The Logic Off Topic list

At 4:16 PM +0800 9/23/01, LogicBaby wrote:
>Dear Dennis;
>
>>  #1 Palistine is not Afghanistan.
>True, completely agree.
>>  #2. The US cannot control the Israelis or the Palestinians.  The US
>>  has been trying to use what influence it has over Israel for years to
>>  get them to lighten up on the Palestinians, because among other
>>  things, Israeli belligerence causes the US problems as well, but
>>  every time things start to move in a positive direction extremists on
>>  one side or the other start killing people.  It is ridiculous to
>>  blame the US for that.  But don't let that stop you. It never stops
>>  anyone else.
>On the Night of Spetember 11th, 3 Palestinian villiges where invaded at
>night, 30 people killed and dozens injured all with American weapons and TAX
>money, It only took some serious phone calls to Sharon and Gang to cool it
>down....

Sorry can't comment I know nothing about the incident.  BTW who made 
the calls, why did they do it, and why did "Sharon and Gang" listen?


>  > #3.  I will not deny that history has been unfair to them but the
>>  Palestinians have at some time to take some responsibility for their
>>  own actions.  There are lots of examples of people who have overcome
>>  worse situations by acting in a positive rational way.  The
>>  Vietnamese for example just blow me away with the way they have been
>>  able to keep their society together through all they have been
>>  through in the last century but another example might be the
>>  Palestinian's adversaries the Jews who have historically had some
>>  pretty tough times too but no matter how tough things get they always
>>  appeared to keep institutions like schools (like the Vietnamese) and
>>  research and art functioning kept looking for creative ways to deal
>>  with their problems.



>So, What do you mean?!! The Palestinians have creative places, films, arts
>and so on but they have brutal Military occupation and a raciest state
>called Israel backed by US Tax money to deal with, they have apaches and
>F-16 bombing there towns every night and every small town is cut from the
>outside world with big holes on the roads and military forces, how creative
>can you get? Its very simple Israel needs to Pull out of the west bank, east
>Jerusalem and Gaza in accordance with UN resolutions, Illegal settlements
>needs to go, very simple, but as long as there is no one to stop them the
>bloodshed will keep going and extremism will grow on both sides.

I would not deny for a second that the Palestinians don't have it 
rough.  I would also not pretend for a minute to know the answer to 
the problem.  I do know that it is an oversimplification to say that 
the US is to blame for all their problems.   As for creatively 
approaching their problems I don't think sending their children to 
fight and be killed by a vastly superior force just for the shock 
value counts.  They *are* going to have find some way to reign in 
their fanatics who go berserk every time it looks like there might be 
some kind of settlement with the Israelis though and for that matter 
the exact same thing should be said about the Israelis as well. 
Somewhere along the line people on both sides of the conflict are 
going to have to recognize the fact that the other side is not going 
anywhere.  In fact I think most of the cooler heads there do accept 
that fact.
-- 


                                 Dennis Gunn
                                 Mightyjohn@...

                  check out  MIGHTY JOHN HENRY's album "hot air head"
                                                    info at
                        http://www.twics.com/~mightyjo/home.html