Isn't occupation the "root cause" of the problems in the Middle East?

[flpoljunkie]

-not Hezbollah and not Hamas. This obviously also includes our occupation in Iraq.

Is there no reporter with the courage to ask the question that is never asked in this country?

All Bush and Condi talk about is not returning to the "status quo ante"--which means Israel has the green light to continue reducing Lebanon to rubble. This madness is not in the interest of anyone--not Israel, not Lebanon, not the Palestinian people and not the United States.

[bryant69]

1. I think that's a question that should be asked

But the answer is well no, but it certainly doesn't help.

Unless you consider the existance of an Israel an occupation.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Oversea Visitor]

5. The existance of Isreal and Occupation

is too separate issue.

It has always being spin as the right for Isreal to exist.
The root cause is the occupation.

If one cannot accept the fact that

A BIGGER MEANER guy can march into your house beat the shit out of you and call your house his own....... is wrong.

Then there is nothing to talk about.

[madokie]

7. right on

[bryant69]

8. I guess I don't see them as too seperate issue.

What part of Israel wasn't taken away from the Palestinians?

But I salute you in your moral superiority.

Bryant

[Oversea Visitor]

10. West Bank, Gaza, Shabaa farm

Ring any bell.

Nothing about moral superiority here. Simple question.

I have no doubts that you fight for your house back even if it take you a million years.

When we refuse to acknowledge this simple natural human response we end up in perpetual war.

Does it matter if another 100 years pass. The fight will continue.

REALITY is a BITCH.

ARMY are meant to fight ARMY

ARMY are not meant to fight people.

To win a battle against people is to be able to win their mind and heart.

[madokie]

14. none of the present crop of leaders in the world learned that

[Oversea Visitor]

17. They know

but what can one do.
The muslims world rant and rant and rant.
Others turn blind eyes.

UN resolution all ignored.

Up to the US really. Noone going to war with US over this for sure. Just plain stupid to do so.

[tocqueville]

11. that's a good question

I'd say about 50% (not including the Golan Heights and other trifles like the Sheeba Farms)

[bryant69]

13. That's a lot of land Israel is going to give up

Doesn't seem like they are going to be keen on doing that.

Bryant

[tocqueville]

15. but the OUTSIDE borders will remain the same

according to Kadima. "One nation, two states". Palestine will no be allowed to have a own army and Israeli forces the right to move at will within the common borders. And I don't even talk about a return to 1947 or even to 1967 regarding the size of the Palestinian state.

[Oversea Visitor]

19. Sadly no.

They has to be force to do that.
And it is no going to happen cause US for whatever reason would not allow it.

So the monster of hate grows and grows and grows.

[flpoljunkie]

6. Israel has a right to exist, as well as Palestine. This is US goal, too.

[tocqueville]

9. this is only rethorics

the MODERN existence of Israel is due to a very complicated historical process having a legal part and an illegal one. One can always discuss what the boundaries of the legal Israel should be, but there is a WIDE consensus that Israel ILLEGALLY OCCUPIES areas that don't belong to it. In some cases you can even talk about annexation. So mixing the two concepts of Israel's right to exist into areas that were legally bought or negotiated is one thing AND the size of the current Israeli land claims (religious or political for whatever reason) is only a "figure of speech" that has very little to do with reality and international right. Some people undertsood that like Jimmy Carter and Isaac Rabbin. One is today a Nobel peace prize, the other is dead, assassinated by those of his own who considered him as a traitor.

[Oversea Visitor]

12. I do not think he know who Issac Rabin is

or why he was killed in the first place.

Good leader has a way of dying which is pretty sad.

[bryant69]

16. I do know who Issac Rabin is.

[Oversea Visitor]

18. Then you know why he was assasinated.

As long as the mindset of might make right there is going to very little peace.

All this longterm conflict is not worth the land Isreal trying to hold on to.
At some point Isreal will have to give it up.
Do we really need a real bad incident before all see the light.
Do we really need to turn ourself into monster for land.

This path is one of misery, choas and perpetual danger.

A path to peace is much better.

[Robbien]

2. Hezbollah and Hamas are only there because of the occupation

of both Palestine and Lebanon. If there was no occupation, there would be no need for opposition.

[Oversea Visitor]

21. And if they still fight then THEY ARE TERRORIST

They will not have anymore support.

[cali]

3. It may not be the

source of all problems in the mideast, but it certainly is a significant cause of strife.

[KharmaTrain]

4. Let Us Do A Little History...

What was bin Laden's main reason for flying planes into our buildings? It wasn't Israel...it was American troops being stationed in Saudi Arabia. So what does this regime do after 9/11? They remove the troops from Saudi Arabia...so Badr Boooosh could keep his Saudi partners safe...and then sent in 150,000 troops into Iraq. So, this was supposed to address the problems that led to the attack? Yeah, right.

This regime's ham-handed handling of this situation fools no one. It removed a critical "balance" that kept relative peace in that region for decades...America's ability to throttle Israel in and to talk with the other parties in creating some kind of truce. With no contact with Syria or Iran and pissing off any partners of ours who could, this is just more of this regime's mental masturbation.

[bemildred]

20. Monkey's Trap

An interesting system has been used for capturing monkeys in the jungles of Africa. The goal is to take the monkeys alive and unharmed for shipment to zoos of America. In an extremely humane way, the captors use heavy bottles, with long narrow necks, into which they deposit a handful of sweet-smelling nuts. The bottles are dropped on the jungle floor, and the captors return the next morning to find a monkey trapped next to each bottle.

How is it accomplished? The monkey, attracted by the aromatic scent of the nuts, comes to investigate the bottle, the nuts, and is trapped. The monkey can't take its hand out of the bottle as long it's holding the nuts, but it is unwilling to open its hand and let them go. The bottle is too heavy to carry away, so the monkey is trapped.

We may smile at the foolish monkeys, but how often we hold to our problems so tenaciously as the monkeys hold to the nuts in the bottle. And so, figuratively we carry our bottle around with us, feeling very sorry for ourselves, and begging for sympathy from others, even from God.

http://www.inspirationalstories.com/2/233.html

[Oversea Visitor]

22. Good trap

Me see one bottle 2 monkeys long narrow neck on each end.

Both wont let go of the nuts.

[bemildred]

23. We are just big monkeys, eh?

[Oversea Visitor]

25. Just smarter monkeys

:rofl:

[Totallybushed]

24. No, the "root cause"

is that the Arab world cannot stand the existence of Israel.

If the Arab countries, and the Palestinians in particular, would stop trying to attack Israel, then Israel would have no need, and certainly no desire, to occupy their lands.

[undergroundrailroad]

26. Locking per I/P Guidelines

Not based on a recent article or op-ed.

For future reference, please review the posting guidelines when starting a new thread in the Israeli/Palestinian Forum.

If you have any further questions, please contact myself or Lithos.

Thank you.

Undergroundrailroad
DU Moderator
Israeli/Palestinian Forum