> From: Vince Lavieri <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: njc Middle East > > Ariel Sharon was the architect of the 1982 massacres in Lebanon. For > that role, he went into somewhat of a political exile. He returned from > that exile by being the focal point of the current Palestinian uprising > by his deliberate provacative visit to the Temple Mount - he invited > intifada, and he got it. And he rode that to political rehabilitation > and getting elected as prime minister of Israel. > > Asking the Palestinians to trust Sharon is somewhat akin to 1940s > European Jews being asked to trust, say, Heydrich or Eichmann. Yes, I > am saying that Sharon is a war criminal, for the 1982 massacres. > > I heard Sharon attacking Arafat in connection to Martin Luther King: > King called for nonviolence, it was said, and thus Arafat is a failure > in comparison to King because of the violence of the intifada. However, > Sharon failed to analogise that King called for nonviolence and not the > use of troops and tanks to bomb homes, buildings, kill people, and that > Sharon is as far from the King vision as Arafat. What a hypocrite. > > Especially in that we saw terrorism in this country - the bombing of the > Sunday School children - and King still taught nonviolence - a lesson > Arafat and more especially Sharon need to hear, in that Sharon commands > a muc h greater, far more powerful arsenal. An individual who is so > crushed by oppression that they engage in a sucide bombing is a pittance > in comparision with the Israeli armaments. > > Barakm offered Arafat a deal that would have left pockets of a paelstine > state not continguous with other Palestinian areas - all Palestinian > areas were islands surrounded by Israel. Arafat was hardly offered a > viable Palestinian homeland. > > Would history be different if Rabin had not been assassinated by a right > wing Israeli? > > Everyone claims that God/Allah gave the land to them. Unless the deeds > from God are produced, properly witnessed and notarized, I must rest in > the Scriptures that the earth is the Lord's, and all the lands therein. > In that the land is all God's/Allah's, we can only presume that we are > tenents on God's earth and must find a way to live together. > > Demonizing the other side leads to more violence. > > Israel must withdraw its troops from palestinian areas. > The infitada must stop, and the withdrawal may allow that to happen, at > least to a major extent. > .... > > (the Rev) Vince >
Sorry to revive this topic once more, but this email which arrived while I was on vacation deeply troubles me, especially from a religious man who is a well respected JMDLer. On Lebanon: The PLO was welcomed there after being expelled from Jordan (which massacred 20.000 Palestinians in the process). The PLO cleverly used the latent internal conflicts between Christians, Muslims and Druzes to basically create a civil war which resulted in Syria invading the country. The Sabra & Shatila massacre was done by Christian milicia, not by Israeli forces. I guess you can blame Sharon for not interfering in an internal feud. With the same kind of logic you can blame Jews for 2000 years for not interfering in Romans killing Jesus. Why isn't anybody accusing arab leaders when they kill tens of thousands of their nationals? On Sharon's visit to Temple Mount: This is a hoax. As I posted last month, Sharon went to the wailing wall, as is every Jew's right. He informed the Palestinian Authority beforehand to precisely avoid any form of provocation and he was given a green light to go there. While he was there, under police protection, no incidents occured whatsoever. A couple of days later the Arab propaganda used it to start the 2nd intifada. A similar hoax took place about 3 years ago when the Arabs claimed that Israel was digging a tunnel under the mosques. Even though it was proven a hoax later, it did trigger a series of bloody riots. On nonviolence and the teaching of hate: Please see next post with a link to Palestinian children slide show (does not need power point software this time). I defy you to supply any teaching of hate by Israelis to their children. Also, an article from Time magazine in April 2002 relates that Iran used thousands of their own children to clear up the mine fields after the war with Irak. They simply gave them a key chain and told them the way to heaven was "over there". Unbelievable but true (I also heard the same story from a retired french colonel). On Barak's deal: If anybody is to blame it's the British and the U.N, for creating an unviable partition of palestine for a tiny state surrounded by hostile neighbors. First in 1921, the British violated the UN mandate they had over the territory and unilaterally gave away 80% of palestine to emir Abdallah. This palestinian land became the transjordan emirate and then the kingdom of Jordan after WW2. Second, the UN in 1947 voted to create 2 states, one Jewish and one Arab, side by side. The Jewish state had unlogical and unviable borders, in some areas the state was as wide as the road!!! 2 weeks later, the Arab League rejected the UN resolution and declared it would use force to prevent its implementation. Back to Barak's deal: except for a 5% land swap the borders of the proposed state respected the status quo. At any rate Arafat didn't complain about the proposed territorial partition, he asked for the right of return which he knew was unacceptable and hence proves he didn't want to obtain a state by peace. If you think Israel has too much land, just look at a map. It occupies 1% of the land mass in the middle east. Aside from giving it all to Palestinians and dive into the sea, I don't see what else they can do. On demonizing the other side: OK sure, Sharon is the devil here. Then perhaps you can explain why terrorists attacks on Jews never stopped ever since the PLO was formed in 1964, even after Oslo, even when Rabin or Barak were prime ministers. Also while you're at it, please explain the wars in 1948, 1956, 1967 at a time when there were NO occupied territories whatsoever nor Israeli settlements. Come on, anybody with a sensible mind and who's willing to look at history (as written by non-partisan historians) or even at the PLO charter can instantly tell that Arabs want to wipe off Israel from the map (where they still havent put it). A commentary to article 6 of the PLO charter says the aggression against the palestinian people began in 1917, not in 1967, and that everything since 1917 is null and void. This means that they want to regain complete sovereignty over all of palestinian land, including what is now Jordan. The PLO was created in 1964 to free up Tel Aviv, Haofa, not Nablus or Gaza which were not occupied. So for you to relay those simplistic lies is simply beneath you and the moral authority which your religious position confers you. Laurent
