I'm the opposite of Dave the Wonder Boy: I used to have enormous sympathy and respect for Israel.
Not any longer. Mr Kaufman's speech to Parliament pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter.
The Israeli foreign minister, Shimon Peres, played the lowest card of all when a few days ago he effectively said that European criticism of Israel amounted to anti-Semitism. How ridiculous - how offensive. Europe has stronger anti-semiticism laws than anywhere else on the planet.
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Then the 1993 Oslo Peace Accord that both Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) signed, allowed for gradual return of the West Bank and Gaza to the Palestinians. If Palestinian terrorism had not continued, then Israel would have already returned the entire occupied territory to the Palestinians by September 2000. Arafat's complicity in the continued terrorism toward Israel all along has taken the land away from the Palestinians, not Israeli aggression. The PLO's malevolence toward Israel resulted in election of the most right-wing extremist government that could possibly be elected in Israel, because the Israeli people have become increasingly scared by the PLO's ratcheting up of the violence. An article I read in the April 8th 2002 Time issue, page 30 says that Israelis have been monitoring every telephone call and fax from Arafat's Rammallah office. And they have clear evidence that, far from attempting in any way to contain Palestinian terrorism, he is complicit in orchestrating the terrorism.
I would like to see this evidence. Its is widely acknowledged that Arafat has no control over the Hizbollah, and little control over the more extremist factions of his Fatah coalition.
My grave concern is that Americans will pay dearly for this one-eyed support of Israel by the Bush administration. The immediate suspension of military aid to Israel by the US might ameliorate this potential for revenge against the US.
You see, it is one thing to castigate the Palestinians for suicide bombing where a dozen people are killed or injured. It is quite another to send tanks and bulldozers into a city and indiscriminately kill hundreds people.
I am a firm believer in an eventual resolution to this conflict - as historical examples, see Israel and Egypt, Scotland and England, the US and England, France and Germany. Conducting a bloody pogrom is not way forward.
