Monday, November 18, 2002

 
Why does Israel keep alleviating restrictions from Palestinian population?


The IDF is back in all parts of Hebron after Fridays shooting attack. The city is under curfew, no one is aloud to go into Israel for work, no one can work anywhere actually, and no one can sell his or her products. No one can do anything.

The redeployment in Hebron 3 weeks ago was a big name for a small moves which merely consistent of moving 20-30 soldiers and an end for a few patrols in the city. The area where the attack took place is and was under full Israeli control, though it is more than likely that the terrorist had an easier time after the redeployment.

Why does Israel pull the IDF from Palestinian cities time after time? Why not stay there and impose a never ending curfew on the Palestinians?

The first easy answer is that the IDF cannot stay in all the Palestinian cities for a long time using only the regular (compulsory service based) army. To do so the army needs to call the reserve soldiers. Calling the reserves is not a simple thing to do. First you can’t just pop a civilian out of his life every time you want to. A lot of reserve soldiers already served this year a lot more than what the orders allow. The reserve army is very big but only a few units are capable and suitable for the task of holding presence in the Palestinian cities. So a lot of burden is put on the shoulders of a few. Another important factor to be taken into account is the cost of calling the reserves. For every day you do a reserve service the state pays your regular salary. So if a compulsory service soldier gets around 130 US$ a month such an amount of money (could be lower or much higher) is what a reserve soldier cost the state per day. That’s not the end of the story. Because even though you get paid you didn’t produce anything. When people go to the army they don’t go to work and they don’t produce anything – That’s a huge lost for the already in deep shit Israeli Economy. Plus if you are self employed, let’s say you run a shop, the money you get from the state is not enough. Imagine the damage caused to a store that been closed for thirty straight days. It’s likely to go out of business and now what good is the money he was paid for the reserve duty.

Another financial fear is that a permanent stay in the Palestinians cities will compel Israel to reactivate the long gone “Civil Administration”. A system that takes care of all the civil services in those cities: water, power, transportation, sewage, hospitals, education and so on. Such an administration will cost billions of Shekels, money which Israel doesn’t have and don’t want to spend on Palestinian welfare.

The other major reason alleviating restrictions is totally different. The assumption is that when there is no hope there will be no reason for the Palestinians to stop the terror. Only using the stick and not the carrot will no get Israel anywhere. The idea is to ease the life of the Palestinians when those are quiet and punish them when they’re not.

Another reason is to try and undermined the power of Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. This is done by reaching local unofficial agreements with strong Palestinian groups and leaders such as heads of big families (“Hamula”) in a certain area or with big merchants who employ a lot of people and so on. Those Palestinian have interest in quieting their areas for when the IDF restrictions are alleviated that benefits them. Thos local VIPs are sometimes very powerful and influential in their cities and dealing with them undermines the power of Arafat.

I hope this helps to enlighten the difficulties in staying inside the Palestinian cities all the time.



posted by G. 22:12

Saturday, November 02, 2002

 
Nutshell Too

From the people who brought us “History in a Nutshell” now comes the sequel “Nutshell Too”. It’s a presentation that deals with the early history of the region, from Joshua’s conquests, until the 2000 Camp David summit. Check it out.



posted by G. 11:40

 
Joint target

Do you know who are the biggest opposers to the security fence/wall being build between Israel and the Palestinians? Yasser Arafat along with all Palestinian factions and terror groups on one side and far right Israeli extremists on the other side. Draw the conclusions yourself.



posted by G. 11:39

 
The Shterzer peace plan

You offered a lot of ideas, I have to say I disagree with most of them (you can guess it your self). I’m glad that they all tried to approach the issue seriously without using all kinds of faul expressions.

Before I’ll bring my idea I want to emphasize a few things: I do believe in the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state; I know the Arabs don’t “like” us; I have no illusions about heaven in the middle east in the seeable future; I do agree that Israel has legitimate claims in Judea and Samaria (West Bank); The basis to any solution that will benefit Israel must resolve with an overwhelming majority of Jews in the new defined boundaries of the state of Israel; I don’t believe Transfer is a possible option, it is morally wrong and impossible (notice for would be angry commentators - I’m not going into this discussion all over again, at least not now); I don’t like messianic views, we live here and now and should act that way. If we were still waiting for the messiah there would be no state of Israel. I also don’t see great importance to things that happened many years ago, when solving this issue we can’t overlook existing facts.

