Ben Graham

Is your views endorsed by the majority of Israel, if so then we can just expect no end to the atrocity against Palestinians.

Does this Alice in Wonderland article represent the viewpoint of Syrian decision makers? If so, then we can expect another Syrian-instigated war against Israel in the near future. We can also expect future debates in the Knesset about the propriety of returning Damascus to the Syrians.

Frank Collins is Venkat is Man Singh. He is a hte monger. He just speaks nonsense without any logic.

collin frank
you talk nonsense.if you talking back of land to christian and jews after 1400 years after then can you tell me when you are going to leave america to allow red indian to regain their land.when u are going to vacat australia to give borgies and red indian australian to get their land.when u re going to vacate england which belong to saxon .are u all going to primative age when every body was in their own religion and you changed their religion by force,bribery,medical cheating .are u going to give back their religion?
that enough.

to Peter Murray, the anti-thief:

OK, insofar as you're talking about Israeli settlements in the West Bank, yeah, definitely a morally-challenged concept.

And "to the victor go the spoils" is pretty weak, like saying that "robbery is OK ,as long as it's ARMED robbery."

But you go on a bit too much about how moral YOU are. You wouldn't be of European descent, living on land that used to owned by aboriginal Americans, would you?

Hans B: The author said "Hamas of the 1990s carried out a popular war against Israel and rightfully earned the minds and hearts of millions."

Which considering the hundreds of civilians targeted in that 'war' is an utterly immoral thing to say. How can a war in which buses and discos with just ordinary civilians are blown up be a popular war that earns the minds and hearts of millions? Mr. Moubayed is an immoral apologist for terrorism and I hope he is a fringe extremist in Syrian journalism but I'm afraid he's all too mainstream.

The significant drop in terrorism from the West Bank is because of the seperation wall. Hamas claims it can stop the qassam attacks on Sderot and other towns but this week saw renewed attacks on civilian targets in Israel. Israeli civilians are only legitimate targets to antisemites such as Hamas who consider all Israelis combattants. When an Israeli civilian is killed they rejoice. Usually.

You know whenever during such a 'popular war' that gained the hearts and minds of millions any Israel Arab dies he or she is a martyr and the terrorists profusely apologise. That's because they don't intend to kill Israeli Arabs but Jews only. In that sense Mr. Moubayed veers extremely close to antisemitism himself, or he would be applauding the killing of an Israeli Arab as coldheartedly as any Israeli.

"Marwan Barghouti was convicted on May 20, 2004 of five counts of murder, resulting from three attacks, one north of Jerusalem, one in Tel Aviv and one in the West Bank. He was also found guilty of one count of attempted murder resulting from a failed suicide car bomb. He was acquitted of 21 counts of murder in 33 other attacks. On June 6, 2004, he was sentenced to five life sentences for the five murders and 40 years imprisonment for the attempted murder."

Five counts of murder and released after 3 years? If that would happen in Holland people would seek the resignation of the minister of justice.

The law being used by Jewish families to recover property looted by the Nazis from Holocaust victims is the same law which outlaws the looting of the private and public property of Palestinian Arabs.

You cannot dine a la carte on international law - or on morality.

Occupying other peoples' land victimizes and humiliates the occupied. It also makes moral imbeciles of the occupiers. This applied as equally to the people of Goethe and Beethoven as it applies to the people of Cohen and Levy.

Jay,
You say, referring to the Palestinians who left their homes to escape battle, "Israel didn't say they could not return."

Yes, Israel did say precisely that, and still does. And that holds not only for the Palestinian civilians who were asked to temporarily vacate the battlefield (in accordance, by the way, with the Geneva conventions which require the minimization of civilian casualties), but also for those who panicked and ran following terrorist acts by the Jewish groups Irgun and Stern - they too were not allowed to return to their homes.

As for Felix Drost, you unintentionally prove the author of the article's point. The Hamas terrorist acts you cite dated from before the Palestinian elections. Hamas' coming to power has significantly reduced terrorism. If Menachim Begin was allowed to progress from terrorist to prime minister, why can't a Hamas member do the same?

