Will the Fighting Ever Stop?

Prideth · Post by **Prideth** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 1:24

Click for News Story.

I can't help wondering if the various Palestinian factions can't stop fighting among themselves, if the middle east will ever see peace.

Their main aim should be looking after their people, not argueing and trying to score political points off each other. The Palestinian people need strong and united leadership, or is this just another way to keep the people poor and at each others throats, and so attract more world sympathy to their "plight".

Hamas winning the election was both a shock and worrying surprise, but perhaps this infighting will keep them busy enough to forget about bombing buses and pizza parlours in Israel for a while. Though the wall the Israeli's are building has already had a major impact on preventing suicide murderers from getting into their country.

FogToo · Post by **FogToo** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 1:42

Well.. Peace in the middle east seem a bit far away, and frankly I think that there won't be peace until on of them is gone.. This is the worst case scenario.
They have been fighting ever since the Israel was founded..
You make it sound like the Israelians are victims of the "evil" palestinians terrorists..
The winners decide who is terrorists and who is a freedom fighter.. I hope for world peace ofcause, but the very different cultures and the heritage that you have to hate the "other"..
But the Israelians bombardements of the palestinian must be concidered just as a car bomb.. They might intend to hit weaponsfactories, but I don't hear anyone call them terrorits ?

Prideth · Post by **Prideth** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 1:56

I'm more sympathetic to the Israeli's, and haven't made any secret of that.

The reason is years and years ago, when I was about 14, Palestinians blew up a bus full of Israeli children on their way home from school, then cheered about it. That hardened my heart to them forever I'm afraid.

I know neither side is lilly white and both have been responsible for atrocities, but consider the deliberate targetting of unsuspecting and unarmed civilians by suicide murderers to be the worse crime. They could just as easily blow themselves up at military checkpoints or police stations, but choose places deliberatly to cause maximum impact on innocent people. The Israeli's retaliate, then the Palestinians go crying to the worlds press about how oppressed and abused they are. Sorry, but I can see through the smokescreen they are putting up.

FogToo · Post by **FogToo** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 2:12

Any conflicts have at least 2 parties.. If peace is to be made, then both will have to agree, which I can't see happening in the near future.. One has to stand down.. From military or political reasons..
I am not saying that either is holy, but they are both making the crisis escalate.
There are extremists on both sides, and they both do unpleasent acts upon eachother, but they both do it.. The world press often gives the impressions that one of the parties is the terrorists and the other is victims..
I do not say that it is OK to blow anything up.. Neither military nor children in busses.. But a desperate man, do desperate actions to be heard.. And it is the screw without end.. One bombs, the other retaliate, then they bomb again..
personally I have a hard time figuring out who is right and who is wrong.

KDream · Post by **KDream** » Thu May 04, 2006 0:55

And unfortunately most of the reactions to these events are based on instinct and feelings, rather than reason. I don't think the conflict will ever stop, as long as both nations are fighting for the same piece of land. And I couldn't say who is ethically right, either.

mistergreen77 · Post by **mistergreen77** » Fri May 05, 2006 9:41

There is a difference in degrees though between the responses of the two parties involved. It might seem like recognising degrees of violence trivializes the subject and makes one level of violence more or less acceptable than another but I am not concerned about that in this discussion. The difference I see is that when Israeli's kill innocent palestinians this is a consequence of their military objectives as opposed to deliberately targetting civilians. When palestinians kill israeli civilians that is their intent. So even though the actions of both sides are immoral, I still see a moral difference between them. I know this is a complicated situation, and the palestinians are the displaced from their land by israel so they feel justified. But I cannot approve of their methods. It sounds counter-intuitive, but peace and stability can only be achieved by force. Internally it is the force of law that keeps a society together, externally it is the military force that protects it from outside agression. Israel was the first agressor (but only because palestine was on the wrong side of wwII), but once they have occupied the country it is their duty to try and ensure their citizens can live peacefully in it. They have a right to defend their country.

Interesting:
Hitler's Mein Kampf currently ranks sixth on the best-seller list among Palestinian Arabs. Luis Al-Haj, translator of the Arabic edition, writes glowingly in the preface about how Hitler's "ideology" and his "theories of nationalism, dictatorship and race… are advancing especially within our Arabic States." When Palestinian police first greeted Arafat in the self-rule areas, they offered the infamous Nazi salute - the right arm raised straight and upward.