Palestine

[andrewducker]

The recent announcement on Israel/Palestine has me absolutely infuriated.

_Not_ because the plan has Israel holding onto bits of what they should really be handing back (which bits end up being populated by which people isn't really a huge concern to me and I'm fairly fluid about the concept of nation states at the best of times).

What really, _really_ annoys me is the way that it was announced. Bush stood up there with Sharon and told everyone what they'd agreed. The US is supposed to be brokering a deal between two sides and yet it presents a deal hammered out with one side without any actual reference to the other one.

Israel/Palestine may cover a tiny amount of area but it's become a major matter for the entire Arab world. Much of the anger aimed at the US stems entirely from the way it acts over Israel. By standing up there and saying "Fuck you, we're only actually interested in one side here." they've just pushed many, many more people towards anti-Israel and anti-US and anti-Western groups.

Can someone not give the current US administration a _tiny_ clue that if they treat people like shit those people will get upset?

Comments

[akicif.livejournal.com]

Again with the same old myths. Back in the early seventies, Northern Ireland was a complete mess. A faction of the powers-that-be wanted to apply an "Israeli-style solution" - even down to walling off the border with Eire. Luckily, this didn't happen. Thirty years on, Israel/Palestine are still festering away and the Northern Ireland problem is well on the way to being solved (unlike, say for example, Afghanistan and Chechnya - which are still bubbling cauldrons of civil war).

This sort of implies that negotiation can work in places where claiming massive military victories (mostly over civilians) doesn't.