But I do agree with those who say that Arafat was a bad leader. He should have simply declared statehood, the way Ben Gurion did. And his tolerance of corruption, which eroded Fatah's standing and paved the way for Hamas, was terrible. But let's not forget that until recently the West and notably the US was promoting the even more corrupt and abusive Gaza police chief (whose luxury home has now been spectacularly sacked) while staying quiet about Marwan Barghouti's trial in an Israeli kangaroo court.

There's plenty of guilt to go around. But as long as Palestinian leaders who could make a difference are assassinated or jailed, no one has the right to complain about a lack of "people to talk to". If Israel wants a credible negotiator for the other side, it has to free Barghouti for starters. If it had done so before the Palestinian elections, we wouldn't be in the present mess.

The occupation has not made Israel safer and it has only inflamed the passions of the Palestinians and the Arab world. Before the Hamas victory in elections, Israel had ample opportunity to negotiate with the moderate Palestinians, but instead chose to stonewall the process and continue to build settlements, settlements that violate the letter and the spirit of the peace process. However, due to their lobbying efforts and media domination they have been able to present the occupation as being humane and in the best interest of the Palestinians. The Palestinians are too barbaric to be able to govern themselves and require the benevolent assistance of the Israelis to save them from themselves. This picture will again be played out in the main stream press as the violence intensifies.

Of course throughout this process what won’t be discussed are the efforts of the Israelis and the US to destabilize the Palestinians and to keep them splintered so they cannot mount an effective defense against the media savvy Israelis. Thus allowing them to present the Palestinians as uncivilized and therefore unworthy of having a place at the bargaining table. This has allowed the Israelis to continue to fortify their positions and settlements in the occupied territory. The Israelis and the US will disavow any complicity in the violence that is now taking place in Gaza, not accepting that this violence is in direct response to the fact that the lawfully elected government is being kept from governing by the interference of Washington and Tele Aviv.

False history gets made all day, any day,
the truth of the new is never on the news - Adrienne Rich

http://thedisputedtruth.blogspot.com/

Frank Collins

Perhaps Khandhar, Afghanistan belonged to your ancestors, unfortunately it has not been recorded that way. Too bad, because we would have willingly given it back to you.

Unfortunately for you, Palestine has a recorded history. We know precisely the dates when the land was stolen, we know who stole (Israel did) and we know how. The whole world sees it that way and there are UN resolution too to back it up.

But I understand, this is just another ploy to deny Palestinians claims. Just another BS to ignore their sufferings.

Jacques

Yep the whole world needs to do this and the whole world needs to do that while Israel kills all the Palestinians and gobbles up even the remaining land, & water (all this while calling freedom seeking Palestinians terrorists).

We understand, the whole world understand, you want to be left alone to continue your ethnic cleansing atrocity.

Pardon me for forgetting to state that Israel is a noble & civilized democracy.

Dear Jay,

"To the victor the spoils".

That statement rejects a core value of my country and constitution.

My country went to, war and hundreds of thousands of young Americans gave their lives to repudiate title by conquest. At the end of that war the civilized nations of the world agreed a code of international law which formally declared "to the victor the spoils" a criminal concept.

The version you give of what happened in 1948 is not one that is accepted by reputable historians. It is the consensus everywhere outside the ranks of Israeli rejectionists that the population-movements on both sides were accompanied by rape, looting, and the burning of villages and the sort of ethnic-cleansing strategies that we have seen in the former Yugoslavia in recent years.

In any case, what I highlighted was the continuing expropriation of private-property belonging to non-Jews, which recommenced in 1967, and has continued unabated.

I appreciate that Israel is not a democracy like Western countries and that representation and protection under the law is dependent on whether or not you are a member of the dominant tribe - rather like apartiet South Africa. What I cannot understand is why US taxpayers prop-up this tribal outfit to the tune of billions of tax-dollars each year when it refuses to observe our core values.

I have always been amused by the idea that there should be one state for both people beween the Mediteranean and the Jordan river. Let's see, what could be the model ? Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, or better yet, Lebanon ?

To those who always lived outside the Middle East, I propose that before they profer this opinion one more time that they go spend at least 6 months in any of the countries above. Nothing like a cold shower when your mind wanders in the realm of fantasy.

Sami

Great analysis. PostGlobal needs more such posts.

Seems like Israel has to their benefit killed/assassinated all Palestinian leaders with any potential. Palestine, it appears, is sadly left with the bottom of the barrel leaders.