First and for most a permanent agreement with the Palestinian cannot be achieved as long as Yasser Arafat is their leader (be it the function he plays now or just a symbolic president). The man has proven not to be trusted again. He had is chances and blew it. So the first step is to kick Arafat out of power. With Arafat so should the Palestinian government and legislative council be dismissed.

After Arafat’s gone a new Palestinian leadership need to take his place and will be closely supervised by the US or the international community. The new leadership must call and force the end of Palestinian terrorism. Obviously the Fanatic Muslim terror groups won’t obey – that will be the first decisive test for the new Palestinian leadership. If it can’t control the Hamas, Islamic Jihad etc. there is no reason for Israel to do business with them. As incentives to the new leadership Israel should evacuate all the illegal outpost and withdrawal to September’s 28 2000 lines (pre violence). You know what I think about the illegal outposts, they should be taken any way, as no group should be allowed to act illegally against the government's policy. The withdrawal sounds a big thing and could be perceived as so by The Palestinians and the rest of the world. It sounds big but I reckon that the IDF can withdrawal to this lines in a matter of a few hours and vice versa, If needed to move back in less than half a day (we are talking here about a few miles after all). If the cease fire is enforced by the Palestinians over their radicals we can go on, if not the IDF goes back in.

A interim agreement will have to be reached after a few month of no terrorism. Israel will take down a few small isolated settlements. If the agreements goes well for 2-3 years then a final agreement should be negotiated.

The final solution will look similar to what Barak offered in Camp David. Most of the settlements will be dismantled. The big ones near the green line with total of around 80% of the settler’s population will be annexed and fenced out. In return the Palestinian should be given equal amount of land from Israel, my suggestions are to give the areas densely populated with Israeli Arabs near the Green line such as Umm el Fahem, Taybe, Tira and the villages around. This will reduce the number of Arabs inside the state of Israel and will help secure Israel’s future demographically.

The all border between Israel and the Palestinian state will be fenced and heavily secured, this is not Europe after all. There will be gates and inspections. If it will work there is no reason a controlled traffic shouldn’t be allowed. If it will resolve against Israel’s interests the border will be sealed the Palestinians will suffocate economically. The new Palestinian state would also have to be demilitarized and under strict international supervision for at least 20-30 years.

It will be made clear that any cheatings and lying will result in the end of the agreement and will lead to Israel recouping the Palestinian state.

The bottom line that maybe a lot of you not living in Israel are unaware off is that (as far As I believe and know) most Israelis prefer peace to land. Meaning we prefer to live peacefully without the West Bank and Gaza than to live in war with the land. We do not want and won’t agree to live without the land and without peace.

Update: I know that this plan like others have a slim chance of successes, but this is the best one I can think of now. Even if does begin okay the last phases will be very difficult to implement (removing settlements and including Israeli Arabs in the Palestinian territory, I’ll discuss it in another post). Referring to Haggai’s comment, He is right, I forgot to emphasis it and it’s very important: Going on from one phase to another will be done not only by a timetable but first of all according to the compliance of the Palestinians to every word in the agreement, no room for any compromise there.



posted by G. 11:38

Thursday, October 24, 2002

 
Achitofel advise

One thing I really can’t stand is when Israel sympathizers (Jews or Gentiles) who do not live in Israel call for radical acts/solutions. Every supporter of Israel is important that’s for sure, and each can hold his own thoughts left or right.

But when someone who lives his comfort life (in the US for example) who calls for transfer, calls the Labor party leaders murderers and claims the party to be anti Zionist - he is out of line.

Is he going to be the one to actually force people out of their homes? Will he find himself living in a divided incited society? Would he share responsibility for another political murder? What does he care? If Israel will follow the insanity way and crush out of history he’ll be sitting in nice home in a nice little suburb somewhere in the east coast. He will hold no accountability to Israel’s faith what so ever.

