Israel should unilaterally withdraw from the West Bank

[chabibi]

In case you forgot the Israeli government already approved a two state solution that they offered to the Palestinians in 2000. I don’t understand how Palestinian supporters over look this significant point in the conflict. Israel also has a great track record of making concessions and giving land for peace they returned the Sinai twice to make peace with Egypt

[jakethebake]

Hold on a minute. You can't have this discussion w/o nicky g. Where is he? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[chabibi]

I agree with wayfare in principal. Many of the religious settlers are just fanatics like the arabs, especially the ones in gaza. Unfortunately every time Israel reduces military presense the arabs assume they have achieved a victory, just like the Lebanon pull out. Building the wall will reduce suicide bombing but unilaterally withdrawing form the west bank will increase mortar attacks in towns close to the west bank like kfar sabaa. Removing all settlers from the west bank may be a good idea because lets face it, theyre gonna have to go eventually. But to ensure peace and security Israel has to keep a large military presence in the west bank

[Gamblor]

Many of the religious settlers are just fanatics like the arabs, especially the ones in gaza.

Many in the Vatican are as well. I demand to be allowed into the Vatican, as well as the Al-aqsa mosque, whenever I want. Why can't I wear a shirt that says "Jesus sucks" or something along those lines?

Because Christianity and Islam are widely practiced do people not demand the right to be offensive to those religions. But a Jew demands to live in his holy land, and the world is up in arms.

By the way, all those grapes, and avocados, and bananas, all you Europeans eat, those are grown in Gaza. So you're destroying an entire industry as well as many livelihoods too.

These people don't sit around all day twiddling their thumbs and thinking of ways to piss people off. They're trying to build a life in their holy land, and they spend a great deal of time trying to do it while trying to stay away from Arab areas.

[chabibi]

[ QUOTE ]
These people don't sit around all day twiddling their thumbs and thinking of ways to piss people off. They're trying to build a life in their holy land, and they spend a great deal of time trying to do it while trying to stay away from Arab areas

[/ QUOTE ]

if youre talking about the religious twiddling theyre thumbs is what alot of them do they get paid by the government to study torah and they dont have to serve in the army

[Gamblor]

if youre talking about the religious twiddling theyre thumbs is what alot of them do they get paid by the government to study torah and they dont have to serve in the army

About 1/4 of settlers are professional yeshivabochers.

1/2 are religious and have jobs and manufacture shit.

1/4 aren't religious and do whatever.

I don't care either way, but they do have the right to be there and not removed just because they are Jewish.

A lot of them are crazy but plenty aren't.

[Hack]

I don't want to encroach on Palestinian land because that will just piss them off, but Palestinians and their sympathizers can't complain if Israel builds it only on Israeli land. i'd find it hilarious if the fence was completely built and staffed with armed soldiers. Suicide attacks would go down dramatically, and the Palestinians would be out of work in israel.

Then they'd have to negotiate.

I like this idea very much.

Keep them out so they cannot cause trouble.

[Gamblor]

Who decided it was "Palestinian land"?

The Oslo Accords specifically stipulated that the entire thing is up for negotiation, because Israel has a valid claim to it too... Now they, again, want it all and have brainwashed everyone into saying things like "Palestinian land".

It's all disputed territory, not "Palestinian territory"

[Hack]

I'm just saying that the international community has used that as an excuse fo not supporting the fence, and I'd rather it just be built on land that is considered by everyone(not Hamas and Islamic Jihad, etc., obviously, because they're extremists, but by most credible outsiders) to be Israeli land.

I don't think it would be right to encroach on disputed land.

[Chris Alger]

[ QUOTE ]
The Oslo Accords specifically stipulated that the entire thing is up for negotiation, because Israel has a valid claim to it too...

[/ QUOTE ]
There isn't a word in the Oslo Accords that remotely suggests that Israel has any valid claim to any of the West Bank or Gaza. Rather, Oslo's Declaration of Principles specifically calls for a resolution based on UNGAR 242 and 335 (which demanded the "immdiate" implementation of 242). 242 demands the "withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict," under the principle of "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also calls for a "just resolution" of the refugee problem Israel created in 1947-48. Thanks to Israeli's military might, U.S. complaisance and people like you who don't believe in any of this and prefer terror to peace, these principles were never implemented and the region has turned into a cauldron of blood, spilling over into all parts of the world.