I too believe that Israel lost an opportunity to turn Hamas into responsible statesmen. Although in the short term this will enable them from holding on to the occupied territories, which they want to under all circumstances, in the long terms this loss will be something that they will live to regret.

I would like to thank Joe for his perceptive comments regarding my previous post. Yes I often do think that my dog, Dart, is smarter than I, especially when he figures out some new way out of the back yard that I would never have dreamed of. I would point out that this is exactly the kind of intelligence that the Palestinians need in a president. Why, with his genius at tunneling, the residents of Gaza could soon expect to see tunnels all the way to Europe!
We will be looking for precinct managers to help run his campaign. Perhaps Joe would like to help. Any others interested, please let me know. We should have a web site up soon.
Alas, I can lay no claim to his fine heritage (he is a pedigree chesapeake and has the blood of at least one national champion in his veins). I would say that given a choice of parents between an animal such as Dart and the Fatah scoundrels or the Hamas hotheads running the PA now, I would definitely choose my dog.

Dart for President!

As Peter said 'The homes, water, farms and other private property of Palestinian families are being stolen by their Israeli-Occupiers". Perhaps he and others should review the actual historical facts of this sitaution. Palestinians were told by other Arab nations to leave their homes before Israel was decalared a state so they wouldn't be killed when all the Arab nations declared war on Israel. Then when Israel was gone, they could return to their lands and homes. Well, that didn't happen. They voluntarily left what they owned. To the victors go the spoils of war. Israel didn't say they could not return. It is not as if these properties turned into Israeli properties overnight.
Perhaps they do not deserve the plight that they find themsevles in now, but their leaders led them astray and take no responsiblity for this. And these leaders the Arab nations do not want to have the Palestinians in their country. So they got a raw deal, but fighting amongst themselves won't solve the problems and Hamas is going to have a tough go of it now that they control of their tiny strip of land. Guns don't feed people.

Great analysis of the present situation in the occupied territories and how it arrived at such a horrible state. However, the Palestinian people do not need another Arafat

I don't know how some readers find the article 'ludicrous' .. it's pretty straightforward and conveys a widely accepted perspective.

Dear Amy,

The homes, water, farms and other private property of Palestinian families are being stolen by their Israeli-Occupiers. This robbery preceded the Intifada, and has continued unabated. The stealing of private property is repugnant to Americans like me. It has nothing to do with your opinions as to what state the West Bank once belonged. For the record, international law considers Isreal to be an occupying power, irrespective of whether you might consider the occupied land to belong to Palestine or Jordan.

International laws, forged in the light of the behaviour of the Nazis in occupied Europe, deem that the conquered land does not belong to the conquerer, and the confiscature and settlement of conquered territorty by the occupying population is a war-crime. The Americans who landed in Normandy on D-Day 1944 fought and gave their lives for that principle.

Amy, I bought my home with the fruit of my honest labours (and a large mortgage). I'm sure you did the same. I wonder if the Israeli settlers ever reflect on why they acquired their homes so cheaply? I wonder do the settlers ever associate the productivity of their West-Bank farms (relative to the parched strips farmed by the indigenous population) with the fact that they have stolen the best land and allot the water-resources of the occupied territory 10:1 per head in favour of the settlers? Have they no pride or shame?

Instead of wishing leader like Arafat you better pray ofr a true leader and well wisher of humanity in Israel ,America and Europe.

Funny that you say we need another leader like Arafat!!! Wow 1993 ring a bell...Palestine or the Palestinians don’t need another OLSO agreement!!! And for Hamas leader Ismail Hanyia he doesn’t have a mansion in Pairs nor does he have a villa in Gaza. We need a leader that breathes the same air that his people breathe. Arafat ran the Palestinian "gang" not the Palestinian people....

Good Job Sami. The hateful responses to your article are not worthy of rebuttal, but they do prove that some Jews can be as illogical as we Arabs seem to be in addressing this hot issue.

What is worthy of consideration is; what did Arafat do or not do, to deserve your admiration?

