Like everyone of good will I am shocked and sickened at the sight of Palestinian mothers grieving over the loss of a child during the recent incursion into Gaza by the Israeli army.
But every night? Does Western Europe and America really have an abiding interest in the fate of the Palestinians, a group of people who for 60 years have refused to sign peace treaties with the Israelis or worse, under Arafat, sign treaties and then refuse to abide by them?
As the well-known Israeli foreign minister Abba Eban said: “The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.�
And then, when the United States insisted that the Palestinians hold an election they elected Hamas, a group labeled by our government as a terrorist group, proving once more that democracy is more than just holding an election.
The Germans elected Hitler as chancellor, the Soviets elected all their dictators, including, most recently, first Putin, then Putin’s sidekick, Medvedev, with Putin taking over the government under the guise of prime minister.
So Hamas, who has stated this more than enough times to convince me, doesn’t want a two-state solution to the Palestine problem but wants to eliminate Israel. Driving the Israelis into the sea is probably a top item on their agenda.
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Thinking that maybe the Palestinians would get down to business, the Israelis evacuated Gaza, leaving behind a group of large, flourishing, profitable greenhouses. Did Hamas invite Gazans in to start making a living? No, the greenhouses were demolished and Hamas started lobbing rockets into Israel. Thousands of them.
As our eminent President Obama has said, if someone is lobbing rockets into Israel, the Israelis have a right to defend themselves.
If Quebec started lobbing rockets into Maine or upstate New York, how long do you think it would take for the U.S. Air Force to start lobbing shells into Quebec?
That being said, why doesn’t the press, at least once a week, if not every day, interview women in Darfur holding in their arms babies killed by the camel-mounted government killers, or why aren’t the mothers of innocent civilians killed when we are bombing al-Qaeda hideouts in Afghanistan interviewed.
Are the mothers of Palestinians to be more treasured than the mothers throughout this wretched world where not a day goes by without some news of civilians being killed? The surge has reduced the killings in Iraq, but every day somewhere from 50 to two or three hundred innocent civilians are still being killed by suicide bombers.
How about Sri Lanka? Is their decades-long civil war with the Tamil Tigers boring? Are Sri Lanka mothers who lose sons in this prolonged war of no concern to the western world?
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“Sixty Minutes� this past Sunday tried to come up with a solution for the problem between the Jews and the Palestinians but alas, as reporter Bob Simon pointed out, it may be too late. Some 250,000 Israelis have built settlements in the West Bank, the traditional Biblical home of the historic Hebrews. Simon interviewed several who said they would fight the Israeli army if the government tried to destroy their little cities and move them back within Israel’s present borders.
As the astute correspondent pointed out, “The spectacle of Jews fighting and killing Jews was unthinkable in Israel.� But then the camera shifted to Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, the woman who may become Israel’s next prime minister. And she said quietly, “We will move them.�
For my part, and I can’t find many who agree with me, I believe that the Palestinians have missed their opportunity to sign and keep treaties. If Arafat truly cared about the destiny of his people, there would already be two states and settlements would not have been a problem. But he waited too long.
Gaza is a piece of a jigsaw puzzle and makes as much sense to be part of a separate nation as Bangladesh does. Gaza should be incorporated into Egypt and then Hamas wouldn’t have to smuggle arms through tunnels. And the Egyptians, who claim they want peace in the Middle East, could be deputized to make certain shooting rockets into Israel has to end.
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As for the Palestinians who are trying to live in between settlements and behind Israel’s new long security wall, it’s time for them to move to Jordan, where the population already is 80 percent Palestinian. Jordan is three times the size of Israel so I believe there is plenty of land. And all the other Arab states — and European governments and the anti-Israel United Nations — who want to send gobs of money to the Palestinians, can send it to them in Jordan to help build new cities and farms.
When Pakistan was created as a Muslim state at the end of World War II, more than two million people were moved: Hindus back into India, Muslims from India into Pakistan.
If anyone has a better idea, I’m ready and eager to hear it.
Freelance writer Barnett Laschever, the curmudgeon of Goshen, knows how to touch a sensitive nerve.
