"Ghhhaza!"
That's the way anti-Israel American activist and useful idiot, Anna Baltzer, refers to it wistfully when she addresses college audiences on behalf of the Palestinian intifada against Israel. Well, apparently Gaza is not even safe for members of the International Solidarity Movement (with which Baltzer is affiliated) any longer.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/04/14/hamas-body-kidnapped-italian-activist/
On Friday, just hours after Italian ISM activist Vittorio Arrigoni was kidnapped by some REALLY radical terrorist group, the "authorities" of Hamas announced that they had found his body.
I have no love for the ISM. It is a radical bunch of extremists who oppose Israel so strongly that they have provided material support in the past to the terrorist groups operating in the Holy Land. I am sorry, however, for the death of Arrigoni. It should serve as a wake-up call to the misguided internationals who trek to that part of the world to pitch their tent with the bad guys. Not even they are safe.
It's a rough neighborhood over there, folks. You go at your own risk.
This latest incident, coupled with the recent atrocity at Itimar, causes me to question what sane American parent would send their college-age child to go over to that region on that asinine Olive Tree Initiative.
At least they didn't blame it on the shark.
ReplyDeleteFindalis, nicely said!
ReplyDeleteAlso, are there "sharks" in the Mediterranean sea?
Squid
Prasad,
ReplyDeleteAs much as I wish it were true, I seriously doubt that "peace talks" will cure the underlying problem. Hamas has the eradication of Israel in its Charter. The imams in the Middle East and the people in the arab street want the Israeli state demolished ... driven into the sea.
It is not a territorial dispute or it could be easily resolved. You have anti-Israel/anti-Semitic teaching in the arab schools for generations, so what can you expect besides more and more radicals who don't want peace with the Jews under any circumstance.
Israel has no legitimate party to negotiate with for peace. Is it Hamas or the Palestinian Authority? Who speaks for the Palestinians? How do they sell any peace agreement with the Israelis to the arab street?
You might also recognize that living in a place is different than having sovereignty over it. Owning a piece of land here and there is different than having a unified government. That is a government with its own laws, language, commonality, and a willingness to unite to fight to defend it (as in the case of the U.S. and Israel) that are among the indicia of a people having a nation. All the Palestinians have is a highly developed sense of victimhood and hatred.
An example, do the Bedouins have sovereignty over the places they camp once a year, even though they have done this for centuries? Obviously not, they camp on land that someone else has sovereignty over.
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The people on the Arab street would settle down if they had a functional economy, a nice house, and prospects of sending their children to college. The problem is finding Arab leadership to build such a situation, when the imams and the armed groups know it would choke off their sources of support and recruits.
ReplyDeleteWhat is missing from the pessimistic views is that the Palestinian Authority has focused for the last several years on building effective local policing, and a functional economy. Israel is missing the boat in not giving that full support, including a land swap and some concessions on mutual access to eastern Jerusalem.