Quote:
Originally posted by taxwonk
I'm not an apologist for Hamas or Hezbollah. I'm simply pointing out that the Palestinians call that same land home and have for centuries. In a post-colonial world, I don't think Israel can realistically take the position we have with the Native Americans, that "we stole it fair and square and we're keeping it."
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So Israel should be pushed into the sea?
And before you say "two-state solution," remember that a number of Israelis have called for that, and Israel has tried it before. But the players on the other side -- currently Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the like, but last time Nasser and his compatriots -- weren't so interested in that. When there was an evolution of views by one actor -- Egypt -- Israel gave up land for peace.
Some Israelis may really want eternal occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, but most serious ones do not. As you have pointed out, this may be simple realism, rather than any goodness of the Israeli heart, at work -- but so what? Any realistic Palestinian would reject the notion of devoting your life to driving Israel into the sea. The forced evacuations of Gaza demonstrated that it is serious, realistic people, and not extremists relying on their view of Biblical dogma, who generally run the show in Israel. Neither Palestine nor Lebanon (nor Syria, nor Iran, nor most of the Arab world) has shown any analogous situation.
As long as governments in the Mideast are run by, or cater to, parties that refuse to recognize Israel's right to exist, there will never be peace in the mideast.
