I read that Hamas will not agree with anything until every "centimeter" of land that belongs to Palestine is given back.
Im afraid that this problem will never end.

In any event, does anyone have a link as to what the detailed wants of Sharon, Hamas, and Mazen are? By analyzing these three positions i think one would get a clearer picture of the problem.

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"This place isn't big enough for me to blow it up."
-MARCO V

quote:

Originally posted by Cyrus King I read that Hamas will not agree with anything until every "centimeter" of land that belongs to Palestine is given back. Im afraid that this problem will never end. In any event, does anyone have a link as to what the detailed wants of Sharon, Hamas, and Mazen are? By analyzing these three positions i think one would get a clearer picture of the problem.

Here's a good summary of Hamas and their short term goals and long term goals:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/978626.stm

As you can see, even Arafat wanted to reign Hamas in so you can probably guess at how frustrated Abbas is.

Here's an article detailing what Abbas wants from Hamas.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle....storyID=2889821

Essentially he wants a truce so that diplomacy has a chance to resolve the situation. Sharon wants the Palestinians to crack down on militant groups in exchange for concessions on Israel's part. The road map calls for:

The peace plan, which the Palestinians accepted and Israel endorsed with reservations, calls on the Palestinian Authority to mount "effective operations aimed at confronting all those engaged in terror."

Such action, the road map says, includes the "dismantlement of terrorist capabilities and infrastructure" and "confiscation of illegal weapons."

I could understand Hamas's objectives, however I can't understand their reasoning. All they must give up is time (which costs nothing) to give diplomacy a chance where REAL concessions are being granted instead of carrying out meaningless suicide attacks (which will ultimately result in nothing).

I can sympathise with the Palestinians, however Hamas and these other groups I could piss on. They're as bad as any other form of religious extremism in the world.

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Retro ...

quote:

Originally posted by occrider Anyway, the Druze are a multi-national religous group who are similar to the Arabs of the region, but consider themselves neither Arabs nor Muslims, and do not intermarry with Muslims or Jews. There are about 300,000 of them in the Middle East. I think they're more or less looked down upon by everybody else. Hmmm the closest thing I can think of that would be analogous to that group would be something like the amish or the quakers in the US.

Yeah....the druze.....a MUCH loved sect of islam in the Mid-East. There are a lot of them residing the Jbiel (Mountainous part of Lebanon) area. They are rarely seen in Beirut or anywhere else in the central and souhtern area of the country.
In the 1800's, there was a Maronite massacre at the hands of the Druze in the mountains of Lebanon. Being half Maronite, I don't particularly like them, but they're not the most horrible people on earth, so it evens out.
Interesting, tho, to find out that some Israelis are druze.

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It has to start somewhere,
It has to start sometime,
What better place then here?
What better time than now?
--Rage Against the Machine

quote:

Originally posted by DrummeRaver86 Yeah....the druze.....a MUCH loved sect of islam in the Mid-East. There are a lot of them residing the Jbiel (Mountainous part of Lebanon) area. They are rarely seen in Beirut or anywhere else in the central and souhtern area of the country. In the 1800's, there was a Maronite massacre at the hands of the Druze in the mountains of Lebanon. Being half Maronite, I don't particularly like them, but they're not the most horrible people on earth, so it evens out. Interesting, tho, to find out that some Israelis are druze.

What I admire about the Druze is their ability to completely seperate religion from nationalism - The Israeli Druze see themselves as fully-fledged Israelis, serve the army and pay their taxes etc.

Those of of us with common sense also see them as fully fledged Israelis.

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quote:

Originally posted by oDrori What I admire about the Druze is their ability to completely seperate religion from nationalism - The Israeli Druze see themselves as fully-fledged Israelis, serve the army and pay their taxes etc. Those of of us with common sense also see them as fully fledged Israelis.

you're right, they do seperate nationalism from religion. In lebanon, it takes someone a while to remember that the druze are lebanese too!

___________________

It has to start somewhere,
It has to start sometime,
What better place then here?
What better time than now?
--Rage Against the Machine

quote:

Originally posted by oDrori What I admire about the Druze is their ability to completely seperate religion from nationalism - The Israeli Druze see themselves as fully-fledged Israelis, serve the army and pay their taxes etc. Those of of us with common sense also see them as fully fledged Israelis.

but then again, the druze have been known in the ages to be submissive under the "current" occupier... be it, arabs, jews, etc etc...

i have no respect for this kind of mentality.

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and for melech_mike

if you try to compare arab lands to jewish lands, put this in your little head. there's 250 million arabs, in 15-20 years about 450 million. Now how many jews is there? how about comparing land size/population ratio...

also for your info, an "arab" from morocco is so different from an "arab" from Kuwait that they can barely understand each other if they spoke together... each arabic country is so different from the next one that its hard to say it forms a homogeneous group. If it wasn't the case, you would've seen a united states of arabia or whtaver the name formed a long time ago...

bah its a waste of time posting in your threads...

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quote:

Originally posted by ahlamalek but then again, the druze have been known in the ages to be submissive under the "current" occupier... be it, arabs, jews, etc etc... i have no respect for this kind of mentality.

Or perhaps they care not for how they are governed so long as they are free to practice their beliefs and live their lives as they so choose. It seems to me that a lot of strife would be avoided if people adopted this mentality.

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Retro ...

oh yeah? we would still have some guy named Adolf Hitler ruling in europe or maybe even slavery in the US don't say things without thinking.

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This is one of the worst threds ive ever seen.

Why not talk about
Israels large nuke program
Israels spy networks in the US
Israels many loans from the US which havent been payed off.
Israels place in the western media and is portrayal of jews and arabs.
Israels blackmail of officals world wide.
Israels CONTROL OVER SOME LARGE U.S. TELECOMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

When u dive into daily issues like these you cant say even for a minute that Israel is anymore or less innocent than any or all Arab countries. OR that Israel deserves any more land, money or respect than anyone else.

-----=( ALWAYS REMEMBER )=-------
If u look at history u see countless examples of a powergrab disguised in hatred and misinfortation between groups of people.
melech mike's endless rant about his people is no diferent.

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Todays youth have desacrated music with the popification of all generes. FOR SHAME.

MUSIC GURU - 2002.

quote:

Originally posted by Mental Exodus This is one of the worst threds ive ever seen. Why not talk about Israels large nuke program Israels spy networks in the US Israels many loans from the US which havent been payed off. Israels place in the western media and is portrayal of jews and arabs. Israels blackmail of officals world wide. Israels CONTROL OVER SOME LARGE U.S. TELECOMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

you're so pathetic

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"Those are my principles, if you don't like them... well, I have others.”

quote:

Originally posted by TranceGiant you're so pathetic

care to explain ?

___________________
Todays youth have desacrated music with the popification of all generes. FOR SHAME.

MUSIC GURU - 2002.