Political stuff
Jun. 7th, 2004 12:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drydemImagine, if you will, that you live in the country of your ancestors. almost 60 years ago, some foreigners came and said, "we need this land for some other people to come live in too, you don't need to leave, but it's not really your land." You suffer pretty miserably, having lost your ancestral land, but you persevere, eventually carving out two settlements in the land that are primarily habited by members of your nation. And finally, after years of protest, you finally get the people who were given your land to agree to a compromise, letting you keep the land that you are living in as yours. You are pretty happy because there are some other people watching this agreement and you are pretty sure that you'll get a homeland of your own, without too much issue.
Imagine then that most of the promises from this pact were broken. Imagine that this potential homeland was never delivered, that the people who would leave this messily annexed land never did, that the troops who would no longer be stationed there instead stayed on.
How would this make you feel?
That's what is going on in Palestine and Israel right now. People wonder why the palestinians are so upset, why they are lashing out. It's because they tried peace, and Israel and the US screwed them. The peace accords between Arafat and Netenyahu were a wonderful step towards peace between the two, with Israel promising to give up sovreignty over the west bank and the gaza strip and withdraw settlers and troops from those areas. But Israel has broken those promises. Arafat and the PLO tried to approach the problem peacefully and were rebuffed as not even the US, broker of the deal, stepped up to tell Israel to keep it's promises. That's why they've turned to violent rebellion. They're no more mindless terrorists than the founding fathers were. They just want what's theirs.
Imagine then that most of the promises from this pact were broken. Imagine that this potential homeland was never delivered, that the people who would leave this messily annexed land never did, that the troops who would no longer be stationed there instead stayed on.
How would this make you feel?
That's what is going on in Palestine and Israel right now. People wonder why the palestinians are so upset, why they are lashing out. It's because they tried peace, and Israel and the US screwed them. The peace accords between Arafat and Netenyahu were a wonderful step towards peace between the two, with Israel promising to give up sovreignty over the west bank and the gaza strip and withdraw settlers and troops from those areas. But Israel has broken those promises. Arafat and the PLO tried to approach the problem peacefully and were rebuffed as not even the US, broker of the deal, stepped up to tell Israel to keep it's promises. That's why they've turned to violent rebellion. They're no more mindless terrorists than the founding fathers were. They just want what's theirs.
