Aelus, for thirty years Israel has repeatedly attempted peace, and has had bombs blowing up it's citizens as it's reward. The Palestinians have turned down every peace accord offered. How many more must die before they simply say "enough" and do something to end all this once and for all? How long would you have them be under seige? You DO realize that the fanatics will NOT rest until Israel is destroyed, don't you?
Your "theory" on Sharon is wrong. And your obsession with the 82 attacks is pathetic. You do realize that at the time, the Palestinians had amassed an army in Lebenon and was attacking Israel from there --shelling cities and setting up countless terrorist attacks? You do realize that those camps housed PLO militia? You do realize that it was ARABS that did the killing, not Jews? You do realize that Israel did not condone the action?
But yet, you parrot it like some fool who knows nothing else. Why?
The other side of the story:
The Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia was responsible for the massacres that occurred at the two Beirut-area refugee camps on September 16-17, 1982. Israeli troops allowed the Phalangists to enter Sabra and Shatila to root out terrorist cells believed located there. It had been estimated that there may have been up to 200 armed men in the camps working out of the countless bunkers built by the PLO over the years, and stocked with generous reserves of ammunition.15
When Israeli soldiers ordered the Phalangists out, they found hundreds dead (estimates range from 460 according to the Lebanese police, to 700-800 calculated by Israeli intelligence). The dead, according to the Lebanese account, included 35 women and children. The rest were men: Palestinians, Lebanese, Pakistanis, Iranians, Syrians and Algerians. The killings came on top of an estimated 95,000 deaths that had occurred during the civil war in Lebanon from 1975-1982.16
Israel had allowed the Phalange to enter the camps as part of a plan to transfer authority to the Lebanese, and accepted responsibility for that decision. The Kahan Commission of Inquiry, formed by the Israeli government in response to public outrage and grief, found that Israel was indirectly responsible for not anticipating the possibility of Phalangist violence.
By contrast, few voices were raised in May 1985, when Muslim militiamen attacked the Shatila and Burj-el Barajneh Palestinian refugee camps. According to UN officials, 635 were killed and 2,500 wounded. During a two-year battle between the Syrian-backed Shiite Amal militia and the PLO, more than 2,000 people, including many civilians, were reportedly killed. No outcry was directed at the PLO or the Syrians and their allies over the slaughter. International reaction was also muted in October 1990 when Syrian forces overran Christian-controlled areas of Lebanon. In the eight-hour clash, 700 Christians were killed ? the worst single battle of Lebanon's Civil War.
Yet we never hear Aelus cry over that, do we?
Aelus, Israel is constantly under attack from within, and outside it's borders. And you expect them to have tea parties with these people? I agree that it was bad judgement to delegate the authority of cleaning PLO aggressors out of the camps to Arabs. But Isreal at the time was damned if they did, and damned if they didn't. They had invaded Lebanon in an attempt to stop the PLO shelling and terrorism, and wanted to get out as quickly as possibe. Handing over authority to Arabs and letting them deal with their own was seen as the best way to do that.
Again, you know nothing of the history of this battle, yet you take a position. Why? Your position from ignorance is akin to entering a bar at the end of a brawl and seeing the final punch, then blaming the victor for being the aggressor. When in reality, he just defended himself against no less than 7 large, mean guys bent on killing him.
Israel is defending itself and has been under attack for over 50 years. They've tried everything short of packing up and leaving. Once one KNOWS the history, one cannot blame them for taking a hard line on this. SOMETHING final has to be done. This has been going on far too long.