I agree with the premise that the Palestinians deserve better than Abbas and Hanniya, but I believe that Arafat was also the wrong guy to lead them. It often seemed to me as an Arab American that he was picked out of central casting to be the ugly cunning disheveled protagonist. What he said and did may have had resonance with all Palestinians and most of us Arabs, but how he looked and acted didn't advance Palestine's cause one bit. Like it or not...he was no Mandela, and (with appologies to the late great Vince Lombardi) in today's world; image isn't everything, it's the only thing.

Perhaps this "...another Arafat" delusion is also applicable to finding "another Shah" for Iran, "another Saadam for Iraq" or "another Haj Amin al-Husseini" as Mufti of Jerusalem.

Sami doesn't have to worry in any case. He's already got another al-Assad.

History shows that sheep, goats, tribes, barbarian hordes, peasants, uneducated rabble, and those of illiterate, backward and insulated societies all need to lead by a strong hand. Only the sheep and goats get treated better.

Another Arafat = Another Pox!

Find or create another Arafat!

Not long ago: Find or create another Saddam Hussein!

According to the WP, the future is in the past! We are obviously progressing immensely; winning big!

All chroinc problems in the Middle East being in Lebanon, Afganistan, Iraq or Palestine are generated by one malicious power house named Israel.
Unless the USA stop their unlimited support to Israel and adopt a categorically new foreign policy in the Middle East, hatered and bloodshed will unfortunately continue to persist in the area.

The Arabs living in Palestine were never a nation; Arafat made a career out of trying to convince them they should be one. What they are now are helpless individuals at the mercy of gangs of thugs with flags.

Let Jordan and Israel divide up the West Bank; Egypt should be made to take the Gaza Strip back. As punishment for inventing the idea of "Palestinian nationhood." (The off-shore gas fields may make it more willing to consider the idea than it was when it refused to take it back along with the Sinai.) Given a choice between a place in a functioning society and continued anarchy, the inhabitants of both Gaza and the West Bank would probably even vote for it.

Sami Moubayed asserts that Arafat represented all Palestinians. This is delusional. Arafat represented no one but himself. Not only was he a lousy politician, but more importantly, a failed statesman. Only he could have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory on so many different occasions.

the only reason israel is having a hard time is because of political correctness. i say go and win.

ill bet joe's name is really joe. more like hakeem.

Amy, Israelis are quick to point out how arabs lost the war in 1948 and 1967, and therefore they should keep the land. How about the wars that Israel lost in 2000 and 2006 to Hizbollah? Also, Hamas drove Israel away from Gaza in 2007, and that's why the people of Gaza are free. Israel has been constantly losing wars to Hizbollah and Hamas, and that's why zionazis hate Hamas, including you. Hamas will drive the israeli occupiers from West Bank too all the way to the red sea. The palestinians just have to have hope and sit tight as Hamas works to free them.

Sami? How can you earn the heart of someone who doesn't have one?

Fifteen people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated the bomb he was wearing after boarding a crowded bus near the center of Haifa's Hadar neighborhood. About 40 people were wounded in the attack, several of them seriously. (December 2, 2001, Hamas bombing)

21 people were killed and 120 were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a disco near Tel Aviv's Dolphinarium along the seafront promenade just before midnight on Friday, June 1 2001, Hamas bombing)

Sami Moubayed wrote: "History will never forget the Hamas of the 1990s, which carried out a popular war against Israel and rightfully earned the minds and hearts of millions." Or does saying that that wasn't the Hamas of the 1990s somehow change anything about the mass murder perpetrated by them in the 21st century? Didn't you think that an organsation capable of killing women and children wasn't capable of killing armed men?

You say that it is worse for Hamas to kill armed groups in battle if they are Palestinian than it is for Hamas to kill unarmed civilians when they are Jewish. What an utterly immoral thing to believe.

look in the bath houses in frisco.

To those who are referring to the Israeli "thieves." Um, exactly what Palestinian country existed prior to 1948? Oh that's right, none. It was a leftover holding of the Ottoman empire and then the British, with multi-ethinc/racial inhabitants. Jurisdiction of which was shared by Jordan and Egypt.

And who was it offered a deal in 1948? And who was it who turned down the deal in favor of trying to "let the sea run red with blood"?

