Whoah
Dean
The Arab League is planning an official visit to Israel to discuss peace plans.
Yes, yes, there's always endless talk of peace plans, and proposals tend to be one sided. But this is big if you ask me. This has never happened before. Just by doing this the Arab League grants Israel a level of respect and legitimacy they've never been willing to give it before.
Say a prayer and hope. Nothing will change overnight, but...
(Thanks DanielH!)
Of course if they start talking about seven year agreements I reserve the right to be a little nervous.
arabs are realizing they need israel to offset iran
how funny
The reasoning would be that the fundamentalists won't support us no matter what we do. And they are successfully undermining our rule. We face no other threats and so the issue of Israel must be settled.
If that is the reasoning then the Palestinians must be either be sold out or given a viable state. A sell out will only strengthen radical groups. So expect a major effort to persuade Israel to give land in return for an absolute peace treaty to be accompanied by a big (really big) UN* Mandate and aid to make the Palestinian state work.
*While I doubt the UN could repair the average flat tire others do not.
The fact is, there can and will be no peace between the Israelis and Arabs. Unless and until one of two alternative conditions are in place.
Alternative number one is that all the Jews leave, are relocated or are driven out. So the country can be 100% genuine Land of Hamastine.
Alternative number two is that all the Arabs leave, are relocated or are driven out. So the country can be 100% genuine Land of Israel.
Otherwise, there will simply be intermitten wars that will go on until one side is militarily capable of destroying the other, 100%.
And that's precisely what I want. Because I really have no use for compromise. Which is just another name for a temporary truce that you arrange until you are strong enough to destroy your enemy.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
If it includes any of the other Arab League states, then it starts becoming more important.
Israel is a state about the size of the state of New Jersey, in a region about as big as North America. The idea that the Israelis are going to take that region over is foolish. They have neither the resources nor the population to do that, and they never will. Put every Jew in the world there, and they still don't have enough. No matter how smart they are.
Plus most actual Israelis (as opposed to, say, American or European Jews) don't want such an endless war and conquest. They just don't.
The facts as I see them is that Israel at some point in the mid to late 20th century became the Arab dictators' favorite whipping boy, upon whom they could blame everything wrong in their own dysfunctional political and economic problems. With the coming of mass media and the internet, it's becoming increasingly obvious that this is ridiculous. Say whatever you want about their treatment of the Palestinians, it's just not tenable to suggest that the entire Arab world is dysfunctional because "da jooz" made it so. It's like saying everything wrong in Canada, Mexico, and the United States is the fault of New Jersey. It's ridiculous. Even if New Jersey's Governor is a jerk (which by the way he is).
There is going to be no Israeli conquest/takeover of the Middle East. That's flat out. It's not going to happen. So now what?
So what will?
I say it's liberalization. By which I do not mean lefty shibboleths and touchy-feely crap, but actual political liberalization in the classic sense.
What, I'm wrong? Tell me what the better answer is. Unless you're like those jerks Falwell and Robertson who think it's all leading us up to the apocolypse and the Second Coming of Jesus.
Inshallah, there will be peace.
Of course we all lose our tempers now and then. Dean freely admits to being imperfect in this regard, which is why regulars to this establishment will generally be cut more slack than people who we don't know very well.
Still: behave like an adult, or go find somewhere else to play. Thanks.