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Politics : Foreign Policy Discussion Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sultan who wrote (349)	12/4/2002 12:06:52 AM
From: skinowski	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15987

Sultan: I don’t believe that the settlements are all that crucial. Didn’t the Israelis drop their settlements in a blink during the accord with Egypt? I think that the primary problem is with the Arab nations being unable to accept Israel’s right to exist. Is it for misunderstood religious reasons, or because of misplaced pride – but they are still unable to do it. BTW, what happened with Prince Abdullah’s initiative? Has it been strangled? Must agree, regretfully, with much of your pessimism...

To: Sultan who wrote (349)	12/4/2002 9:21:34 AM
From: lorne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15987

Hello Sultan. Your post...." We are in a temporal vortex ".... I would agree with just about all you have said and all those things you mentioned will likely continue. About your very last statement....." In the meantime, one root cause of the flash point, Israel/Palestine conflict will continue.. Israel will continue with settlements.. and so on ".... I agree that Isreal/Arab conflict is one of the flash points and is the main reason or excuse to spread the conflict world wide but I believe it is only an excuse. IMO the root cause of world conflicts, wars, mass murders,etc. etc.is organized religions. It seems to me that world class religions believe that their God is the the real God, their God is the most merciful God, their God is the kindest God...or they were the first religion so they are the only true religion of God or they were the last religion so that makes them the only true religion of God. People who were born into these religions truly believe that they are correct...they really have no choice. IMO. if all organized religions could somehow magically disappear from planet Earth so would most of the worlds conflicts. Religious hatreds have been with us for thousands of years and still are with us. Thousands of people through out history have fled their homelands because of religious hatreds. Many of those people that fled their homelands ended up here in the west and with them came their religious beliefs and hatreds. Well anyway IMO the single biggest problem facing planet earth is religious hatreds.

To: Sultan who wrote (349)	12/4/2002 4:44:59 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 15987

US will not force Israel and Palestinians to come to terms and settle and will continue to support Israel with funds and aids to carry on as they wish.. Well, for one, it's not the responsibility of the US to "force" the Israelis and Palestinians to come to terms. Forcing them to live together will only put the blame upon the US when they don't get along. Secondly, the US has been providing BOTH Israel and the Palestinians with funds, although the funds to the PA have been cut off due to their obvious support for terrorism. Thirdly, Israel is a democracy.. The Palestinian Authority is not. This directly impacts how each government creates and implements policy. Fourthly, the Palestinian Authority, no matter what it's geographical borders or size, cannot exist economically without Israeli markets and infrastructure. They are have little ability to sustain themselves without massive international subsidization of their economy, whereas Israel, were it not required to spend so much on their national defense, would likely no longer require US foreign assistance. But I agree with you, it is a depressing state of affairs.. However, I have little desire to see it become even worse through the creation of a non-democratic and militant Palestinian State. That would solve nothing and only further encourage Arab governments to continue to use Palestinians as pawns for their anti-Israeli bigotry. Hawk