And who was it who launched and then lost the 1967 war? Hmmm... What happens when you launch a war and then lose? That's right, you *lose*. It's the kind of thing meant to deter people from starting wars. Your actions have consequences. Which, one might hope the Palestinians are realizing. Granted their own domain, all they do is turn on themselves. Of course, I'm sure somehow that's all Israel's fault. It always is, right? Because otherwise, hmmm, you might have to turn around and point a finger inward.

As for the Hamas crying to be recognized as statesmen?

Please.

To Scott Snyder...it's obvious that your dog Dart has a higher IQ than you and may even be your actual daddy, if you get the drift of what I mean.

It is a credit to the washington post to publish writers such as Sami Moubayed. though his article is well written, i do not agree with him that losing Arafat was the biggest curse. Had Arafat been a good leader, he would not have allowed so much corruption to take place, and he would have left behind a structured organization that would have functioned with another leader; instead, he was a one man show, who held on to power way past his expiry date. The palestinians were not particularly religious people, but the corruption of the PLO led them to vote Hamas. The world should remember one thing, and that they never gave hamas a chance, though most of the israeli prime ministers started their careers as terrorists, fighting against the british and the indigenous palestinian population. Had the world not chosen to punish the democratically elected hamas, they may have evolved from supoosed terrorists into statesmen, just like their israeli counterparts once embraced by the west.Sami, keep up the good work!

It is a credit to the washington post to publish writers such as Sami Moubayed. though his article is well written, i do not agree with him that losing Arafat was the biggest curse. Had Arafat been a good leader, he would not have allowed so much corruption to take place, and he would have left behind a structured organization that would have functioned with another leader; instead, he was a one man show, who held on to power way past his expiry date. The palestinians were not particularly religious people, but the corruption of the PLO led them to vote Hamas. The world should remember one thing, and that they never gave hamas a chance, though most of the israeli prime ministers started their careers as terrorists, fighting against the british and the indigenous palestinian population. Had the world not chosen to punish the democratically elected hamas, they may have evolved from supoosed terrorists into statesmen, just like their israeli counterparts once embraced by the west.Sami, keep up the good work!

It is a credit to the washington post to publish writers such as Sami Moubayed. though his article is well written, i do not agree with him that losing Arafat was the biggest curse. Had Arafat been a good leader, he would not have allowed so much corruption to take place, and he would have left behind a structured organization that would have functioned with another leader; instead, he was a one man show, who held on to power way past his expiry date. The palestinians were not particularly religious people, but the corruption of the PLO led them to vote Hamas. The world should remember one thing, and that they never gave hamas a chance, though most of the israeli prime ministers started their careers as terrorists, fighting against the british and the indigenous palestinian population. Had the world not chosen to punish the democratically elected hamas, they may have evolved from supoosed terrorists into statesmen, just like their israeli counterparts once embraced by the west.Sami, keep up the good work!

It is a credit to the washington post to publish writers such as Sami Moubayed. though his article is well written, i do not agree with him that losing Arafat was the biggest curse. Had Arafat been a good leader, he would not have allowed so much corruption to take place, and he would have left behind a structured organization that would have functioned with another leader; instead, he was a one man show, who held on to power way past his expiry date. He has left his people in a big mess. The palestinians were not particularly religious people, but the corruption of the PLO led them to vote Hamas. The world should remember one thing, and that they never gave hamas a chance, though most of the israeli prime ministers started their careers as terrorists, fighting against the british and the indigenous palestinian population. Had the world not chosen to punish the democratically elected hamas, they may have evolved from supoosed terrorists into statesmen, just like their israeli counterparts once embraced by the west.Sami, keep up the good work!

It is a credit to the washington post to publish writers such as Sami Moubayed. though his article is well written, i do not agree with him that losing Arafat was the biggest curse. Had Arafat been a good leader, he would not have allowed so much corruption to take place, and he would have left behind a structured organization that would have functioned with another leader; instead, he was a one man show, who held on to power way past his expiry date. He has left his people in a big mess. The palestinians were not particularly religious people, but the corruption of the PLO led them to vote Hamas. The world should remember one thing, and that they never gave hamas a chance, though most of the israeli prime ministers started their careers as terrorists, fighting against the british and the indigenous palestinian population. Had the world not chosen to punish the democratically elected hamas, they may have evolved from supoosed terrorists into statesmen, just like their israeli counterparts once embraced by the west.Sami, keep up the good work!

