interesting article here, states that the way Israel handles the Palestinian conflict (with pre-emptive strikes, and personal assassinations), has helped define the way the Bush administration is handling their ME conflict now…
last paragraph of article:
Peace by force
What seems clear now is that Israel and the US increasingly have the same approach to dealing with conflict: one based on force and deterrence, rather than diplomacy and international law.
And here Akiva Eldar thinks there is a direct connection.
He says key policy advisors around George Bush do see America’s battle with Iraq and Israel’s battle with the Palestinians as part of the same war.
“They have actually suggested that Israel will help the United States to take over the Middle East,” he says.
“They were sitting in think tanks that believed that you don’t even try to appease or satisfy the Arabs, you reach peace by force which means you impose it… you don’t make concessions to people you don’t trust, and that puts them and Sharon in the same party.”
That is a controversial view, one which few Israelis or Americans would accept.
But it is one which may be strengthened by a US strike against Iraq, at least in the eyes of Arabs and Muslims.
what do you think?
Well no shit. Maybe because the militants fighting for Palestine have made every effort to tell us that. Saddam himself has taken every opportunity to tell us that. That’s kind of the basic disagreement we have with terrorists - that we’re part of a “war” that began before Bush even took office, and we find it all quite lacking in things like diplomacy and international law.
There’s a hell of a lot of antisemitic rhetoric thrown about by Palestinian terror groups, but I had always seen the conflict as primarily a territorial dispute. The support Palestinian terrorists get from other Israel-haters doesn’t change this; the world of terrorism and allegiances is murky - the IRA trained in Libya, and had Lebanese connections, but I don’t think you’d lump them in with Bin Laden and so on… or would you?
I wonder what Israel will do if, after we get rid of Saddam, the US pours as much if not more monetary and military support to Iraq? All the Arabs want is equality of treatment some bit of dignity. I think helping to support a Muslim nation like Iraq would be just the ticket.
The US already pours a lot of aid into Arab countries in the area. I don’t know if it is enough to qualify as “equality of treatment and dignity”, but it does amount to billions of dollars … Egypt is the second-largest recepient of military $ after Israel.
Of course it’s a territorial dispute. Which territory - the West Bank and Gaza? Understandable. The whole of Palestine that they want Jews removed from? That’s just obscene. I’m talking about the US dispute with Arab militants. Stand in the way of that and you’re targeted for jihad. SH explains:
I’m not overly apologetic for standing in the way of their idea of “liberating Palestine.” Yes, certain factions can definitely be lumped together but I’m not really sure which ones…does it matter? If two or more decide to wage war on us specifically and cite the very same reasoning for it, seems to me we’re going to treat them alike.