Xref: utzoo talk.politics.mideast:846 can.politics:1523
Path: utzoo!mnetor!micomvax!ray
From: ray@micomvax.UUCP (Ray Dunn)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast,can.politics
Subject: Re: No Suicide for Israel
Message-ID: <948@micomvax.UUCP>
Date: 21 Mar 88 23:18:46 GMT
References: <1988Mar20.223551.471@lsuc.uucp>
Reply-To: ray@micomvax.UUCP (Ray Dunn)
Organization: Philips Electronics Ltd. (TDS - Montreal) St. Laurent P.Q., Canada
Lines: 61

In article <1988Mar20.223551.471@lsuc.uucp> dave@lsuc.uucp (David Sherman) writes:
>No Suicide for Israel
>
>	by A.M. Rosenthal, N.Y. Times, March 8/88
>
>......
>Causes:  The critics' implication is that the cause of the current
>crisis is Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's opposition to an international
>conference and his refusal to agree in advance to cede West Bank territory.
>
>That is not true.  The cause is 40 years of Arab refusal to accept the
>existence of Israel, 40 years of furious hostility and military attempts
>to destroy her.
>

Didn't the Arab nations have every right to refuse the acceptance of a
hostile nation being dumped into their midst??

>You do not have to like Mr. Shamir to realize that if the Arabs
>had accepted Israel in the beginning or for 20 years thereafter,
>all of the West Bank and Gaza and other territory would today be
>part of a Palestinian state.
>
>If you believe that the very existence of Israel is anathema, you are right
>to see her policies as the root cause of the Mideast ugliness.
>Otherwise not.
>

I believe it is as reasonable to expect the Arab nations to accept the
existence of Israel, which was thrust upon them, as it would now be for
Israel to accept its own suicide.

Thus: stalemate?   Perhaps.  But isn't Israel the one who is in the better
position to compromise.  Israel is oppressing its neighbours to *maintain* a
secure position...the neighbours have already *lost* their security!!!!

It might be difficult in practical terms, but the only *justified*
*military* action Israel can take, at this stage of a plethora of blunders,
inconsistencies and injustices, is to defend itself from within its own
borders.  Period.

Frankly it's when {the west, the media, etc, etc} *stop* complaining about
the actions of Israel in the curent situation that Israel and those who
support them should start worrying!  What happened in the 30's when the
world conveniently chose to look the other way?  Would you not agree it is
*always* better to shout "injustice", no matter what the detailed nuances
might happened to currently be?

I think there is a justified reluctance by many people to say anything, no
matter how reasonable, that might lead to the accusation of being
anti-semitic.  Well let's be quite clear on the subject, being anti-Israel
in the current situation has got nothing to do with being anti-semitic.

If complaining about occupation soldiers beating and shooting civilian
populations in an occupied land is considered by some to be anti-semitic
then so be it.  I can live with the label under those terms, just as a white
British Canadian, I can live with being called anti-British, anti-Canadian,
or anti-white under other circumstances.


Ray Dunn.  ..{philabs, mnetor, musocs}!micomvax!ray