It is a credit to the washington post to publish writers such as Sami Moubayed. though his article is well written, i do not agree with him that losing Arafat was the biggest curse. Had Arafat been a good leader, he would not have allowed so much corruption to take place, and he would have left behind a structured organization that would have functioned with another leader; instead, he was a one man show, who held on to power way past his expiry date. He has left his people in a big mess. The palestinians were not particularly religious people, but the corruption of the PLO led them to vote Hamas. The world should remember one thing, and that they never gave hamas a chance, though most of the israeli prime ministers started their careers as terrorists, fighting against the british and the indigenous palestinian population. Had the world not chosen to punish the democratically elected hamas, they may have evolved from supoosed terrorists into statesmen, just like their israeli counterparts once embraced by the west.Sami, keep up the good work!

It is a credit to the washington post to publish writers such as Sami Moubayed. though his article is well written, i do not agree with him that losing Arafat was the biggest curse. Had Arafat been a good leader, he would not have allowed so much corruption to take place, and he would have left behind a structured organization that would have functioned with another leader; instead, he was a one man show, who held on to power way past his expiry date. He has left his people in a big mess. The palestinians were not particularly religious people, but the corruption of the PLO led them to vote Hamas. The world should remember one thing, and that they never gave hamas a chance, though most of the israeli prime ministers started their careers as terrorists, fighting against the british and the indigenous palestinian population. Had the world not chosen to punish the democratically elected hamas, they may have evolved from supoosed terrorists into statesmen, just like their israeli counterparts once embraced by the west.Sami, keep up the good work!

Craig ths doofus claims that there is freedom of speech in Israel, maybe but every single Israeli is a land thieve....and we all know there is no honor among thieves. An Israeli will always be inferior to a palestinian no matter what.

No peace till the land thieves are vanquished.

Absolutely deplorable to see such comments. To denigrate our reasons into name calling and stereotypical epithets is cowardice.
Listen to Sami. Not as an infallible middle east guru, but as an oasis of questions. Where does this hate stem from? Are his resources open to peer review? Is there a political/religious agenda in his blog?
From those questions, I understand that, like a ping pong ball(pardon the analogy), the questions go both ways.
So, next time we read an article and subsequently judge the merits of these works based off the correlation to our own beliefs, lets jettison are superficial beliefs and siphon out some facts.

*My Two Pence*
I am aghast by the hatred oozing on this page, starting with Sami and his "red-sky"(playing off a "blue-sky" analogy) proclamations.
This letter has roweled up my jewish pride, but hey, as Irshad Manji(spelling)discussed, where else would this unfettered conversation be allowed and exalted for the publics scrutiny:
Allowed:
Canada/US/Israel(i wear my biases like a Coral Hawaiian shirt from Tommy Bahama)
Forbidden:
Well, it doesnt take a tattle tale to point out the obvious, so here is a short list of a long problem (China/THE MIDDLE EAST/The Horn Of Africa)

Best Regards
Craig

Absolutely deplorable to see such comments. To denigrate our reasons into name calling and stereotypical epithets is cowardice.
Listen to Sami. Not as an infallible middle east guru, but as an oasis of questions. Where does this hate stem from? Are his resources open to peer review? Is there a political/religious agenda in his blog?
From those questions, I understand that, like a ping pong ball(pardon the analogy), the questions go both ways.
So, next time we read an article and subsequently judge the merits of these works based off the correlation to our own beliefs, lets jettison are superficial beliefs and siphon out some facts.

*My Two Pence*
I am aghast by the hatred oozing on this page, starting with Sami and his "red-sky"(playing off a "blue-sky" analogy) proclamations.
This letter has roweled up my jewish pride, but hey, as Irshad Manji(spelling)discussed, where else would this unfettered conversation be allowed and exalted for the publics scrutiny:
Allowed:
Canada/US/Israel(i wear my biases like a Coral Hawaiian shirt from Tommy Bahama)
Forbidden:
Well, it doesnt take a tattle tale to point out the obvious, so here is a short list of a long problem (China/THE MIDDLE EAST/The Horn Of Africa)

