Israel has overwhelming military dominance against Palestine, and all its possible allies. Additionally it is the most unpopular nation in the region, not even being recognized by many surrounding states. Israel also has a tight relationship with the United States, the most powerful country in the world.
To me all of these ingredients add up to a strong case for victory over Palestine through the use of military force, so my question is why has Israel chosen not to pursue this route?
Are you aware of how Israel got that land in the first place? Occupying an area is usually what you do after you’ve already beaten another country militarily. And the Palestinians don’t have a regular army anyway- that’s why you see occasional acts of terrorism. That’s how asymmetric war works. What else do you think Israel should do?
God told King Saul to defeat them back in the old days of Israel, but he refused the orders of God to kill every man woman and child and animal of the Philistines by saving their sheep and oxen and King and some of their people to be used for slaves and now they call themselves Palestinians a modern day derivative of the word Philistine.
Are you kidding or just unaware of history? They already defeated Palestine and all its allies militarily. This is the situation they ended up with. Unless they engage in genocide or ethnic cleansing (evicting all Arabs from Israel and the Occupied Territories) they are always going to have some people engaged in opposing them. These are solutions that would be unpalatable to most Jews considering their own history.
Genocide is generally considered to be a bad thing, and I should imagine that Israelis, of all people, are particularly sensitive to that.
I am not sure what “it” refers to in your second sentence, but in the Middle East (and throughout the Muslim world) it is Israel that is very unpopular, and there is much sympathy for the Palestinians, and much revulsion at the way they have been treated by Israel, in most of the non-Muslim world too. It is really only in the United States (thanks to a very one-sided reporting in the U.S. media) that Israel is widely regarded as being the “good guy” in the situation.
I’ve often wondered why we don’t just annihilate the Canadians militarily. We certainly have the military capability to do so, being the most powerful nation on Earth, if not the universe. Additionally, it’s not a very popular country… I mean, who writes down “Canada” as a place they’d like to visit? No one except the most ardent walleye fisherman.
What everybody else said, plus, there are lots and lots of fanatics among the Palestinians. It’s not a matter of rolling tanks, and they’d all meekly stop it with the bus bombs. Pretty much, the Israeli army would have to kill all of them, including civilians, and violate Geneva conventions left and right, or it wouldn’t do any good, while the Palestinians would continue to do anything the could, including sabotaging military bases, if they could manage it. Unpalatable indeed.
Besides, most American Jews talk about reconciliation, because they have no idea what’s really going on, nor how determined and hate-filled the Palestinians are. The propaganda there is a thing to behold. Check out Hamas TV on youtube. The US would not support a war, I don’t think.
Also, there is no connection between the Philistines and the Palestinians (beyond the fact that everyone in the Middle East is related to everyone else). The Roman Empire renamed the Province of Judea “Palestine” after the Jews’ long-extinct enemy, the Philistines; the Palestinians are named after the province (and before 1948 the term referred to both Arabs *and *Jews).
I was wrong about King Saul … I’m sorry for bringing him up. You right it was the Amalek’s.
But the Phillstines Israel did hate and now they want the same land known as Palestine. There will be no peace till the Lord comes back. http://hope-of-israel.org/whopal.html