Sharon's Magnanimity

[Bonnie]

By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.
Published 8/18/2005

WASHINGTON -- What we are seeing this week in the withdrawal from Gaza of 8,000 Israeli citizens is as noble an act on behalf of peace as has been recorded in modern history. No peace demonstration on record has involved so much personal sacrifice. Nor has any peace demonstration involved so much trust. The trust, for the most part, comes from Jerusalem, and the Sharon government, believing as it does that after Israel vacates Gaza the Palestinian Authority will hold elections, establish a peaceful government, and control those terrorists intent on destroying Israel. Sharon is a general of proven prowess. Yet he is now, as the phrase has it, giving peace a chance. This withdrawal is his plan. So much for the claptrap that generals only want war.

Yet I am skeptical that this withdrawal will lead to peace. Eighty percent of the Palestinian Arabs deny the right of Israel to exist. Most swallow the historically inaccurate line that the Jews "stole" the lands they now inhabit -- and their Gaza settlements too -- from what are now called the Palestinians. Scholars, whether they be historians or archaeologists, have demonstrated that this is hooey. Jews have inhabited these lands since the time of Abraham. Writers as diverse as H. L. Mencken and Winston Churchill a century ago when visiting these lands remarked on the peaceful Jewish villagers cultivating their fields and living civilized lives. The land of Israel is rightfully the land of the Jews. After World War II the Jews accepted the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan to live with Arab indiginae and others in the region in peace. Yet neighboring Arab states attacked these Jews to rid them from the region, setting off Israel's War of Independence.

The Arab armies were beaten. Israel was established, and very cruelly the Arab nations allowed uprooted Palestinian Arabs to collect in refugee camps where they became angry pawns of the irredentist Arab states hoping to eliminate Israel. That is the origin of the present hostilities. Arabs live in Israel with full citizenship. Arabs live too under the Palestinian Authority outside of Israel and in areas that it is hoped will become a peaceful Palestinian state. What the Sharon government intends is that this withdrawal will lead to peace between these two nations.

As I say, it is a noble gesture and one that places great trust in the Palestinians. Yet there is plenty of evidence that firebrands from the Islamic Resistance Movement known as Hamas, among others, will be emboldened by Sharon's generosity to see his withdrawal as a sign of weakness, or worse, a sign that Hamas's terrorist violence has caused an Israeli defeat and could cause still more Israeli defeats. Already the Washington Post is reporting the head of a Gaza branch of Hamas as saying that "Without jihad, without attacking the settlements, digging the tunnels, launching the rockets, the Israelis wouldn't have moved." Thus Sharon's noble gesture could encourage more violence and legitimatize in the eyes of Palestinian voters the most militant of Israel's enemies.

If all goes well for now, Gaza will be peacefully resettled and the Palestinian Authority will govern in harmony with its Israeli neighbors. Yet elections among the Palestinians lie ahead. On January 21 Hamas will field candidates against other less violent Palestinian groups, mainly Fatah, Yasser Arafat's old political organization. What if this withdrawal by the Israelis actually is seen by the Palestinian electorate as a vindication of terror and leads to Hamas's victory at the polls? This whole policy of magnanimity could backfire on Sharon and leave him with a more dangerous situation than before.

Yet I write as an American, comfortably living thousands of miles from this vexed part of the world. Whether my skepticism is right or wrong I shall not have to pay any price. It is the Israelis who pay the price. For now they support Sharon and withdrawal. Thousands of their countrymen who settled Gaza out of religious conviction and the sense that they were fortifying Israeli democracy are now being summarily uprooted and denied the land in which they invested their hearts and their labor. The price they pay in beyond simple calculation.

All in all, this is an enormous effort on behalf of peace made by a noble leader and a noble nation. If it is repaid by continued terror, let the critics of Israel shut down. On behalf of peace this time the Israelis have done all they can -- and Sharon's Nobel Prize for Peace should await him either way.

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=8611

 

[dilloduck]

By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.
Published 8/18/2005




http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=8611

Will he be maganamous even to share that prize with those that paid for this gesture? It is a glaring omission to ignore the efforts on the part of America and the price Americans HAVE paid.

 

[Bonnie]

Will he be maganamous even to share that prize with those that paid for this gesture? It is a glaring omission to ignore the efforts on the part of America and the price Americans HAVE paid.

The shame of it is all those people caged up on top of the synogogue will have probably been for nothing, but I hope Im wrong.

 

[dilloduck]

The shame of it is all those people caged up on top of the synogogue will have probably been for nothing, but I hope Im wrong.

Are you speaking of the IDF or the protestors?

 

[Bonnie]

Are you speaking of the IDF or the protestors?

I was speaking of the protestors, but the IDF took a lot as well. Being called Nazis and having gasoline poured on them. I don't think they enjoyed doing that to their own people. The situation as whole is horrible.

 

[dilloduck]

I was speaking of the protestors, but the IDF took a lot as well. Being called Nazis and having gasoline poured on them. I don't think they enjoyed doing that to their own people. The situation as whole is horrible.

definately--my son actually asked me--"hey, Dad--whose side are we supposed to be on here? "

I think that the efforts of the protestors will live forever in photographs and film taken today and be used in historical and political discussions for many years to come. It will be a day that is forever remembered in Jewish history for a variety of reasons. They accomplished what they set out to do.

 

[Bonnie]

definately--my son actually asked me--"hey, Dad--whose side are we supposed to be on here? "

I think that the efforts of the protestors will live forever in photographs and film taken today and be used in historical and political discussions for many years to come. It will be a day that is forever remembered in Jewish history for a variety of reasons. They accomplished what they set out to do.

