No problem but Its not common for things to be that simple

Submitted by Tony (United Kingdom), Jul 9, 2007 at 08:47

Its perfectly reasonable to assert that Ireland belongs to the Irish but the dissenting community has been there a long time most Protestant families have not been there the 400 years that is often claimed but arrived in the nineteenth century. Some though come from Irish families tied to the Land since the red hand were gealic warriors rather than Unionist terrorists.

We cant just call the ethnic Scots and English unwelcome ethnic cleansing colonisers and the converts 'Souper's' no matter how legitimate those terms may be as historic descriptions. They are a people who no longer belong where there ancestors came from and contrary to general perceptions the IRA has always recognised that, its early Nua Eire policy was incredibly progressive in its proposed solution. The IRA was fighting for the right to live with 'dignity and self respect in there own land', they were also fighting for prosperity , cultural freedom and as a response to an entirely illusory pretence at democracy, a de facto aparthied, a massive campaign of grass roots violence against communities left unprotected by the authorities and they also continued to fight because of a duplicitous and insincere British diplomatic and military strategy. They rarely lost sight of the fact that any solution would have to provide dignity, self respect, cultural freedom, democracy and prosperity to the other community as well

Ive been long winded but my point is that there is unlikely to be worthwhile victory or succsesful compromise in a conflict situation without a rational comprehension of the enemies motivation and a compassionate analysis of what is and is not legitimate in there actions and aspirations.

I too am often bemused and occasionally infuriated by the normally English idiocy of presenting republican and Arab terrorism as comprable phenomenon or the British campaign in Ireland as a legitimate yardstick for measuring the proportionality of Israels military campaign. Those who do so are either Anti Zionist, Anti semetic, ill informed or stupid, its up to those listening/reading to decide which.

That said I am compelled to say that many Palestinians are fighting for the right to live with dignity and self respect in there own homeland, they also want prosperity and cultural freedom and many want democracy. These Palestinian aspirations are legitimate and the fact that no palestinian state has ever existed before or the fact that the palestinian delegation to the 1937 Peel commision said there was no Palestinian people, or the Hashemite kingdom was a sickening gift of most of Palestine and the Palestinians to a fascistic dynasty with imperial ambitions, that should be a much greater stain on Britains history than it is percieved to be has very little relevance. In fact its only delegitimising effect should be on the entirely manufactured 'propoganda sticking points' such as the Al Quds the eternal capital of arab palestine myth.

The problem with the Palestinian struggle lies in its history of unrestrained barbarity, its roots in a Palestinian Nationalism that was so fascistic its leaders found common ground with Hitler, the ever present spectre of a fascist fundamentalism and the fact that it is repeatedly hijacked (as are the terrible deprivations of refugee existence) by other powers with imperial ambitions. With each new phase of the conflict the Palestinian people have been taken further from a set of legitimate aspirations and legitimate response to there situation, further and further from a rational and compasionate analysis of there enemies motivations (not that they started close to one) and closer and closer to a furious eternal victimhood that justifies all violence and allows no compromise. We should endeavour not to do the same in the hope that one day enough of them reach the same cinclusions as us.

Im not sure Ian Paisley will go to hell, but if he isnt deemed deserving then the place must be empty

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