03-31-2002, 10:55 PM
Quote:you are truly clueless. the saudi peace proposal is a farce.
arafat is far from a voice of reason. for you to say that shows your incredible ignorance on this issue. the israelis offered arafat everything he asked for in Oslo. when faced with the acceptance of all his demands, he said no, left Oslo, and started the current intifadeh. what you dont realize is that the palestinians have never wanted peace. they want israel destroyed. that is why in every speech arafat has ever given, you hear no mention of proposed palestinian industry, infrastructure, education. he is less concerned with creating a nation as he is with destroying a nation. the first concern of any nation is the safety of its citizens, yet the palestinians main weapons are its citizens. as stated in the NY times today, if the palestinians had chosen a ghandi-esque approach, they would have achieved statehood 30 years ago. but over and over they have shown that this has never been thier goal. i think the recent israeli actions were long overdue.
they have a right to secure the safety of its citizens against these craven suicide attacks. unfortunatley all peace attempts have failed and the Israelis now feel their only course to safety is the complete dismantling of the palestinian power structure through force. i can hardly blame them and on a small level look forward to it.
Woah there big guy. If you check your history, Arafat was calling for the destruction of Israel pre-Oslo. Times were different and then, Israel had still not come to peace with its neighbors (namely Syria). During Oslo, the Palestinians officially recognized Israel as a state.
You have to understand that the Palestinians themselves didn't invade Israel in the late 40s, it was the Arab League (Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and possibly a few others). After Israel drove them out of their own territory they then went on and took areas designated for the Arab state (Palestinians). After the 48 conflict, Israel controlled more than its fair share and the Egyptians and Jordanians controlled the West Bank and Gaza strip. Already the Israelis had invaded a UN mandated area.
The Palestinians have a right to be angry. Granted Arafat isn't the best solution, but there should be a Palestinian state along side an Israel.
UN Mandate:
![[Image: map.un.partition.plan.gif]](http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/mideast/stories/history.maps/maps/map.un.partition.plan.gif)
Post 48-49 war:
![[Image: map.post.independence.plan.gif]](http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/mideast/stories/history.maps/maps/map.post.independence.plan.gif)
Edited By WhipThisFez on Mar. 31 2002 at 5:56