The same goes for Israel sympathizers that supports the loony left. Someone who calls for immediate withdrawal back to 1967 lines, evacuate all the settlements, surrender to any Arab claim no matter how bogus it is, calls Sharon a murderer, tell on Israel in every anti Israeli forum only to “drive" Israel to an insane way which he think is the right way.

Will he fill the aftermath of those stupid actions? We’ll he face a possible death strike on Israel? Will he be responsible for another political murder? Will he find himself living in a divided incited society? If Israel will follow the insanity way and crush out of history he’ll be sitting in his nice apartment in the bay area living the good life.

Someone wrote a stupid comment to one of my previous posts. He used harsh wards criticizing my post and supported a radical opposite opinion. He wrote that he is surprised to find this post in a supposed to be pro-Israeli blog. This is what he didn’t get: This is not a pro Israeli blog, It’s an ISRAELI BLOG. Okay. I'm not pro Israeli, I am ISRAELI with everything that goes with it, good and bad.

I lived here all my life and probably will spend the rest of them here. I love my country, I care for it therefore I live here. I will be the one to eat the crap those nutcase both in the left and right are trying to feed us from distance staying clean.

You don’t live in Israel but you want to support – that’s great and I thank you for that, but don’t try to push us into extremely dangerous situations while you don’t share the risks involved.



posted by G. 01:31

 
Why is it in Israel’s interest

Do you know what’s the saddest thing about this ongoing conflict with the Palestinians? The saddest thing is that eventually there will be 2 separate states exactly like Barak’s offer to Arafat in Camp David.

Barak offered all that Israel can give and in return demanded that Arafat will declare on the “end of the conflict”. I guess that was the major problem for Arafat. I’m convinced now that the Palestinians are never going to abandon their aspirations of overtaking al of Israel, and Arab states support for that will not dwindle.

The question is so what can do to secure Israel’s future. In my opinion Israel current situation is very bad. Controlling 3 million hostile Palestinians is a huge burden on every aspect of life in Israel.

Some people think that the only solution is to achieve military victory, the problem is that there cannot be a military victory against civilians. The Palestinians are never going to accept Israeli control over them – and quite frankly, why should they? Thus there will always be new terrorists instead the one who’ll be killed. There are no army brigade, missile facilities nor navy to destroy.

How do the Palestinians manage to inflict so many casualties to Israel in the last 10 years, more than all other Arab countries all together. They manage to do so because they act from with in. Our presence inside their territories and the fact there is no real obstacle that prevents them to go freely into Israel – that’s the answer.

As I said earlier, I don’t see Palestinian acceptances of Israel in the next 10-20 years. But that doesn’t mean it is in Israel interest to stay mixed with them. Separation is a necessity for the existence of Israel. Today there are more than 200,000 Palestinians living in Israel illegally, and I’m not talking about the 1 million Israeli Arabs. Palestinians are move into Israel on a daily basis. They live in Arab villages, marry Israeli Arabs and get by that Israeli citizenship and social care payments. That is why the Palestinians are so afraid of from the building of a wall between Israel and them. They believe that if the current situation of immigration into Israel plus Israeli Arabs crazy birth rate, soon there will be Arab majority in Israel. And we all know what will happen next.

We need to get out of most of the West Bank and all of Gaza, build a high wall and stop it. It’s much easier to defend against an enemy that ‘s behind a clear defended line and not strolling in your cities freely.

How and when to do it are hard questions to answer.



posted by G. 01:30

 
No connection to realty what so ever

A long debate (in proportion to the usual in my blog anyway) followed my last couple of posts. I recommend on reading them all. I guess I pissed some people off and many comments came are the outcome. All the commentators were deeply concerned about the situation in Israel and all sorts of ideas – most of them, I’m sorry to say, were so far from reality. Some of them are so unrealistic that I’ve actually heard them here for the first time. It’s very clear that most of the commentators don’t know jack shit about what’s really going on in Israel and in the West Bank & Gaza Strip. Now I don’t say that if you aren’t in Israel you can’t come with a suggestion to solve things, you sure can. But keep in mind that if your only feed is the media and stories you here from others, I promise you lack a lot of important information..

