A certain view of things

Submitted by TR (Israel), Aug 7, 2002 at 03:50

Well-written article, Mr. Pipes, but some of what you say is hard to believe in this time of crisis. When every couple days Israel must bury 10 to 15 citizens and hospitalize another 50, the situation seems to only worsen. Israel fights back to try to protect its citizens, and in doing so the Palestinians find another reason to attack.

And who is in power of the Palestinian people? Politicos say it is Arafat, but clearly it is Hamas. When Hamas is funding hospitals, schools, and gives shelter and money to terrorist families, support only grows for them. And as long as Hamas tries to blame Israel for Palestinian improvishment, the people will follow. Extermist Arabs will never end their battle against the Land of Israel until either Israel destroys them or they are put under a powerful, moderate power. For example, after Egypt's two defeats by Israel (Six Day War and Yom Kippur War), they decided to make peace. After neighboring Jordan finally accepted the Jewish foothold in the Land of Israel, they finally gave up and made peace. And Turkey, a democratic country with a great Islamic populace and a separation of church and state, has been an ally to Israel for a long time.

The Palestinians are not under a governing power, therefore they have been against Israel for the longest time. Lebanon has had political instability and who knows when Syria will want to attack again. But will it? Probably not, since the IDF is one of the most powerful armies in the world, as it should be.

But the Palestinians, as long as they have a pretty good killing ratio with each suicide bombing, are in great power militarily, and as the underdogs, don't have to worry about the IDF attacking them as they attacked Beirut.

To say Israel is winning the war is an overstatement. Even if the IDF goes in and takes care of 99% of the Islamic extremists and their bomb factories, that 1% will quickly grow again. And even if it wins, it still has the Hezbollah to deal with. The only way I see Israeli-Palestinian peace is if the Palestinians get a political faction with power and search of peace rather than a search for the dream of a conquered Israel, because it will not happen.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".