Winning the War

Submitted by Bill Storey (United States), Mar 28, 2006 at 14:55

Daniel says that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict can end only when one side wins. I agree. But how can it end? Palestinians outnumber Israelis, and the margin is growing. Jordan, the natural Palestinian state, doesn't want them. An effort to drive Palestinians out of the occupied territories would be met with world-wide opposition. The fence is a good idea, but defensive in nature, and does nothing to make the Palestinians give up their goal of destroying Israel.

In WWII, we destroyed Germany. Are the Israelis going to destroy the Palestinians? Are they going to carpet bomb Karbala as we carpet bombed Dresden? Are the Israelis going to adopt a policy of killing 10 Palestinians for every Israeli killed by a suicide bomber until the Palestinians give up?

This is the problem. There is no solution with an once of practicality, with the sole possible exception of democratizing the Middle East, an effort we are currently making in Iraq and elsewhere that is fraught with peril and may not succeed. Unfortunately, it is the only game in town with any chance of succeeding. All other ideas, as Daniel listed, are dead on arrival.

And for all of those critics of President Bush, where is their alternative? The silence is deafening!

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