Dr. Pipes is right..

Submitted by M. Saleem Akhtar (United States), May 21, 2006 at 10:33

I agree with Dr. Pipes in many regards. Palestinians and specially organizations like hamas should accept and respect the state of Israel first. This will lead to better communication that in turn will lead to a constructive dialogue and the eventual resolution of the territorial dispute. Hamas and its cronies must denounce terrorism.

Mr. Olmert's unilateral visionary plan has many pros. I think Israel would gain tremendous respect in non-arab muslim countries that have a desire to be friends with Israel. Eventually it would be the best security for Israel if countries like Indonesia, Pakistan, etc have their embassies in Israel and are pressurizing the arab muslims to respect Israeli citizens. The media can play a critical role in this regard. There is miscommunication among many non-arab Islamic countries as the images that come out of that region are always figthing. Non-arab muslims are largely unaware of positive aspects of the Israeli society.. eg Arabs live rather peacefully in Israel however the palestinian arabs cannot accept Jewish people living among them. This is a positive aspect of Israel that needs to be conveyed to the masses in non-arab muslim nations to improve the image of Israel. Similarly there can be many steps that can remove misunderstandings and lead to better people-to-people contacts. Its high time Israel and the non-arab muslim nations become friends.

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