Date: Thu, 04 Apr 2002 21:57:52 -0500
From: Ted White <tedwhite at compusnet.com>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Political Inventions
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Elspeth Kovar wrote:

> Ted White wrote:
>
> > In the meantime, the leaders of the Arab states have offered normal relations to
> > Israel if it returns the lands it seized in 1967.  This is a Major Breakthrough
> > -- and one Israel has turned its back on.
>
> Couple of things that I've never understood.  It's my understanding that
> in 1967 Israel had armies on it's borders, the Straights were closed,
> and Israel decided to fight.  And, to everyone's surprise, when the
> fight was over not only had they survived but they'd gain land rather
> than lost it.  Now, 35 years later, if they want people to stop blowing
> themselves and civilians up, they have to give the land back.  Perhaps
> I'm naive but this doesn't make sense to me.

The land lies outside their defined borders.

There is "land" and there is land.  Some was captured in 1967 for strategic reasons --
like the Golan Heights.  But much of it has been taken during "peacetime" by
"settlers."  These "settlers" simply appropriate the land others (Arabs) are living
on.  They bulldoze old dwellings and orchards, and, just like local developers with a
farm, they construct a modern "settlement" which otherwise looks like a subdivision in
the suburbs.  (Well, it has a few special features -- like bomb shelters.)  Once such
a "settlement" has been built and settled, it becomes an extension of the state of
Israel and is guarded by the Israeli Army.  These "settlements" honeycomb areas ceded
to the Palestinian Authority.   Key points:  the land is seized and not paid or
compensated for and the "settlers" are racist xenophobes who regard the "settlements"
as theirs by some sort of divine right and are fanatic about not abandoning them under
any circumstances.   They have at least once fought the Israeli Army to save a
"settlement" which was to be razed.  These "settlements" are *still* being built --
both new ones and expansions of older ones.  They completely undermine any peace
process.

> The other is that the Palestinians say that they just want a Palestinian
> state.  When Israel was formed land was also set aside for just such a
> state but was absorbed by the surrounding Arab countries -- countries
> that are now in full support of Israel giving up land to create a
> Palestinian state.

Israel is not being asked to give up *its* land for a Palestinian state -- only the
land beyond its borders.   We're talking West Bank and Gaza Strip here....

--Ted White