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  Wednesday  January 23  2002    02: 05 AM

Israel/Palestine

Craig asked, in response to recent and probable future Palestinian attacks, What do the Palestinians have left?. Well, they have a over 2.5 million people with nowhere to go. Over 2.5 million people with nothing left to lose. Over 2.5 million living in a prison with Sharon as the jailer. And they are all looking at the business end of the gun of an Israeli tank.

The following article was in Israel Insider.

What Mr. Grossman forgets

Mr. Grossman seems not to be bothered by the prospect of Jews being driven out just like British were. As a former Arab League Secretary once said to Abba Eban, "nations never concede; they fight." You are either the victor, or the vanquished. There is nothing in between.

The Jews should learn from Arabs how to fight the enemy. There was no "cycle of violence" after Syria's Assad crushed a revolt in Hama. There was no "cycle of violence" after King Hussein uncompromisingly and with all his might fought and expelled the PLO in the early 70s.

What do these examples teach us? The way to break the cycle of violence is to crush your enemy in such a way that there is left no doubt in his mind as to who won. You don't fight your sworn enemy - the enemy, who is bent to destroy you completely - with pinpricks. He will keep coming back at you. You must knock him out. And I mean "out."

Everybody is talking about how desirable is a two-state solution. However, what many do not understand is that what they are really talking about is a three-state solution. There is already an Arab Palestinian state and this state is Jordan. The creation of a 2nd Arab state in Palestine is an absurd and dangerous idea.
[read more]

This gentleman's view seems to be a typical right wing point of view. But how close are the Palestinians to driving out the Jews? C'mon folks, let's try to get a grip on reality. F16s against automatic rifles and explosives wrapped around human bodies? The Palestinian leader is sitting in his office that is ringed by Israeli tanks. He is not allowed to leave unless the Israelis let him. This has always been the case. Now the Israelis are holding him captive and blaming him for the actions of any Palestinian that kills an Israeli.

Who's in control here? Who has the power and is controlling what is happening? Certainly not Arafat.

So, what to the Palestinians have to look forward too?

Toppling Arafat?
Israel’s latest military actions in the West Bank have deepened the Palestinian conviction that Ariel Sharon, Israel’s prime minister, has decided to topple Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestinian Authority, and reoccupy all the areas it controls. Many Israelis now share this analysis

Palestinian fears about Mr Sharon’s intentions are increasingly converging with Israeli suspicions. Both on the Israeli right and the left, it is now widely assumed that the prime minister is determined to remove Mr Arafat from the picture. The main difference between the two camps’ assessments is over whether Mr Sharon proposes to do away with the entire structure of the PA, or rather to engineer a more palatable leadership to replace Mr Arafat. Significantly, this analysis of Mr Sharon’s intentions is provoking little outcry, or even much sustained criticism, within Israeli mainstream politics.
(...)

Israeli gloating over Washington's purported or imminent dumping of Mr Arafat is probably unfounded, or at any rate premature. But Mr Sharon expects—and undisguisedly hopes—that the American administration will decide this week not to send Mr Zinni back to the region for the time being. Briefing the leadership of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the most important pro- Israeli lobby in Washington, the prime minister said the envoy's return would only “give the Palestinians hope that they can keep on shooting and also negotiate at the same time.”

But if Mr Zinni’s absence is indeed taken as American endorsement for a plan to oust Mr Arafat, and the plan succeeds, what then? The forecast of Ahmed Abdul Rahman, one of Mr Arafat’s aides, may be biased, but at the moment it is hard to argue with: “suicidal armed chaos”.
[read more]

Suicidal armed chaos. That's what 2.5 million Palstinians have left.

On that happy note, here are some more links. At least there are some Israelis who see what's coming and are waving red flags around as hard as they can. It just seems that those in power are on some blind auto-pilot programmed for some other reality.

Arafat defiant as Israeli siege grows heavier

Leading to disaster

Upping the ante