When I went to Syria in January (to visit my wife’s cousin who teaches in Damascus), I signed a visa application on which I had to check a box saying that I had never been to “Occupied Palestine.” I’d never been to Israel; I checked the box. I didn’t feel good about it.
Just now an angry Ambassador Ja’afari of Syria came out of the U.N. Security Council and condemned the Israeli occupation of Palestine that has gone on for “four decades.” He was obviously referring to the occupation of the West Bank. I believe that this is an indication of Arab attitudes: that they are ready to accept the existence of Israel within the ’67 borders. Even Hamas does, per the prisoners’ proposal. Don’t such signs relieve the “existential” fears?
Do you realize how ignorant and stupid you sound?
Why do you think that Israel is holding onto a few percent of the land in the West Bank? To avoid peace and antagonize the Palestinians? The land is high ground with defensive radar towers. Go have a look yourself at Ariel- it's a half hour from Tel Aviv.
Taking Syria seriously is like taking Bin Laden seriously.
Hard to take any hopeful rhetoric seriously in the beginning of a war that may spread beyond Lebanon.
Talking of Palistine is premature until the war between Lebanon and Israel is settled.
By the way, $80 barrells of oil(and there is no reason for the price to stop rising at $80.) will certianly cause world wide recession.
Is the US behind Israel now because of AIPAC or becasue they don't want a rocket to land on Intel's three billion dollar chip factory in Haifa or Warren Buffet's four billion dollar Iscar tool factory in Tefen?
Phil, you had the opportunity to visit Syria, for example, and observe that the masses of people exhibit behavior and opinions quite amenable to a peaceful settlement. Therefore, you have the benefit of being able to put one-off statements from various diplomats and leaders in the context of your observations at a grassroots level.
The trouble is that few people in the region have been effective at commuicating the potential for peace, or especially in understanding the psyche of those on the other side. Therefore, such statements do not hold much credibility on their own.
Hopefully blogs like yours (and mine) can facilitate the exchange of ideas on a grassroots level as one small part in overcoming long-standing deep-rooted fears.
Expecting an American, whether Jewish or not, to have any objective comprehension of the Near East is futile, but I would expect you to understand America – therefore, I would like you to extract the subtext from the redoubtable Karen Kwiatkowski's latest communiqu and tell us what it is, please:
http://www.antiwar.com/article.php?articleid=9306
I think the words 'spew' and 'hatred' come to mind here: "What we are seeing are the actions of Hamas and Hezbollah, but they are merely the fingers of the bloodstained hands and the executioners of the twisted minds of the leaders of the world's most ominous axis of terror, Syria and Iran … Do we dare to ask ourselves how many families in Lebanon today are being prepared to house dirty bombs and other weapons of mass destruction courtesy of Iran?" (Gillerman at the UNSC)
Oldies but goldies, flash animation from 2002:
http://www.idleworm.com/nws/2002/11/iraq2.shtml
Another useful thing you could do, Phil, is try to organise some sort of exposure of this mofo Klein, who has spent months fabricating "terrorist sources" – this sort of thing is pure black propaganda:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51022
Is the US behind Israel now because of AIPAC or becasue they don't want a rocket to land on Intel's three billion dollar chip factory in Haifa or Warren Buffet's four billion dollar Iscar tool factory in Tefen?
Maybe it's because American Likudniks raise the cry of "anti-semite" whenever any of our elected officals suggest however meekly that it ought to be our national policy to put America first.
But have you noticed that since the Walt-Mearsheimer paper came out that things are rapidly changing? Nowdays average American citizens are beginning to ask, "Why are members of congress seemingly more worried about the security of people who live in Israel than they are about the welfare of people who live in the United States?"
I should have thought the factories are where they are because putting them there provides another means to blackmail the USA.