To Mr Pipes

Submitted by Said (Jordan), May 3, 2010 at 09:00

First of all, thank you for your reply. Secondly, I did not put any words into your mouth at all. What I in fact wrote was that you provide no vision for the aftermath of the hypothetical Israeli victory you propose in your article. The hypothetical atrocities I refer to are the ones, I believe, will be carried out by extremists in Israel. At no point did I accuse you personally of supporting any of what I wrote, I did however find your vision lacking and I completely disagreed with the hypothetical outcomes of such a victory.

I am very careful not to confuse the message with the messenger and the only accusation I do have against you in your article is my belief, whether right or wrong, that you refuse to discuss the details of the agreement the Palestinians will be forced to accept (and yes, in such an eventuality I do believe it would be barbarous). Furthermore, the mass expulsions and prison camps are my thoughts on what would happen to Palestinians should Israel win outright, and I did not associate you with them at all.

To reiterate, though I enjoyed reading your thoughts on this matter, I am disappointed that you don't provide a vision for the "day after"... a bit like Bush's invasion of Iraq. Ok, so Israel beats the Palestinians and they're utterly defeated: then what? Democracy will suddenly break out and everything will be hunky-dory for the rest of time? That was the essence of my comment, and the rest was my rather pessimistic view of what I think would happen to the losing side.

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