The following was sent to me as an email and am unaware of any url for it. I assume that it is not copywrited and so I am posting it in its entirety.
Although many of the points in this lengthy piece have been discussed here in straightdope, there are also a few that issues that are refered to and/or clarified in a rather refreshing ways and for this reason I feel that it deserves some attention.
Hopefully, it will be a good starting point for another wide ranging discussion of the middle east conflict.
Speaking Truth to the Powerless:
An Open Letter To The People Commonly Called “Palestinians”
by David White - May 26, 2002
You have this little tiny strip of land by the sea. You cannot afford to give the Palestinians true sovereignty over the West Bank, and they will not accept being your vassals. So long as they hate you, they will attempt to destroy you, and their cousins the Muslim states will fund them.
ISRAEL CAN’T WIN AN ALL-OUT FIGHT WITH THE ARAB WORLD.
If Israel were to destroy Palestine in desperation, there would be no “innocent” Palestinian hostages to stop Saddam from throwing every weapon of mass destruction available at Israel. If Israel were to exile all the Palestinians, the same would hold. That Israel has not already been destroyed by biological & nuclear weapons is due to two things: Interference in Saddam’s weapons program by other powers, & the probable outcry in the Arab world if Palestinians were nuked).
You cannot defeat Iraq yourselves. You cannot win this fight. Ultimately, you can’t defend yourselves.
IT’S OVER.
You have one hope. If you want to live, you must get the Palestinians on your side. I know that many Israelis don’t believe they can ever trust a non-Jew, that you fear becoming a minority in what you kid yourself is “your country”–but it is your only hope. Give the Palestinians full Israeli citizenship, effective immediately. Compensate every refugee for the lost estate of his ancestors. I suggest 40 acres & a mule for every adult male. Offer them something to be on your side.
Heck, offer to change the name of the country to Palestine.
And if all that doesn’t work, and they still want to destroy you, then nothing will work.
Too true. People forget that the only reason large(er) swaths of Egypt and Syria were not taken in '73 was due to American intervention. Those izzies know their modern warfare. Those Arab states do not.
It is possible (though no one’s done it yet) for someone to roll tanks across Israel (especially if they don’t have the West Bank) in a day. No one thinks Israel can invade Iraq & Iran.
Are you saying that this is why we have not waged an us-or-them war against the Palestinians?
If so, I disagree with you.
That’s what’s stopping Saddam?
I think you are wrong here too.
He would be making them all into martyrs for the cause instantly rather than sacrificing them bit by bit which is what he and the rest of the Arab countries are doing now.
That’s really unfair. The majority of Israel supported the Oslo process, despite the fact that involved trusting non-Jews, and extremely hostile and untrustworthy ones at that with our security.
Even today, after that trust was betrayed, most Israelis are all too eager to trust others on the basis of the hope that perhaps this time it will lead to real peace.
I’m not kidding anyone. It really is our country.
This is not South Africa. The Palestinians have never indicated that they want equal rights within Israel, even if we were to change the name and the flag.
I agree with akohl’s point of view. Israel isn’t going anywhere and the U.S. will support Israel’s right to exist no matter what bureaucrats in Europe say. As far as I know, the Palestinians didn’t even need to flee their homes in 1948. They would have been absorbed into Israel which is what happened to the Arabs who stayed. I don’t have any cites for this, but it sounds reasonable to me.
Moderator’s Note: If David White of Auckland, New Zealand, wants to express his views on the Straight Dope Message Board, then David White of Auckland, New Zealand, should sign up for the SDMB.
