CNN.com reports:
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held "productive" talks Monday with Israeli and Palestinian leaders and said she expects more negotiations in a bid to restart the Mideast peace process.Rice called the meeting "productive and useful," I consider them a waste of money and time at this point. Until the Palestinian "government" recognizes Israels right to exist and renounces violence the Middle East will continue to be at the stalemate its been in for years. Until that happens Israel has the right to be on the defensive against terrorism and any threat that may arise. These meeting are meant to make progress, all I see is a continuation of lies.
Rice's meeting Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas came amid concerns about whether a new Palestinian unity government will renounce terrorism and recognize Israel.
4 comments:
If you use quotes to describe the Palestinian GOVERNMENT, this suggest you feel they are not legitimite Rueben. Why should they recognize Israel if people like you do not recognize the Palestinian GOVERNMENT, which was DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED.
Also, why should the palestinians renounce violence if Israel does not. There is a reason that Hamas was elected into control was because they take care of the Palestinian people - and the citizens of PALESTINE feel that they will protect them from Israel encroachments onto PALESTINIAN territory.
Though I am a strong supporter of Israel, I sometime scepticize their actions as little more than legal terrorism.
I feel that any government based on the principals of destroying another government is illegitimate. The PA constitution calls for the destruction of Israel. The land Israel has acquired has been through defensive wars, in war the victor receive the spoils and land is usually what it is. Maybe the U.S. should give the land back to Spain, or even the Indians.
The Palestinian government, Hamas is attacking citizens not armies attacking armies. The Israeli Defense Force has the strongest moral code of any army in the world. If a commander commands his troops to do something immoral (i.e. killing an innocent civilian), it is the soldiers duty to not perform the action, it is illegal for him/her to do so. Furthermore, in this past summers war with Lebanon, the Israeli army dropped hundreds of leaflets to civilians in Lebanon, giving them 24 hours before an invasion would occur because terrorists were hidden beneath them. Actions like these, in my opinion hurts Israel in its defensive struggle. However according to Israeli's whom I have spoken with, it only makes them better than the enemy.
Your comment, says that Hamas takes care of the people. Get your facts straight the reason the Palestinian are in such poor conditions is not because the Israeli's "took" their land, its because the Palestinian government under Arafat kept billions of dollars in Foreign Aide from the people, which was discovered in his private account after his death.
The State of Israel has been on the defensive since the day it was created.
Yasser Arafat was a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, not Hamas. Hamas takes care of its citizens - provides them with healthcare, money for eductaion, etc and that is why they got elected; they are palestinian nationalists - so get your facts straight.
Also, the US has a history of destroying nation's government's based on the principal they are "evil" (Iraq 2003, Iran 1953, several Latin American nations 1980's), does that make the US Government illegitimate?
And, if the Israeli's are so much more moral than the Arabs, how do you explain the disparity between civilian deaths during the altercation (1,087 Lebanese people dead and 3,600 wounded v. 44 Israeli people dead and 1,489 wounded). Because of the speed with which Israel responded – allowing no time for diplomacy, preparation, or negotiations – it shows that little thought was put into the justification of the assault on Lebanon. The massive military response was the wrong response to this problem, which should have been handled by diplomatic attempts to dismantle the support for Hezbollah - which is the greater threat to Israel.
Rueben, I agree that Israel is and has the right to defend itself, however, by constantly attacking with the force in which it uses, it portrays itself as being an aggressive nation - one that is offensively defensive - and gives little reason for Hamas or anyone to put down their weapons.
Also, how can you expect Hamas to follow any UN Resolution when Israel does not. The Israeli military is prohibited, by the UN, from entering into the Gaza terrirory, which it has done recently. The Israeli air force is also constantly violating Lebanese air-speace, an action that can be considered a provocation of war.
Please Reuben, look beyond your bias and think reality and how we can trully attain progress in the ME
Guys, I know this ain't my blog or anything, but we don't need personal insults up in here. We're just disagreeing.
Regardless, Ian, as much as HAMAS does stuff for civilians it is still a supporter of terrorism. They are ironic in that they are both a positive and negative organization.
Also, destroying a government and regime change are two totally different things. And all of those times it was because of a threat to our national security.
In reference to the Lebanese conflict recently, what do you expect from Israel? Everyone in the reason knows that they don't mess. If a terrorist group takes American soldiers and we know where the enemy are located what do you expect us to do? We won't sit by idle. Neither should Israel.
And I'm not sure you can define Israel as an aggressive nation. Could you provide me with some of the recent attacks that it has carried out and what the reasons for those attacks were?
As far as the UN, how many countries do you think violate resolutions? Iran is doing it right now. Iraq did it before the war. North Korea? Flying into Lebanese airspace is hardly a provocation of war when the country that you're flying into doesn't even recognize you as a state. How is Lebanon going to declare war if the people they are declaring war against don't exist?
As far as progress in the Middle East, it sorta rides on Iraq right now. Unfortunately.
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