grove to protect the line of sight for a settlement. This is not the first time I have read such accounts. This is not acceptable because this puts a little bit of Israel inside Palestine. Further, the roads make checkpoints necessary. Those checkpoints are very hateful to Palestinians. One does not go through checkpoints in one's own country. Thus, the good is outweighed by the bad, in my opinon.