Reply #106: It's not a question of giving Arafat anything. [View All]

[library_max]

In the occupied territories, Palestinians are being held in conditions similar to those in South Africa under apartheid, only worse. They cannot vote, although Israel presents itself as a democracy. Their right to hold property can be suspended at whim. Their right to security of their persons is a bad joke. They are currently being cut off from their livelihoods and their loved ones by a wall being built across their land, public and private.

Is this to go on perpetually? Would you tolerate it if that was your life? It is ridiculous to think that one fine day millions of Palestinians are suddenly going to agree that it's okay for Israel to hold them in subjugation and squalor and stop fighting back. People who have nothing and have no rights have no incentive to keep the peace or "listen to reason." Israel has left these people nothing of significance to lose.

So again, how long is it supposed to go on? Until there's peace? That's to say, for ever. So Israel has the right to hold these people captive, for ever, because it doesn't feel sufficiently secure. That's basically the logic behind PNAC and the Iraq war.