October 7, 2003
I'm sure by now, most of you have heard about Israel bombing a suspected terrorist camp (Islasmic Jihad) in Syria, in retaliation to a suicide bomber (a pretty 29-year-old law student) that killed 19. It's their first strike in Syria in 30 years. In my mind that's a pretty serious level of escalation. Pres. Bush says that Israel "must not feel constrained" to defend itself, refusing to condemn the strike on Syria. While Syria does not have the military might to strike back, this makes me nervous, and I can't say I completely agree with Bush. Yes, they need to defend themselves, but attacking a sovereign nation without warning (Iraq had lots and lots of warnings) is taking it a bit too far, in my opinion. Thankfully, the Arab nations met and diplomatically talked about the situation, but I'm fairly sure there will be more to it.While this isn't Armageddon, I can see a long development process possibly leading up to "The End." Israel is provoked, and strikes hard. That's fine for a while, but then they strike out in new ways (such as striking sovereign nations), and I can see support for them fading, until they do something so extreme, that everyone is against them, including the US. This is a very gradual process, but it seems to be happening. And while I still think it's up to the Palestinians at this point (and if necessary, their neighboring Arab states) to stop the suicide bombings, Israel needs to tread carefully.
Posted by charr at 9:30 AM
Reader Comments
;@too. It really gets under my skin that Israel attacks the Palestinians so violently and so often yet they seem to relish their role as the ultimate "victims." If they want to stop getting blown up by suicide bombers then they need to give back some of their land and treat the P. fairly. The whole idea of attacking the P. into submission is ridiculous.
Have you read the Left Behind series? It's really addictive - I'm on book 5 out of 12. Each one is rather short. It follows Revelation. 2 witnesses appear at the Wailing Wail and preach. A famous Jewish religious figure decides that Jesus was the Messiah and Jews begin converting. In Bk. 4, the Believers begin to show the sign on their foreheads - a hologram cross only visible to other Christians.
There needs to be moderation on both sides -- Neither the Palestinians, nor the Israelis have acted perfectly.I've never heard of the Left Behind series.
What else can the Israelis do but retaliate when they've been attacked? As for the land, I don't think land is what the Palestinians are after. As I said in an earlier post, the Palestinians have been offered (by Clinton and agreed to by Israel) 98% of the disputed land. They declined. Why? They don't want the land. They want to get rid of Israel.I'm also very worried about this whole thing with Syria. While Syria doesn't have the might to strike back, some of their anti-Israeli allies do. I'm concerned that they might use this as an excuse to gang up on Israel and really start something big.Poor Bush. Had he condemned the bombing he would have been called a hypocrit because of his own bombing of Iraq and Afghanistan. Since he has not condemned the bombings, he's now being labeled anti-Arabic and pro-Israel. The man just can't win.
This is pretty much the US's fate in the world right now in regards to aid: damned if you do, damned if you don't. You're right, you can't win and it stinks.
I can smell it from here.
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;@too. It really gets under my skin that Israel attacks the Palestinians so violently and so often yet they seem to relish their role as the ultimate "victims." If they want to stop getting blown up by suicide bombers then they need to give back some of their land and treat the P. fairly. The whole idea of attacking the P. into submission is ridiculous.
Posted by Ellen at October 7, 2003 10:19 AMHave you read the Left Behind series? It's really addictive - I'm on book 5 out of 12. Each one is rather short. It follows Revelation. 2 witnesses appear at the Wailing Wail and preach. A famous Jewish religious figure decides that Jesus was the Messiah and Jews begin converting. In Bk. 4, the Believers begin to show the sign on their foreheads - a hologram cross only visible to other Christians.