Best Regards
Craig

While it seems to me that the Palestinians would be far better served by the likes of a Ghandi or a Martin Luther King, such individuals are a sad rarity in any society. Lacking such an individual, I would like to propose my dog, Dart, as a candidate for President of the PA. He may not be the brightest creature in the world and hasn't really done much to gain cred on the streets of Gaza but he does have one characteristic that puts him heads and shoulders over most of the crowd in Gaza today. When something works out for him, he keeps doing it! If he finds a way to tunnel out of the back yard, he will keep using it even if the gate is open and there is a pile of boulders over it. If someone gives him a doggie biscuit for putting old underwear on my face when I nap, I can be guaranteed to wake up to old underwear and a panting dog.
Apply this to the first intifada which was largely nonviolent. The Palestinians made large strides towards statehood without a single suicide bomber or qassam rocket. Had Dart been in charge of the PA then, he would have kept on this course and would, by now probably be in charge of an independent state living in peace with its neighbors.
The current leaders, on the other hand, seem to lack this simple wisdom. If their is a superior way to arouse sympathies for an Israeli crackdown in the hearts and minds of Americans and Western Europeans than the use of suicide bombers, I cannot think of it. For all the suicide bombings and violence has one inch of ground been given by Israel?
Further, Dart, being a retriever, is a pretty amiable dog. Had he been presented with an ultimatum to renounce violence and recognize Israel, he probably would have acceeded then asked for something of like value in return, say the recognition of Palestine as an independent state and a cessation of violence against the Palestinians. From a dog's standpoint it's pretty simple. "I don't hate you. You can do as you like... just stop hurting me, give me my bones back and let me play." Kinda hard to argue with that.

Dart for President!

The Palestinians do not need another Arafat. Neither do they need an Abbas. They need the leader which the Israelis are most afraid of. They need a Ghandi. The Israelis are delighted in the chaos in the territories. They need it. It takes the eyes of the World away from the ongoing armed robbery of Palestinian land, water, and hope by the Western armed and funded Israeli rejectionists. It throws a smokescreen over the ludicrous claim by the tribal Israeli state to be a liberal-democracy "just like the US and EU". It diverts attention from the double-standards the West observes in relation to its own claimed core values.

Unless of course you subscribe to the idea that the (Semitic) Arabs are congenitally violent, chaotic and undemocratic and that if you kick in enough doors, steal enough of their land and water, and assassinate enough of their leaders you will encourage the creation a normal functioning Palestinian society.

By the way, most Americans believe in the sanctity of private property. They buy their homes with the fruit of their honest labours. Why in God's name are we subsidizing to the tune of billions of US tax-dollars people who steal the homes of other people?

This guy blames everybody and is irrational and hate filled. But he does make a couple of good points. First, note that if Moubayed is correct, the 'Palestinians' actually want the Islamist agenda. Until now, everything I had read had claimed that they were forced into it because it was the only alternative to the corruption of Fatah.

Second, his claim that Hamas was dying to be recognized for their political acumen makes about as much sense as the man who beats his wife because he wants to show her how much he loves her. Both have very strange ways of expressing their feelings. If Hamas really wanted to be recognized as politicians and diplomats, all they had to do was say "we recognize Israel." They didn't even have to back it up with anything. But unlike Yasser Arafat in 1988 (who said it but didn't back it up), Hamas could not even mouth the words.

Third, he's right about there being no 'moderates' in 'Palestine' and about Abu Mazen being irrelevant. Too bad that the US and Israel cannot bring themselves to admit that. But he's wrong about Hamas wanting to be moderate. And Abu Mazen doesn't 'disrespect' the terrorists. He fears them.

Fourth, he perpetuates the myth that Arafat was murdered. Arafat died of AIDS because he couldn't keep his pants on when he should have. Particularly around boys, men and goats. Sounds nasty but it's the truth. And that's why we had all the secrecy around Arafat dying. That and the billions of dollars he controlled.

And that's my fifth and final point on this one. Moubayed says that another Yasser Arafat is needed. There will never be one. Yasser Arafat made sure of that by dividing and conquering the 'Palestinians' in a way that will cause civil war among them for generations to come. Blame it on Arafat - it's as much his fault as anyone else's.

In case you are wondering who the big ear hooked nose devil's spawns...they are the ones who wear a round cap on their head, eat mazzo, whine about the holohoax, and drove the US to war with Iraq. Enough said.