I want to refer one more time to the idea of deporting the Palestinians, an idea that was very popular among commentators. First of no Arab country would take 3 million Palestinians. If you are thinking: “so what who asks them?” Well it’s one thing to deport a few dozens of people to another country that rejects that, it’s a whole different story with 3 millions.

And here are a few pointers on deporting people:

If I recall right the Serbs tried to deport a few millions of people from Kosovo – it didn’t work, the US attacked Yugoslavia because it was a terrible thing that they were doing. There are no nice deportations.

Moledet, the party who calls for transfer is and always was a tiny party, widely unpopular – and we are talking here about Israelis who live in this conflict every day since birth. Why is that? It’s because they know talk about transfer is delusional and has no chance in realty.

Think how hard it was to deport 13 known terrorists from the Church of the Nativity, and you are talking about 3 million people, most of them not terrorists.

The all mighty USA is having major troubles in deporting thousands of people staying illegally in America.

And to finish it off: from Chris K comment: “As for those of you who think that expulsion is an option: no population will ever move in a "managed" way, only force and terror would make it happen. Ask Milosevic. It's an injustice and a crime, and I expect of any Jew to know enough about the religion and history of its own people to know better than what I have read in this discussion."



posted by G. 01:29

 
Why the hell do I need them in my state?

The Palestinians (or if you insist they are not a people merely Arabs who live in the West Bank and Gaza, it really doesn’t matter). Yes most of them are hostile, most of them do not wish to coexist with Israel, most of them support terrorism (they even cheered when the twins collapsed), their culture and moral standards fit the middle ages not the 21 century and you can say about most of them that they are barbaric, cruel, mean, evil and so on.

Now my question to all those who oppose a Palestinian state is:

Why the hell do I need 3 fucking millions of them living in the boundaries of the state of Israel?

All of those that shout that there is no Palestinian people thus they shouldn’t be given a state – What then do you suggest to do? It doesn’t matter if they are a people or not they exist you can call them by any name you want but you just can’t ignore them. By doing that you are just smashing your heads into a wall? Another stubborn foolish idea is deporting all of them out of here – In my dreams I’d like that too, but lets be realistic – it‘s not going to happen.

The Arabs were stubborn and banged their heads to the wall through the years and it led them nowhere, why should Israel adopt this idiotic tactic. Being fanatic / extreme on every idea or belief is not good. We need to know how to seize opportunities not how to miss them.

I don’t want to keep all those Palestinians inside Israel. They live in very clear areas, those areas should be given to them under appropriate terms and conditions, when they are ready for that. And yes I’m aware that even then they are likely to continue to plot against Israel – that’s okay – it’s much easier to handle another state with clear border (that will be heavily secured) than the current situation that we are mixed with them.

Suggestions like keeping them in Israel but not giving them citizenship are crazy – that will quickly lead to a Muslim majority in Israel and soon afterwards to the end of Israel as Jewish state.

Don’t you get it that a clear cut separation is the best thing not for the Palestinians (this is why Arafat rejected Barak’s offer), but for the Israelis. The Palestinian territories are like cancerous tumor, it’s going to be painful but we have to remove it fast from the healthy body (Israel) before it will be to late.



posted by G. 01:28

 
Basic stuff

Here are a few basic facts and ideas that I think should be thought of in any kind of discussion about the Israeli – Palestinian conflict:

1) There are around 3 millions Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Soon there will be many more.

2) Israel is not going to deport 3 million people.

3) As any other people on earth the Palestinian deserve their own state.

4) Israel does not want to annex the Palestinian areas, give all the Palestinians citizenships and lose its Jewish majority.

5) Israel will not annex the Palestinian territories and won’t give the Palestinians a citizenship, thus making Israel an apartheid state.

6) Israelis do not wish to control other people.

7) All of the above lead to a creation of an independent Palestinian state on almost all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

8) Israelis want peace and want to put an end to the 100 years of Arab – Israeli conflict.

