11 Comments

"people whose only goal is murder and mayhem." -- This is more than a bit far-fetched, to believe that every single Palestinian Arab wants to murder Jews. It's like believing every single Russian wants to kill every Ukrainian. No ethnic group is a monolith.

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Thank you for your comment. I don't believe every single Palestinian Arab wants to kill Jews, nor did I say that. The "people" I'm referring to are obviously those in charge of negotiating on behalf of Palestinian Arabs, and they do have the mandate of over 90% of the latter to refuse any agreements in favor of continuing violence, as has been the. case for almost a century.

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And why do they have that mandate from 90% of Palestinians? I'm sorry, but there is zero attempt here to provide all sides of the conflict, let alone fairly. This is the most dreadfully one side propaganda piece imaginable. Im open to reading from all sides, but this is awful. No one could trust or take any of this seriously, given the blatant bias and lack of even citations, the names of wars, etc. If you want to persuade anyone of anything, you're going to have to write with as much credibility, fairness, and honesty from all side's perspectives. This is written as if for gullible 5 year olds. This is written as if you think your readers are total idiots. It's frightening that you have such a simplistic and one-sided view of history. I recommend you expand your reading to include all perspectives on this issue. This is so utterly biased and childlike.

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Mar 26·edited Mar 26Author

Thank you for commenting. I don't know your age of course, but the wars/conflicts mentioned are all well-known: The 1967 Six-day War, the 2000 "Arafat's War of Terror," the 1993 suicide bombing campaign following the Oslo Accords, the 2005 razing of Israeli settlements in Gaza – these are all well documented historical events that I frankly (erroneously, apparently) assumed were familiar to anyone bothering to read this.

Researching these conflicts is easy enough by entering the year and a key phrase. I'm not writing an academic paper or a news story but an opinion piece, so I don't attempt to provide "all perspectives" on this issue (unfortunately many people cannot tell the difference between opinion and news, which are meant to be statements of fact). Op-ed writing is the writer's opinion of the facts as he or she sees them. If you can provide me with reliable sources that explain WHY representatives of Palestinian Arabs have refused all those offers of land and peace through the years, other than what amounts to a simple "no" (as an annoyed President Clinton said in 2000), I'll look forward to reading them.

In a conflict involving a terrorist organization and a modern democracy (it's not just name-calling, in all western countries and most of Arab countries too, Hamas is a "designated terrorist organization" – in fact, fear of Hamas and terrorism is one of the reasons why not a single Arab country has agreed to accept refugees from Gaza), I have a bias against the terrorist organization, and I'd consider it perverse to go out of my way to present the perspective of a mob of murderous thugs (read their charter for their "perspective"). In fact, as far as international law and Geneva Convention are concerned, there is no "war" between Hamas and Israel. "War" is preceded by the "formal act of a state's legitimate government declaring hostile military activity against that of another state." Hamas is not a state. There doesn't even exist a "Palestine state." Hamas is a terrorist organization, whose stated aim, in their own Charter (which is easily found online: "Hamas Charter" "Hamas in their own words") is to destroy Israel and murder the Jewish people, and to this end it has engaged in continuous terrorist attacks against Israel. For this reason alone, talk of "ceasefire” is nonsense. To have a “ceasefire,” there has to be a “war.” A deranged mob of terrorists "gliding" into a country, murdering 1,200 citizens of said country and kidnapping another 253 is not a "war." It's a terrorist attack. That citizens and leaders of western countries support these perpetrators of unconscionable violence – against another country and their own fellow citizens – is a perversion that should worry people of all political persuasions and a sad commentary on the state of the West.

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It's a figure of speech. The way I read it, "people" refers to the government and stated policy.

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He only said 90%.. that leaves room for the few exceptions.

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I didn't make up the "90%" – it refers to a recent AP news story.

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I was responding to JC - not you Iris...

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Another point is the formation of Jordan out of most of Mandate Palestine, along with bringing in the Hashemites from Mecca to rule the new kingdom carved out.

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This is so clear and accurate. Thank you.

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Thank you Moomin... (🥲reminds me of my childhood days ❤️)

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