Fresh air!

Thank you, Mr.Mobayed, for a taste of the truth...we get so little of it here with Bush/Cheney/Rice...

Fresh air!

Thank you, Mr.Mobayed, for a taste of the truth...we get so little of it here with Bush/Cheney/Rice...

Much of what Mr. Mobayed says is correct (please ignore the pro-Israeli hysterical name-calling above). However, I strongly disagree with his romanticized version of Arafat. I was a strong supporter of Arafat until the nineties when the corruption that he spawned in the Palestinian movement became evident. Fatah became ineffective and corrupt because of Arafat and his cronies. No, the solution is not the religious extremism of Hamas, but the new moderate and ethical leadership of Fatah that has been waiting in the wings for a long time. It is personified by Abbas and Fayyad- yes, with their Western dress and calm demeanor.

Political/religious extremism in all three monotheistic religions has been a disaster for our world. Witness the regimes of George Bush, the Taliban, and the pseudo-theocracy of Israel. Hamas would be a step backwards for the Palestinians. I hope that Abbas & Fayyad will be given a fair chance to deliver the promise of reform and practical solutions to the misery the Palestinans have suffered thru for decades.

The whole world will never see peace as long as the crime of the 20th century is not handled adequately.A legitimate country was removed from the world map to be replaced BY an illegitimate country with new immigrants from all over the world.Palestinians,being moslems or christians,were kicked out into refugee camps to be replaced by jews from Europe,Russia,Ethiopia etc.
Repercussions of this heinous crime are behind all turmoil and bloodshed in the Middle East including Iraq,Lebanon,Palestinian occupied territories,Syria,Iran etc.
The unending support of US to Israel is encouraging the latter to reject all UN resolutions on the Palestinian Issue including Resolution 194 which calls for the return of all Palestinian refugees home.It is time for the US admin to wake up to the real cause of all problems in the area and to change its foreingn policy categorically

The only way to break peace in the middle east is to beat the big ear hooked nose devil's spawns all the way to the red sea and just leave them there.

It is a sad situation that both Israelis and Palestinians have been fighting and killing each other for more than 60 years now and unfortunately, no light could be seen at the end of this dark tunnel.
The geography and demography of the area that extends between River Jordan and the Mediterranean indicate the complexity of the current situation. Every party is trying hard to grab by mere force what is in the hand of the other. Many wars have been staged and thousands of innocent lives have been shed for this purpose.
Nowadays, almost everybody is talking about setting up two countries for both Israelis and Palestinians. This simply means that the land of historical Palestine will be divided between the two parties, Israelis and Palestinians.
I doubt very much that either party will be satisfied with his share of the cake. There are chronic problems like Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, borders, water resources that nobody on earth can sort out to the satisfaction of both parties.
The short vision of setting up two separate states could sow the seeds for more bloody conflicts in the future. Nobody can guarantee or secure permanent and lasting peace under this proposition.
A far better viable solution that should satisfy both parties and put an end to all complicated issues is available. It is the establishment of one country for all on the whole territory of historical Palestine that includes the West Bank and Gaza besides Israel. Jerusalem will remain united for both parties, settlements could remain where they are now provided an appropriate compensation is made to the original land owners, natural geographical borders are already in place for the whole country and the issue of refugees could be settled by allowing refugees to return home. All citizens of the new state, PALISRA (Palestine +Israel), would enjoy equal rights and bear the same responsibilities.
The newly established state, PALISRA will emerge as a prosperous and safe country within a very short period of time, and citizens of this state will learn how to respect and even cherish each other. PALIRA will become a key player and an integral part of the Middle East as yesterday's enemies will become today's friends and allies for ever.

As I recall, the primary reason Sharon wanted out of Gaza was demographic. How would an election work out in an Israel with a majority Arab population ?

Arafat never fought for the Palestinian cause and was killed. In reality he was a Zionist. He stole Palestinian money, around $5.5 billions and transferred it to his bank accounts in Paris. Arafat died of natural causes there on November 10 2004. He was 75 of age. Israel mourned and cried, because it lost a staunch ally who served them for around 40 years.

So full of crap! If it were true that Hamas leaders wanted to be