9) There are around 5.5 million Jews living today in Israel and they are not going anywhere.

10) Israel was always flexible and chose the practical solution, the Arabs/Palestinians always banged their heads to the wall hoping that will lead them somewhere – it didn’t. Israel needs to avoid from adopting this Arab tactic.



posted by G. 01:26

Thursday, August 08, 2002

 
Words of wisdom

“My feelings about the so-called occupied territories are that there was a war. Israel urged neighboring countries not to get involved in it once it started. They all jumped in and they lost a lot of real estate to Israel because Israel prevailed in the conflict. Since then Israel repeatedly has offered to pull back but at no point has it been agreed upon by the other side” – US Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. August 6, 2002.



posted by G. 19:55

Thursday, July 04, 2002

 
History in a nutshell

Click this link to view a short presentation about the history of the Middle East conflict.



posted by G. 22:45

Sunday, May 05, 2002

 
Here are overlooked facts in the current Middle East situation.

1. Nationhood and Jerusalem. Israel became a nation in 1312 B.C.E., two thousand years before the rise of Islam.

2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel.

3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 B.C.E., the Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years.

4. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 C.E. lasted no more than 22 years.

5. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital. Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visit.

6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach, the Jewish Holy Scriptures. Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran.

7. King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never came to Jerusalem.

8. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem.

9. Arab and Jewish Refugees: In 1948 the Arab refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. Sixty-eight percent left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier.

10. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms.

11. The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated to be around 630,000. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is estimated to be the same.

12. Arab refugees were INTENTIONALLY not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own people's lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey.

13. The Arab - Israeli Conflict: The Arabs are represented by 22 separate nations,not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation. The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won.

14. The P.L.O.'s Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. Israel has given the Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them. {95% of the Palestinian population live and is being governed by the Palestinian Authority, and not under Israeli occupation.}

15. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated and the Jews were denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths.

16. The U.N. Record on Israel and the Arabs: of the 175 Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel.

17. Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel.

18. The U.N was silent while 58 Jerusalem Synagogues were destroyed by the Jordanians.

19. The U.N. was silent while the Jordanians systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.

20. The U.N. was silent while the Jordanians enforced an apartheid-like policy of preventing Jews from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.


posted by G. 20:43

Thursday, May 02, 2002

 
People tell me that they don't support Palestinian terror against Israel but they understand it. As they see it the Palestinians have a right to their own state, Israel is preventing it from happening so that leaves no option to Palestinians other than fight against Israel with terror as they do not have the military power to stand up to the Israeli army. I guess that is a very popular opinion around the world.

Here is my response:

The Palestinians have the right to their own independent state. The overwhelming majority in Israel and the last 4 Israeli governments agree on that. Since 1993 Israel has been negotiating peace talks with the Palestinians and Yasser Arafat. That historic turn was made after Arafat, a notorious terrorist, declared that after 30 years of terror he had abandoned that way. Arafat said, for the first time, that he is willing to accept the existence of Israel.

For seven years there was progress made in the peace process. It didn't go smoothly from either side but still it kept on going. In 1999 Ehud Barak was elected to be the prime minister of Israel. Israelis have never made such a clear pro-peace choice.

On august 2000 Israel and the Palestinians met in Camp David USA to crucial discussions. Barak wanted to end the conflict. He offered Araft the most generous peace agreement that was ever suggested to the Palestinians. Israel was willing to give more than 96% of the West bank and Gaza, the other 4% were to be replaced with Israeli lands that will be annexed to the Palestinians state. More then 95% of the settlements were to be evacuated. Barak agreed to divide Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, in to half. The temple mount, holy both to Jews and Muslims was to be held in an international status.

Israel was willing to do what no one had never done for the Palestinians - give them a state of their own, including east Jerusalem. There was never an Arab state in the land of Israel, Jerusalem was never the capital of an Arab state.

Do you ask your self: why did Arafat decline the deal?

