Garbanzo Toons

A Sovereign Palestine?

From The Sydney Morning Herald and linked to by way of Little Green Footballs, I found my way to an interesting opinion piece.

Not only won't there be a sovereign Palestinian state, there can't be.

It's no longer viable. At every historic juncture since Israel was created in 1948, rhetoric has taken precedence over pragmatism in the Arab world. As a result, every one of these historic junctions has resulted, without exception, in material defeat for the Palestinians.

In 1948, roughly 700,000 Palestinian Arabs - the number remains contested and inexact - heeded calls from the Arab world and fled their homes in the newly proclaimed Israel. The result? The Palestinian position of 1948 now looks infinitely superior to the Palestinian position of today.

In 1967, Israel was invaded by its Arab neighbours in the Six Day War. The result? The Arabs lost control of the holy city of Jerusalem and the Palestinians went from Arab rule to Israeli control.

In 1982, after the Palestinians sparked a civil war in Lebanon, Israel invaded Lebanon and Jordan's army attacked the Palestine Liberation Organisation. The result? The Palestinians were crushed in Lebanon and Jordan and Israel fortified its position in the West Bank.

In 1987, the first Palestinian intifada began at the instigation of PLO leader Yasser Arafat, and suicide bombings came to Israeli life. It lasted almost five years. The result? Israel again fortified and expanded its positions and the West Bank was divided into military-controlled subdivisions.

In 2000, Arafat launched the second intifada, his response to Israel's final offer in the Oslo peace accords. It lasted six years. The result? What the Palestinians were offered in 2000 is now impossible today, because Israel has since encircled Jerusalem with settlements housing 100,000 Jewish settlers. And Israel began building the Wall.

In 2006, Hezbollah attacked Israel, in the cause of Palestine, and Hamas and other militant elements fired rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip, as political opposition was Islamicised. The result? Some 175 Israelis were killed by Hezbollah, for which Lebanon paid with more than 1500 dead, and Hezbollah lost its military control of southern Lebanon. It thus lost its strategic forward position for no strategic gain.

It should be obvious by now that the Palestinians and their allied Jew-hating Islamic supremecist allies haven't learned a thing. It's obvious that no one else has learned anything either. The Palestinians and surrounding Arab states get their asses handed to them time and time again. Israel, the winner in every conflict, stops way short of humiliation and total destruction so their enemies never know true defeat. Then to make matters worse, it's always Israel that begs for peace.

The world community then condemns Israel for defending themselves and beating a numerically superior enemy, you know, disproportionate response and all that. Unfortunately, the only way to end this thing is for Israel, and the West, to fight back - for real. The longer we wait, the uglier and more vicious the war is going to be when the fan gets struck - for real.

Labels: Israel, Palestinians

posted by Harry @ 9:25 PM