Paul Murphy, you better open your eyes!
Reader comment on item: Gaza cease-fire
in response to reader comment: settler politics revealed

Submitted by Moshe (Israel), Dec 8, 2006 at 05:12

"The wild card in the debate was the settler representative. Over the course of the debate (and much to the visible discomfiture of the mainstream Israelis) it became obvious that this man wanted to remove all the Palestinians from what he called 'Smaria' and dump them in Jordan or Egypt."

So "this man wanted to remove all the Palestinians from what he called 'Smaria' and dump them in Jordan or Egypt". And this is in your mind the reason that it is impossible to reach a peace settlement with the Palestinians. His position was "an eye-opener for the 5 million or so Brits who watch this programme." But let me ask you Paul, perhaps there are also a few Arabs who dream to dump all the Jews into the sea? What do you think; could such a thing be possible? Did you ever hear about such barbaric attitudes among Arabs?

You seem to be worried only about the Israeli readiness to make sacrifices for a peace settlement, or as you say: "The Israelis are afraid that their fundamentally divided society might descend into civil war if it attempted to remove the fundamentalist settlers from the West Bank"

Well, how about the most recent evacuation by Israel of all Jewish settlements from the Gaza strip? What does it tell about "their fundamentally divided society"? And the "peaceful" Palestinian response?....What does it tell you about the real objectives and aspirations of the Arabs? Do you think that Israel can afford to take the risk that after it evacuates the West Bank too, the "peaceful" Palestinians will turn Tel Aviv and all the densely populated central areas of Israel into a perpetual battlefield as they are already doing in the south, next to Gaza?

Could you also please try to explain why a Palestinian state was not established on these territories before 1967, when they were fully and exclusively in Arab hands? Could it be possible that this whole Palestinian issue was invented only after the 1967 six days war, because till then the Arabs were busy trying to destroy Israel by other tactics?

Are indeed the Jewish settlements the real problem?

Paul, if you will try to honestly answer these questions, it may open your eyes too.

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