As always, well said. My only addition to that is that the idea of negotiating a settlement with these Arab locals after tons of blood has been spilled already is rather naive. Messianic unrealism 1st order. That the Arabs rejected a two-state solution was to be expected. Walk in their shoes for a second: we all would reject it. They wanted the invaders out, their land and villages back.Typhoon wrote: ↑Sun Oct 08, 2023 11:18 pm
Well, after experiencing over a millennium of Christian love and charity culminating in the Holocaust,
one can understand why the Jews would seek their own state.
Today the diaspora Jews are again experiencing antisemitism including physical violence.
In W Europe, from recent immigrants who have been raised to believe that Jews are sub-humans who must be exterminated.
In the US, from the woke Left and from blacks, the latter being especially ironic since Jews were the whites disproportionately involved in the US civil rights movement.
The UN proposed a two-state solution which was acceptable to the Jews, the Arabs chose war, so they are responsible for the current situation.
As for a solution, driving Hamas into the sea, with any remaining civilian survivors on the seashore - to be rescued by the Muslim and other nations who claim to be so concerned for their well-being, is the only viable one for long term peace.
It's the secular Jews who do the fighting and dying for Israel. The orthodox religious are exempt.
To settle for less is usually seen as something that traitors do. Arafat famously explained why he rejected the best and final offer ever made by Israel under I believe Ehud Barak: "If I had said yes, I would be dead tomorrow." The Arab consensus was that the Jewish state had to be eradicated. Now those sub-human Jews turned out to quickly dominate the region and win all battles, which added to their humiliation and injury. Still does.
If it was up to the Zionists after winning battle after battle, they would have probably annexed Gaza and Westbank, quickly rooting out all remnant militant resistance and not mind deporting or chasing away more Palestinians into Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon. If they felt they had to.
These Arab and Jewish tribes knew in 1948: it would be war, and us or them. You never share your toilet with your enemy with the blood of your relatives still glued to the walls. But the Zionists bowed to international pressure to go on that messianic track of a negotiated settlement, chase a one state solution… or even better two states… a green line here, a red line there... nothing worked.
Building more and more settlements further into those "disputed" territories, just as an excuse and reason to be there with the Israeli army preventing what would otherwise happen in no time: the buildup of a huge arsenal of rockets aimed at Israel from all sides, which would quickly become an existential threat. This is exactly what happened in Gaza after Sharon decided to uproot all settlements, and in Lebanon where Hezbollah governs the south. The reason to extend settlements was not due to a lack of space elsewhere, or just to be nice to those immigrating orthodox Jews who felt entitled to that soil… it was purely a considered necessary military and strategic decision to survive, to keep and defend what was captured. Illustrated by the fact that under all Israeli governments, forward settlement building continued.
Israeli Arabs are the only lucky Arabs of course, they participate in a reasonably functional society.
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