Noone Special and ravage2, this still begs the question: Why is it not bulit in Israel?
Charles Krauthammer? You might as well link to the Israeli government website.
As for the fence, you can't just invoke "security" to do anything you want on occupied territory. Particularly since the current fence's path is largely determined by the need to protect settlements which have been declared illegal in the past.
As I said I doubt the fence will protect Israel in the long run either. If they can no longer use suicide bombers Hamas et al will likely devote their resources to building more and better rockets. There is already a lot rocket smuggling going on from Egypt to Gaza IIRC. They can also use mortars or simply tunnel through. To simply assume that these groups are incapable of developing new weapons and tactics to get around the fence is pretty naive. Especially since they have a large supply of people who are ready to die. At best the fence will buy some time but if that time isn’t used for a political settlement Israel will be back to square one.
**But individuals do own the land, and these individuals are Palestinians. Don’t you agree? **
In the case where it is being built on Palestinian land yes, although as any government, they can appropriate land if they pay the owners proper compensation.
Wait a minute, so you agree with the right of return for Palestinians to Israel
Sure, the ones who are willing to live in peace with Jews and actually owned property there prior to 1948. And their families of course.
Cyberpundit, I know that Hamas can learn new tactics, but are they adept enough? Palestinian guerilla groups have been remarkably awful at doing anything other than killing unprotected civilians, and they don’t even do that really well. If they can even kill one tenth the Israelis they killed in 2001-2002, that would be a big upgrade in capability for them.
I wish my government did what was best for us or even acted objectively. Luckily for you, it doesn’t; otherwise, we would have told the Israelis to leave the West Bank and Gaza Strip or risk losing US aid.
We would also stop giving the Egyptians $2B a year and demand that the Saudis to stop encouraging and financing Wahabist terror. But I’m not holding my breath waiting for it to happen.
Well, now we have a palestinian terrorist organization stating that their most recnt attack was because of the “security wall”! This while Ariel Sharon says that portions of the wall will be dismantled…what is going on here?
Is the wall going to be built? And, will its construction encourage MORE acts of violence?
Yes I’m quite sure there would have been no Palestinian terrorism without the wall. :rolleyes:
Yes the wall will continue to be built, though the US may successfully pressure Israel to move it closer to the Green Line. The current hearings by the International Kangaroo Court of Justice on the wall are a sad joke, being boycotted by even most of the European countries, essentially leaving the Muslim human rights wonders (incl Algeria, Saudi, and Sudan) to argue that Israel is violating human rights without anybody actually thinking their case is worth bothering to argue against.
The function of the wall is that it keeps terrorism from being a practical Palestinian option or negotiating point. Israel would certainly prefer to have a negotiated peace which the Palestinians would help uphold, but in the absence of anybody to reliably negotiate with, Israel must simply separate itself and tell the Palestinians that if they want a state, now they know where they can build it. In ten years the wall will simply be another boundary just as arbitrary as all the other ones in the Middle East, but for now its purpose is to make terrorism near impossible, and ultimately keep the Israelis from having to occupy, assassinate, and bulldoze. Sharon has already said Israel will not step up its security operations in response to this latest atrocity, a sign that the fence is actually working.
Naturally it is repulsive that this still happens but once every two months is an improvement over two or three times a week. The Palestinians will be forced to accept a two-state solution, and yesterday’s attack only makes clear how pathetic and weak the Palestinian position against the wall is.