I'm pretty sure those attacks actually happened inside of Israel and not in the Palestinean territories.

But to answer your question, the Palestinean government is not capable of controlling things in their own country. To do that they would need a military and would need open access to all parts of their territory -- things that Israel has not allowed.

How can they fight against extremists if they do not have a military? Up to now they have used their police force which has proved to be very inefective.

This is like the ole merry-go-round that went on from 2000-2003. Hamas or Islamic Jihad would attack Israel. Israel would blame Yasser Arafat and would attack his compound and his security forces. Arafat's government would then be weakened thus allowing the extremists to launch more attacks, resulting in Israel again blaming Arafat.

Either the Israeli government was just very stupid (something I doubt) or they were purposely trying to upset the peace process.

__________________


my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...

Me thinks you don't watch enough cartoons. Never heard of Pinky and the Brain??

__________________


my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...

So apparently it's ok for Eric to bring up Nazis/Hitler/etc, but when someone else does it, now he's "Jewish" and offended.

Hypocrite much Eric?

__________________
2010 528Xi
I demand justice.
Or, if there must be injustice, let it be in my favor.

Reynold's Wrap: it's not just for hats anymore.

For not having a military they did a pretty good job fighting Israel.

When did the Palestinean government fight Israel?

__________________


my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...

I don't mind people bringing up the Nazis. In fact, there is a lot going on in the United States that is similar to what went on in Germany in the mid-1930s. The comparisons should definately be made.

Bringing them up is different than accusing me of being one. That surely does offend me.

__________________


my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...

Eric just fyi the hitler poster not appreciated by me either. and as for government fightin the terrorists they wouldnt any way because they support them.

OK, this is going downhill quickly. Again, I ask that we keep it civil. Exchanging of opinions and ideas is encouraged. Let's keep it respectful, though.

Juan

__________________
Whenever I text "Barack," my phone suggests the word "Capable." I guess my my phone IS pretty smart.

Not true. There have been many battles between the Palestinean Authority and Hamas over the years. The most recent one was last year:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2...a-future_x.htm


Here is an article that appeared in Executive Intelligence Review in January 2002 discussing the origins of Hamas:

Israeli Roots of Hamas Are Being Exposed

by Dean Andromidas

Speaking in Jerusalem Dec. 20, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer made the connection between the growth of the Islamic fundamentalist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and Israel's promotion of the Islamic movement as a counter to the Palestinian nationalist movement. Kurtzer's comments come very close to EIR's own presentation of the evidence of Israel's instrumental role in establishing Hamas, and its ongoing control of that organization.

Kurtzer said that the growth of the Islamic movement in the Palestinian territories in recent decades—"with the tacit support of Israel"—was "not totally unrelated" to the emergence of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and their terrorist attacks against Israel. Kurtzer explained that during the 1980s, when the Islamic movement began to flourish in the West Bank and Gaza, "Israel perceived it to be better to have people turning toward religion rather than toward a nationalistic cause [the Palestinian Liberation Organization—ed.]." It therefore did little to stop the flow of money to mosques and other religious institutions, rather than to schools.

According to the Dec. 21 Israeli daily Ha'aretz, Kurtzer made these extraordinary statements at a seminar on religion and politics sponsored by Oz V'Shalom-Netivot Shalom, a largely Anglo-American organization that promotes peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Rabbi Dr. Aharon Lichtenstein, the head of Har Etzion Yeshiva in Alon Shvut, who is an active advocate of a just regional peace, also spoke. Kurtzer said that as a result of the growth of Islam at the expense of education, there are now Palestinians who are "determined terrorists that use religious beliefs in a perverted way to appeal to the masses."

Kurtzer said that cultural and religious interaction is potentially a way to "build bridges." But instead, "the perverted use of religion in the region is today becoming one of the great challenges for the years ahead." He said that there is no "inherent component" in Islam that advocates violence. But one of the five principles of Islam, jihad—resistance—"in classic religious associations connotes religious belief and fervor, not violence." But extremists have distorted the meaning of jihad, so it now has a connotation of violence in the service of a religious purpose.

The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend

This statement is extraordinary given the fact that Kurtzer is a very senior diplomat, having held the post of Ambassador to Egypt just prior to going on to Tel Aviv. He is also an Orthodox Jew who is not shy of criticizing the extreme anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic views held by certain Arab circles. But Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rarely grants the United States' highest representative in Israel an official audience.

The ambassador's comments are an acknowledgment of what any serious Middle East observers knows: Hamas has always been seen as a tool by which Israel could undermine the nationalist movement led by Palestinian Authority President and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat. Similar statements by Arafat have been dismissed by Israel as "cranky" propaganda. In an interview with the Dec. 11 Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Arafat said, "We are doing everything to stop the violence. But Hamas is a creature of Israel which at the time of Prime Minister [Yitzhak] Shamir [the late 1980s, when Hamas arose], gave them money and more than 700 institutions, among them schools, universities and mosques. Even [former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin ended up admitting it, when I charged him with it, in the presence of [Egpytian President Hosni] Mubarak."






There's more, but I'm not going to post the whole article. The Israeli government did the same thing in the Palestinean territories as we were doing in Afghanistan at the time. Islamic exremism flourished during the 1980s and 1990s in Gaza, the West Bank, and in Afghanistan due to these policies. Our leaders were very short cited.

__________________


my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...