Will the PA keep a promise?

Submitted by Ben Shniper (United States), Feb 19, 2004 at 10:49

There have been many Jewish "outposts" taken down. The settlers are leaving Gaza. Settlements in the West Bank have been consolidated.

To state the obvious, the PA is doing nothing to reward Israel for keeping its promises. Instead, all we see is more attacks and attempts to attack the citizens of Israel.

If Mexico was doing this to the U.S., we would crush them. Thousands, if not millions, would probably die. Mexico won't send their police to kill innocent civilians in U.S. any time soon. Most nations of the world would not stand up for a random group committing terrorist acts against their state. They would not defend the "rights" of most groups attacking their states.

Let's imagine what would happen if the reverse happened. Let's imagine what would happen if Arabs were considered "settlers" if they lived on Jewish land. Would the Jewish state that they were in consider them "illegitimate occupiers"? Would the Jewish state call for the Arab states to withdraw all Arabs from their land? Would it be illegal to sell land to an Arab in a Jewish State? Would Arabs be denied full - indeed, any - citizenship, in a Jewish state? Would the Jews claim endlessly that "they were there first", and thus "the Arabists" (like "Zionists") must be withdraw immediately?

The call for removing "settlements" may be in itself disingenuous. If settlers are willing to live in Arab land, then any attempts to remove them is in fact ethnic cleansing by another name. It may be another case of "no Jews allowed", because Jews bought land and moved to a place of their own free will. No one forced the "settlers" to move there. It was just a place they wanted to move. No one forced them to buy land or build houses. No one forced the Arabs to sell land.

Thus, by international law, the settlers should have a choice of staying where they are, as the government changes. Yet they are denied this, as well as other human rights, by Arabs. And it is because they are Jewish. If Arabs move into Israel, they are not considered bad people with no human rights who are foreigners. When Israel was founded, over a million Jews were ethnically cleansed from Arab states, and many of their possessions were taken from them.

What we have here is a very complex and fragile argument of partial justice under the Geneva conventions. Israel is held to threats of trade sanctions to keep it from ethnic cleansing. Arab states are allowed. Israel must capture its terrorists. Arab states, like "Palestine" need not. Israel may not allow its citizens to take residence in neighboring countries. Arab states can. Israel is an "occupying power", even if it has no troops in the territory it is occupying and it has signed peace treaties to return the land.

When, and under what conditions, will Jews ever be allowed to freely move into Palestine, should they wish to? When, and under what conditions, will "settlers" be given human rights? When, and under what conditions, will Jews be allowed to defend their state? How long must Israel wait before Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon etc. cease their declaration of war against it? How many more UN resolutions will we see against Israel, before the UN apologizes?

When will international law protect Israel against the Palestinians? When can Jews be given human rights, including the right to form a legitimate state?

-Ben

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