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| quote: | Originally posted by TranceGiant
Excuse me, but when was the Sharon administration ever confronted with a smiliar situation? The last soldiers kindapping happened in 1994. In 2000 it was the bodies of three killed soldiers that were handed back, and as far as i can remember, not for the price of 1000 released prisonders.
What goes on right now is at the one hand a provocation, on the other hand simply a TEST, a primitive way to check the new leader's "balls". To see how far you can go, to detect weakness. Te motivation for such actions is already detected weakness as Israel has a smiliar history with Gaza and Southern Lebanon: One-sided withdrawl with no concessions from the other side, which in both cases followed a history of heavy terrorism in these areas. This explains Israel's and particularly Olmert's harsh reaction: The individual politician Omert's wants to prove he's got what it takes, the nation of Israel does the same realizing the very project of Zionism is at stake. While terrorist activities within occupied territory or between it and Israel was at least psychologically always about the foreign land itself, the current attacks from de-facto foreign soil to the sovereign state of Israel is about nothing less than the very existance of the latter. The subject of the current blackmail goes deep into Israel's own independance. |
It was 3 Israeli soldier's bodies in addition to a live israeli civilian. Furthermore it was 400 prisoners ... not an insignificant amount. The point was that the Sharon government was willing to utilize diplomacy when the situation warranted it and they were smart about it. This is not to say that Israel should yield to Palestinian demands nor is it to say that Israel shouldn't have responded with measured force. What I am saying is that the degree to which Israel responded to this crisis is unlikely to yield positive results to the Israelis nor anyone in the region. Israel had an opportunity to truly isolate the Palestinian government in the world of public opinion, and even more so with Lebanon. Given how primarily only Shia Lebanese support Hizbollah while the Christians, Druze, and Sunnis have been grumbling about their presence plus with Lebanon's efforts to regain some credibility in the world, this is like 10 steps back. Israel is choosing to gamble on making terrorists buckle by imposing hardships on the Palestinian people and the Lebanese people. As collateral Israel is sacrificing world opinion and arab liberal moderates. Given how terrorists are so fanatical about their hatred, even at the expense of their fellow people, I'm not going to put any money down on Israel's strategy.
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Retro ...
Last edited by occrider on Jul-14-2006 at 05:00
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