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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!harvard!caip!lll-crg!lll-lcc!ucdavis!ucbvax!cad!hijab
From: hijab@cad.UUCP (Raif Hijab)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: Air raid on Libya
Message-ID: <279@cad.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 6-May-86 01:08:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: cad.279
Posted: Tue May  6 01:08:42 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 8-May-86 20:54:14 EDT
References: <157@unido.UUCP> <1200001@ztivax.UUCP> <383@hadron.UUCP> <388@hadron.UUCP>
Organization: U. C. Berkeley CAD Group
Lines: 41
Keywords: violence, terrorism, Qaddafi, war, peace, Libya

In article <388@hadron.UUCP>, jsdy@hadron.UUCP (Joseph S. D. Yao) writes:
> >radical Palestinian groups on the left call for a secular democratic
> >state for Jews and Arabs in Palestine/Israel.  ...
> 
> I must object to the above statement.  I have heard many reasonable
> Semites of both families say this is possible.  I have also heard
> Arabs boast that they will drive the Israelis into the sea, and that
> they will never negotiate with Israelis. 

Object as you will, Mr. Yao. The fact is that the PLO in its 1968
PNC meeting specifically called for a democratic Palestinian state
for Jews and Arabs. In its 1974 PNC meeting it called for the creation
of an independent Palestinian state, with the prospect of the pursuit
of a unified democratic secular state by non-violent means. In its
1977 meeting the PNC reaffirmed the Palestinian mini-state formula,
leaving open the possibility of a confederation with Jordan. In 1979
George Habash, the most prominent hardliner and leader of the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), cast his vote for the
Palestinian mini-state (in the West Bank and Gaza). At this point the
PFLP, the pro-Moscow DFLP and the Palestinian Communist Party support
this formula, in addition to both factions of Fatah, the largest PLO
group. What this leaves is tiny groups that are mostly outside the
PLO umberella, such as the Abu Nidal group. For a recitation of the
full story I suggest Alan Hart's book "Arafat: Terrorist or Peacemaker?"
(Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1984)

> And I have seen Israelis launch punitive strikes into Arab territory
> with less justification (to my knowledge) than Reagan in Libya
> (speaking of which).  There is so much gratuitous hatred between the
> children of Israel and those of Ishmael that I think that the true
> representative view (hopefully) of just wanting to get along in life
> may never be realised.  The only way it can be, perhaps, is to send
> the most zealous and adventurous members of both groups out to
> separate space colonies ... and let the meek inherit
> (co-existentially) the Earth.
> -- 

Your image of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mr. Yao, is nothing
short of fiction. The conflict is based on real grievances, not on
eternal hatred. You remove the grievances, and the conflict has a
chance of being reconciled.