So by your logic, then, all Israelis should be judged by the actions of those few among them who committed acts of terror and violence? Should they be judged by the actions of Dr. Baruch Goldstein, who, in 1994, walked into a mosque as people were praying and opened fire with a machine gun, killing about 50 people and wounding nearly 200?....Or by the actions of Yigal Amir, who, in 1995, felt that it was his religious duty to assassinate Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin?
Or perhaps you are referring only to acts done by those who purport to
represent the Palestinians and Israelis, in which case we can look at Irgun Zvai Le?umi the organization that, under the leadership of Menachim Begin, who would later be elected Prime Minister and even win a Nobel Prize, blew up the King David Hotel, the headquarters for the British civil/military administration, in 1946. Irgun would later follow this up with the bombings of a British police station and, later, of a cafe in 1947. No?
Then how about judging all Israelis by the actions of an Irgun offshoot, Lehi (aka the Stern gang), among whom was future Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir... a group that assassinated British Mideast Representative Lord Moyne because they disagreed with his immigration policies... and later assassinated UN Mediators Folke Bernadette because she insisted that Palestinians had a right of return. But no, no... we shouldn't even judge any members of the Stern gang... they were granted amnesty and cleared of all charges in 1949.
Then how about Sharon, who was found to be "indirectly responsible" for the massacres at Sabra and Shatila by an Israeli tribunal (not being directly responsible didn't work as a defense when Eichman was rightly tried, convicted, and hanged in Jerusalem, nor does it for Sharon), only to go on to be elected Prime Minister and be called "a man of peace" on many occasions, by our president... after Jenin, for example. No, that wouldn't be fair, either.
No matter how many examples you and I and everyone else can rattle off of Muslims who've committed terrible acts and Jews who've committed terrible acts and Christians who've committed terrible acts and whatever other group you can think of who have examples of people who've committed terrible acts... it would not be fair to judge the many by the actions of the few. It would not be fair to label all Germans, for time immemorial, as evil because of the actions of Hitler and the Nazis. It would not be fair to label all Americans as slave-holders and butchers because somewhere along the line, Americans held slaves and waged the most successful campaign of genocide in recorded history against the tribal nations.
And it would not be fair to call all Jews or all Israelis evil because of the actions of some Israelis. And it is no more fair when you lump all Palestinians into a category, together, as being terrorists because of some acts of terrorism that have been committed, whether they be hijackings or assassinations or bombings or the suicide bombings that you'll now mention in your response to this message, if you choose to respond at all (Want to know how to stop people from being suicide bombers? Easy... give them something to live for. Once you make living preferable to dying, you'll find far fewer people who can be swayed into killing themselves).
I'll close with some words that I like to quote, once in a while, from Ray Bradbury, who, when asked if he had a single gift to bequeath the next generation, what it would be, said: "...The gift to see that not all Republicans are evil, that not all Democrats are evil, that not all Communists are evil, that not all Negroes are evil, that not all anything is evil. The ability to see the paradox in every person."
cumhail
Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
carrot and stick?
since the 60's the palestinians have used terror in countless hijackings, olympic athlete killings, attacking synagogues, even as far away as europe, and yet they gain sympathy and concessions. european countries spent their time releasing these terrorists when caught, giving arafat peace prizes, letting him address the UN, all while attacks continued and got more brutal. its not in their interests to stop terrorism, its gotten them this far. all extremist terrorists have seen this and learned the lesson, kill as many civilians as possible, you have nothing to lose. after all, the suicide bombers in iraq are created by decades of US occupation and dispair right?? or does it just help expose the big lie that palestinian terrorisms brutality is evidence of their just cause

indoctrinate your population with nazi like hatred that dehumanizes your enemy, glorify marytredom, glorify all terrorism, reward such terrorism, and what else can you expect. the palestinains unlike other stateless groups like the armenians or kurds were actually offfered their own country at the beginning, they turned it down. they turned down future offers that gave them most of what they wanted, thats not desperation, thats blackmail for political gain through simple indescriminant murder. the palestinians know very well any palestinain deaths are in their favour, and any jewish deaths are in their favor too. no incentive to stop. don't even pretend the world has not tried the dovish approach, the world has done nothing but reward the palestinian terror to this point
do the palestinians suicide bomb arab countries that oppress them? hundreds of thousands living in refugee camps that deny them citizenship, ownership of land, basic rights for 3 generations already, 20,000 killed by their arab bretheren in jordan which is far more then killed by israel, and through this dispair, only jews are killed. funny huh?
there will be no peace as long as the world rewards terror. if its not the palestinians, some other group with percieved grievences will also use terror until rewarded. it will never end.