Just Before Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was scheduled to leave for the United States to discuss the the US-sponsored "road map" a suicide bomber killed 7 Israelis on bus in Jerusalem. Earlier that day, another suicide bombing claimed the lives of two Israelis, one of whom was a pregnant woman. In both cases the bombers were disgusted in Jewish prayer robes to blend in with the crowd they were about to horrifically kill.
There cannot be any "road map" to peace in the Middle East until the Palestinian people accept the right of the Israeli people to live.
These actions are not about removing Israel from the West Bank and Gaza. There actions have nothing to do with settlements or fences. This is a war against a people designed to kill each and every one of them by attrition. This is a new Holocaust in slow motion. It is not about a Palestinian state, and it never was. That goal is at best an ancillary move on the way to the destruction of Israel.
Even if the Palestinians get their state, what chances of peaceful coexistance can come from a people who would rather send a 19-year-old engineering student to die rather than give him a future. What are the chances of that kind of sheer hatred just melting away? It seems that this conflict runs far deeper than just territories and settlements. It seems that this conflict is all about the rights of the Israeli people to continue to live and prosper.
Unless the terror stops, peace cannot and must not go forwards. It is irresponsible for the United States to sell out its democratic ally in the name of political expedience. Such a show of weakness will only invite more attacks for political concessions. The United States must make it absolutely clear – peace with Hamas is not an option.
It’s very easy to judge people from the comfort of your house. You can’t reason with someone who has nothing left to protect. What is he going to use engineering for? build a Palestine? Who are we kidding?
An Israeli dies, it’s terrorism, a Palestinian dies, it’s war AGAINST terrorism! The problem is: not everybody can prosper(limited resources), some should, and some shouldn’t. You’re holding the candy away from the child. Child’s crying to get the candy, but you’re holding it back asking the kid to sit down and reason with you! It’s not going to work.
The Palestinians aren’t children. They could have a life for themselves, they could have a state, they could have respectability, and they could create a world in which that young man could have a future.
Instead, they’re committing suicide on a national scale in the name of hate.
It is a tragedy, not just for Israel, but for those Palestinians who might have hopes for something better.
Merimac: No offense, but that’s an incredibly patronizing way to look at things.
The Arab world needs to reckon with its own role in creating the misery that is Palestine. For the past 50 years, they have used the Palestinians as a wedge against Israel. At any point, any of those nations could have relented in their hatred of the Jews long enough to reach a compromise that would have involved a bit of mutual sacrifice – something the Barak Government put on the table with Carteresque naievete. To the Arabs, attacking Israel (using three generations of Palestinians raised under near-lab-perfect conditions to generate eternal hatred, largely at Arab behest) was the goal; justice for the Palestinians never even got on the radar, except in the most cynical possible way.