Arafat wanted the one thing Israel would never be able to give him. Arafat insisted on "The right of return". That means that millions of Palestinians, decedents of Arabs who lived in 1947 land of Israel and left the country after the failure of the Arab attack on the newly born state of Israel, will be allowed to return to Israel. I repeat to Israel, not to the new Palestinian state. Israel population today is 6.5 million people, one million of them are Israeli Arabs. Letting those Palestinians in to Israel would mean the end of Israel as a Jewish and democratic country.

Arafat wants to eliminate the Jewish state demographically. He wants a Palestinian state and a mixed Israel, soon to become Part of the Palestinians state. No sane Israeli would ever agree to that.

So Arafat declined the peace deal. His true intentions were clear now both to Israel an to U.S president Clinton. But Israel didn't give up on peace talks with the Palestinians got renewed on a low level basis.

October 2000 - Arafat decided to go back to his old way: the way of terror. Under his orders and approval a vicious attack was launched against Israel. Israel was drawn unwillingly in to this war. Arafat don't care about his people suffer. He wants to gain political profit through terror and bloodshed.

Israelis crave to peace and they are willing to pay a high price for it. Peace is made through negotiating not trough terror.

Things were going on the right way. The Palestinians and Israel were thriving economically, Palestinians worked in Israel, and Israelis visited Palestinians villages and bought goods. Things were going just fine, until Arafat made his strategic choice in terror.

If the Palestinians would stop their terror attack, Israel will meet them around the negotiating table.



posted by G. 22:53

Sunday, April 21, 2002

 
Prior to any discussion about the current events there are some essential facts to know.

The land of Israel was home of the Hebrews since 1200 b.c.

Even after the Hebrews were exiled from there land about 2000 years ago there were always through the years Jewish communities in Israel.

For 2000 years Jews were persecuted in the foreign lands were they lived.

The biggest crime in the history of mankind, the Holocaust, was perpetrated against the Jewish people. 6 million Jews were murdered and there was no one to defend them.

The movement of Zionism begun at the end of the 19th century. The Zionists were Jews who came back to the land of their people - the land of Israel.

The land of Israel was back then part of the Ottoman empire. The Turkish and the arabs who lived in Israel did little to develop the country. The Jews tried to cooperate with the local arabs but got rejected, the arabs were hostile.

Since then the arabs refused to acknowledge the right of the Jews to their land.

In November 29th 1947 the U.N decided to divide the land of Israel in to two states: a Jewish one and an Arab one. Each on approximately half of the land. The Jews, with great sad about the divide of Israel, agreed to the decision because they wanted peace. The arabs on the other hand refused to accept the resolution made by the U.N. Soon after the state of Israel was declared 7 arabs states invaded to newly born state. The arabs lost. Israel gained more territories and the land that remained in arab hands wasn't declared as a Palestinian state. Those arab territories of the land of Israel were annexed to Jordan and Egypt.

In 1967 Egypt closed the Red sea for Israeli vessels, evacuated U.N troops from the Sinai peninsula that separates Israel and Eygpt. Syria, Jordan and Egypt were about to strike and try to eliminate Israel. A preemptive Israeli attack changed the arabs plans - in 6 days the arabs lost again.

Through the years arab hostility never ended.
At the beginning of the 90's Israel acknowledged the right of the Palestinians to their own state. After Yasser Arafat promised to change and no longer be a terrorist Israel started to negotiate with him. The peace process continued for 8 years, though Palestinian terror never ended. In august 2000 Israel PM, Ehud Barak "put it all on the table" in Camp David. Barak offered Arafat 98% of the west bank and gaza strip, including east Jerusalem. Barak also suggested to help financially to the Palestinian refugees and allowing them to return to new Palestinian state.
Arafat declined the offer. He wanted millions of arab refugees to flood Israel and over the years to make it another arab state - That will not happen. Allowing Palestinians to return to Israel will be the end of Israel as a democratic, Jewish state.

Instead of negotiating the solution suggested by Barak in Camp David Arafat chose the way of terror. In those days Arafat controlled every thing in the territories. He inflamed the area trying to achieve political profits by using terror.

Israel will not surrender to terror.


posted by G. 17:51