[ianch99]

Originally Posted by Pierre

It’s clear what side you’ve picked, it’s evident in the tone of your posts.

<yawn>

Of course, you cherry pick and ignore the posts where I unequivocally condemn Hamas as terrorists and that they should be eradicated. This is to be expected from one who is not open to debate and information illuminating both side of the conflict.

You stick with your "Israel good, Arabs bad" narrative if it comforts you.

Meanwhile, back in the real world ...

---------- Post added at 17:51 ---------- Previous post was at 17:32 ----------

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Why? It’s Hamas and Hezbollah, encouraged and supported by Iran, that are the cause of this problem and getting in the way of a peaceful resolution

This is such an uninformed post. Both sides are obstacles to a peaceful two state resolution:

- the Hamas death cult, together with it's Islamist peers (Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, etc.) all demand the end of the Jewish nation and it's citizens. I think that is pretty clear.

- what is not that well known, mainly due to the loud voices screaming "Anti-Semitism!" when Israel is criticised, is that the governing party Likud has, as part of its charter, a rejection of an Arab state in the area:

Israel’s policy on statehood merits the same scrutiny as Hamas gets

Likud’s 1977 founding document reveals its position that:

… between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.

Of course, this was written in 1977 – but critics of Hamas don’t afford it this concession vis-a-vis its 1988 charter. While this Likud statement doesn’t possess the racist sentiments of the Hamas charter, the practical implications denying the possibility of two states co-existing are more or less the same.

Lest we think that the Likud’s 1977 position is anachronistic, its 1999 electoral platform reiterates that:

The Jordan river will be the permanent eastern border of the State of Israel.

Jerusalem is the eternal, united capital of the State of Israel and only of Israel. The government will flatly reject Palestinian proposals to divide Jerusalem.

The Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river.

This platform has never been rescinded. Current Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was also exposed in a 2001 video bragging that he “stopped the Oslo Accords” after receiving US guarantees that Israel would not be required to withdraw from “specified military locations” – chosen by himself, including the whole of the Jordan Valley/eastern border of the West Bank – in exchange for signing the 1997 Hebron Agreement.

And then wasn’t it the case that the Likud split over Sharon’s proposal to withdraw from the Gaza Strip in 2005? Didn’t Sharon form a new “centrist” party, Kadima, committed to “disengagement” (that is, the unilateral demarcation of permanent borders) with Palestinians? However, far from being a move towards a just peace, Dov Weiglass, then a senior aide to Sharon, candidly explained that:

The disengagement is actually formaldehyde. It supplies the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians. And when you freeze that process, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, and you prevent a discussion on the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem. Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda.

- although this was 2014:

The Israeli public in light of a recent poll showing that 74% of Israelis are opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state.

The polling here is very muddy but it clearly shows the a sizeable minority of Israelis support Likud's hard line policies esp. the illegal colonisation of the West Bank.