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Politics : Israel to U.S. : Now Deal with Syria and Iran -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ed Huang who wrote (5286)	6/22/2004 2:14:50 PM
From: Pogeu Mahone	Respond to of 22250

ed you beleive the kurds need Israel to tell them what they want? ed you beleive the shites need Israel to tell them what they want? ed you beleive the Sunni need Israel to tell them what they want? Do you know why bush #1 did not want to control Iraqi? it had nothing to do with Israel.. The Shiite want independence The Kurds want independence do the Taiwanesse want to be controlled by bejing? What people do not want independence? If the Palestians want indepence they will not do it in Israel, what is wrong with jordan? you may not beleive this but live and learn: The uprising's over While no one was looking, something historic has happened in the Middle East. The Palestinian intifadeh is over, and the Palestinians have lost. For Israel, the victory is bitter. The last four years of terrorism have killed almost 1,000 Israelis and maimed thousands of others. But Israel has won strategically. The intent of the intifadeh was to demoralize Israel, destroy its economy, bring it to its knees and thus force it to withdraw and surrender to Palestinian demands. That did not happen. Israel's economy certainly was wounded, but it is growing again. And the Israelis were never demoralized. They turned out to be a lot tougher and braver than the Palestinians had imagined. The end of the intifadeh does not mean the end of terrorism. There was terrorism before it, and there will be terrorism to come. What has happened, however, is an end to systematic, regular, debilitating, unstoppable terror - terror as a reliable weapon. At the height of the intifadeh, there were nine suicide attacks in Israel, killing 85 Israelis, in just one month (March 2002). In the last three months, there has been none. The overall level of violence has been reduced by more than 70%. How did Israel do it? By ignoring its critics and launching a two-pronged campaign. First, Israel targeted terrorist leaders - attacks hypocritically denounced by Westerners who cheer the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. The top echelon of Hamas and other terror groups has been either arrested, killed or driven underground. Second, the fence. Only about a quarter of the separation fence has been built, but its effect is unmistakable. The northern part is complete, and attacks into northern Israel have dwindled to almost nothing. This success changes the strategic equation of the conflict. Yasser Arafat started the intifadeh in September 2000, just weeks after he had rejected at Camp David Israel's offer of withdrawal, settlement evacuation, sharing of Jerusalem and establishment of a Palestinian state. Arafat wanted all that but without making peace and recognizing a Jewish state. Hence, the terror campaign to force Israel to give it all up unilaterally. Arafat failed, spectacularly. The violence did not bring Israel to its knees. Instead, it created chaos, lawlessness and economic disaster in the Palestinian areas. The Palestinians know the ruin Arafat has brought, and they are beginning to protest it. He promised them blood and victory; he delivered on the blood. Even more important, they have lost their place at the table. The separation fence is drawing the line that separates Israelis and Palestinians. The Palestinians were offered the chance to negotiate that frontier at Camp David and chose war instead. Now they are paying the price. These strategic realities are not just creating a new equilibrium, they are creating the first hope for peace since Arafat tore up the Oslo accords four years ago. The only way for the Palestinians to achieve statehood and dignity will be to negotiate a final peace based on genuine coexistence with a Jewish state. It could be a year, five years or a generation until they come to that realization. The pity is that so many, Arab and Israeli, will have had to die before then. Israel no matter what you desire..