I was thinking that if it were me there, rather than leave my house for someone else to occupy I would set fire to it. But that's just me.

 

[dilloduck]

I was thinking that if it were me there, rather than leave my house for someone else to occupy I would set fire to it. But that's just me.

Both sides have already agreed to have the homes bulldozed--I guess if you want to do it yourself you could.

 

[Bonnie]

Israel Extends an Olive Branch, Hamas Shoots At It
By Frank Salvato (08/18/05)

"

The armed struggle is the only strategy that Hamas possesses…As long as Palestinian lands remain under occupation, Hamas won't lay down its weapons." – Khaled Mashaal, leader of the terrorist organization Hamas.

“Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.” – Dean Wormer, Animal House (1978)

The world has been witness to an extraordinary, emotional event: the Israeli pull-out from the Gaza Strip. This political gamble by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon marks substantive forward movement on the Road Map for Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The question now is whether the Palestinian militants – and in a more complete sense the entire Arab World – have the wherewithal to understand that this is an opportunity to exist on this planet peacefully with others or whether they want to continue their march toward oblivion.

It is time for the Arab world – and those who identify with it – to start living in the land of reality.

Israel isn’t going to cease to exist. No matter how many suicide bombers Hamas, al Aksa Martyrs Brigade, Hezbollah or any of the myriad racist, anti-Semitic terrorist organizations send to kill innocent Israeli women and children, Israel will remain. Israel has survived the invasion of armies sanctioned by the Arab League and gained territory in spite of the waging of war by Arab nations. Israelis have not been persuaded to “disband” their nation even as anti-Semite barbarians spew their hate-speech calling Jews the descendents of pigs, even as their “civilized” brethren decapitate other innocents in the name of religion across the broader Middle East.Israel has literally won every major conflict it has ever had with the Arab world.

The fact Ariel Sharon has demonstrated that he, even in the face of political suicide, intends to keep his part of the bargain where the Road Map for Peace is concerned, is telling. But more than being just a simple action of sincere resolve it presents an opportunity for the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world to demonstrate they can do the same.

Palestinians and the larger Arab world must match Sharon’s move by making sure terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah cease their thirsting for Israeli and Christian blood. They must seek to terminate the apocalyptic rhetoric used by their fanatical religious leaders against Jews and the West. They must embrace a moment in time that would see them leave the barbarism of the past behind in deference for the hope the future affords. It is through actions, not rhetoric, that true peace will be attained.

But, if the Palestinians and the Arab world ignore this opportunity by viewing the sincere and generous gesture of the Israeli pull-out of Gaza as a victory won by acts of terror, who could blame the world community if it chooses to say that it has had enough of them and their methods? Why shouldn’t the world community as a whole condemn their intractability and insistence on the status quo?

I don’t believe that I am going out on a limb when I say that the peace loving people of the world have grown tired of listening to the Arab street justify terrorism and murder. We have grown tired of their barbarity. We have grown tired of their apathy. It is long past time for the Arab world to condemn terrorism, anti-Semitism and their religion’s bloodlust for world domination. If Arab nations want to sit at the world table as equals then it is time for them to embrace the responsibilities of humanity.

It is a crime against humanity to encourage suicide bombers, in the name of religion, to strap on pounds of C-4 in order to murder innocent women and children on buses especially when their justification is retaliation for a war lost 38 years ago.

It is a crime against humanity to kidnap aid workers, in the name of religion, only to torture them by exploiting their terror in front of a video camera in the final moments before their heads are sawed off.

It is a crime against humanity to stone women to death, in the name of tribal honor, because she smiled at a male stranger or went to the market unaccompanied by a male family member or wore clothes that some backward-thinking cave dweller believed scarred his honor.

This situation presented on behalf of the Israeli people – and peace-loving people all over the world – is a chance for the Arab world to save face. It is an opportunity to end the savagery ingrained in their society, end the terrorism and offer their people a future that isn’t mired in poverty, ignorance and butchery. It is an opportunity to correct centuries worth of wrongs.

The peace-loving people of the world must hope that the Palestinians and the Arab world recognize this moment and pray that they choose the path to peace. But if they fail to capitalize upon this historic opportunity, instead continuing the psychotic crusade they have waged for centuries, we should be prepared to rectify the problem once and for all.

http://www.americandaily.com/article/8803

Im just overly skeptical.

 

[dilloduck]

Israel Extends an Olive Branch, Hamas Shoots At It
By Frank Salvato (08/18/05)

"


http://www.americandaily.com/article/8803

Im just overly skeptical.

I agree--The arab world will never stop it's whining and killing. Israel will again retaliate and the game will go on using American taxpayer money ON BOTH SIDES. How stupid can we get to fund this shit? We are nearly as bad as the UN except they seem to favor funding the side of terrorism only.

 

[Annie]

I agree--The arab world will never stop it's whining and killing. Israel will again retaliate and the game will go on using American taxpayer money ON BOTH SIDES. How stupid can we get to fund this shit? We are nearly as bad as the UN except they seem to favor funding the side of terrorism only.

You just picked the wrong side. Doesn't matter though, your side will win.

 

[dilloduck]

You just picked the wrong side. Doesn't matter though, your side will win.

I picked no side--my government did.

 

[Annie]

I picked no side--my government did.

No, your gov't is now in Gaza.

 

[dilloduck]

No, your gov't is now in Gaza.

K---I am an American. I am probably too nationalistic for my own good. Accusing me of having a govt in Gaza is bizarre--could we try to discuss this realistically without resorting to put downs or insinuations?