Mary Mostert
The Gaza problem: how do you negotiate with people who want to obliterate you?
By Mary Mostert
Al Jazeera, which is headquartered in Doha, Qatar, quoted White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe as saying: "In order for the violence to stop, Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel and agree to respect a sustainable and durable ceasefire."
That seems simple enough. However, it is a refrain I've heard off and on for about 60 years. Why doesn't it ever get resolved? As I recall, President Bill Clinton thought it was solved when he urged the Israeli government to transfer to the Palestinian Authority security and civilian responsibility for Palestinian-populated areas of the West Bank and Gaza.
Since that transfer, 1029 Israeli citizens have been killed, and thousands more injured, by Palestinian terrorists, gunmen and rockets. Most of the time, those deaths were not even reported in our media.
However, now that Palestinians are sending more rockets that seem to have a longer range, the Israelis have struck back. We now hear a LOT about Palestinians -more than 300 of them — who have been killed by the Israelis. This appears to be prompting many protests.
Where were the protestors when the more than 1000 Israelis, many of them children, were killed?
One report I read dismissed the number of Israelis who have died from Palestinian terrorism by noting that the number was "small." Of course, the total number of Jews is also small. At this point there are NO Jews living in Gaza. On the other hand, more than half the Jews now living in Israel were driven out of Islamic nations, i.e. Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Algeria, Morocco, Bahrain, Tunisia and Yemen. That also got little international media attention.
Reuters reported yesterday recently "Israeli air strikes flattened bastions of Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip in the third day of an offensive that was called "the deadliest violence in the territory in decades."
There are only about 5.5 million Jews living in Israel, and 1029 of them have been killed by terrorists (along with thousands of Jews wounded by terrorists). That is approximately 20 times the equivalent percentage of people killed in the World Trade Center in the USA, with our 305 million population, when 3000 died on September 11, 2001. The 911 attack prompted the U.S. Congress and President George W. Bush to take prompt military action to pursue the terrorists first in Afghanistan and then their financial supporters and trainers in Iraq.
Of course, as the recent election indicates, we now have quite a large number of people who believe that action by President Bush was wrong . But...Is it POSSIBLE to "negotiate" with terrorists? What Are Hamas' goals where Israel is concerned? Driving out the Jews has been a goal for a very long time. The modern era of this conflict in the Middle East, of course, started 60 years ago when the United Nations recognized the State of Israel on May 4, 1948 after Israel issued its Declaration of Independence that outlined the new nation's foundational beliefs.
That document states in part:
THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL is prepared to cooperate with the agencies and representatives of the United Nations in implementing the resolution of the General Assembly of the 29th November, 1947, and will take steps to bring about the economic union of the whole of Eretz-Israel.
It also appealed to non-Jews living there to participate "in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions."
Forty years later, in 1988 HAMAS was organized. It was founded on a very different set of beliefs. It adopted as its Constitution the Koran and defined its goals in The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) which states on its first page:
"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it". ...
In Article 11 it states: "The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgment Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. "
Our "peace" suggestions to the Jews that they "give up" land they once controlled, i.e. in Gaza or the West Bank, only encourages the Palestinians to demand more and to continue terrorist actions. The ONLY solution, according to the Covenant is "through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors." (Article 13.)
So, here we are, right back where we were in the 1940s when Adolf Hitler tried his best to kill all the Jews. He did kill about 6 million. Hamas, like Hitler, clearly and publicly states that its goal is to "obliterate " the Jews.
And, according to Hamas' Covenant, it is not just Jews that they intend to obliterate. Their next target, after destroying the Jews, are the "Crusaders" — also known as "Westerners" and "Europeans" and "Americans."
How do you negotiate with people who wantto obliterate you?
© Mary Mostert
January 4, 2009
Al Jazeera, which is headquartered in Doha, Qatar, quoted White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe as saying: "In order for the violence to stop, Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel and agree to respect a sustainable and durable ceasefire."
That seems simple enough. However, it is a refrain I've heard off and on for about 60 years. Why doesn't it ever get resolved? As I recall, President Bill Clinton thought it was solved when he urged the Israeli government to transfer to the Palestinian Authority security and civilian responsibility for Palestinian-populated areas of the West Bank and Gaza.
Since that transfer, 1029 Israeli citizens have been killed, and thousands more injured, by Palestinian terrorists, gunmen and rockets. Most of the time, those deaths were not even reported in our media.
However, now that Palestinians are sending more rockets that seem to have a longer range, the Israelis have struck back. We now hear a LOT about Palestinians -more than 300 of them — who have been killed by the Israelis. This appears to be prompting many protests.
Where were the protestors when the more than 1000 Israelis, many of them children, were killed?
One report I read dismissed the number of Israelis who have died from Palestinian terrorism by noting that the number was "small." Of course, the total number of Jews is also small. At this point there are NO Jews living in Gaza. On the other hand, more than half the Jews now living in Israel were driven out of Islamic nations, i.e. Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Algeria, Morocco, Bahrain, Tunisia and Yemen. That also got little international media attention.
Reuters reported yesterday recently "Israeli air strikes flattened bastions of Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip in the third day of an offensive that was called "the deadliest violence in the territory in decades."
There are only about 5.5 million Jews living in Israel, and 1029 of them have been killed by terrorists (along with thousands of Jews wounded by terrorists). That is approximately 20 times the equivalent percentage of people killed in the World Trade Center in the USA, with our 305 million population, when 3000 died on September 11, 2001. The 911 attack prompted the U.S. Congress and President George W. Bush to take prompt military action to pursue the terrorists first in Afghanistan and then their financial supporters and trainers in Iraq.
Of course, as the recent election indicates, we now have quite a large number of people who believe that action by President Bush was wrong . But...Is it POSSIBLE to "negotiate" with terrorists? What Are Hamas' goals where Israel is concerned? Driving out the Jews has been a goal for a very long time. The modern era of this conflict in the Middle East, of course, started 60 years ago when the United Nations recognized the State of Israel on May 4, 1948 after Israel issued its Declaration of Independence that outlined the new nation's foundational beliefs.
That document states in part:
THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL is prepared to cooperate with the agencies and representatives of the United Nations in implementing the resolution of the General Assembly of the 29th November, 1947, and will take steps to bring about the economic union of the whole of Eretz-Israel.
It also appealed to non-Jews living there to participate "in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions."
Forty years later, in 1988 HAMAS was organized. It was founded on a very different set of beliefs. It adopted as its Constitution the Koran and defined its goals in The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) which states on its first page:
"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it". ...
In Article 11 it states: "The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgment Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. "
Our "peace" suggestions to the Jews that they "give up" land they once controlled, i.e. in Gaza or the West Bank, only encourages the Palestinians to demand more and to continue terrorist actions. The ONLY solution, according to the Covenant is "through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors." (Article 13.)
So, here we are, right back where we were in the 1940s when Adolf Hitler tried his best to kill all the Jews. He did kill about 6 million. Hamas, like Hitler, clearly and publicly states that its goal is to "obliterate " the Jews.
And, according to Hamas' Covenant, it is not just Jews that they intend to obliterate. Their next target, after destroying the Jews, are the "Crusaders" — also known as "Westerners" and "Europeans" and "Americans."
How do you negotiate with people who wantto obliterate you?
© Mary Mostert
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