Israels desire for peace.
Israel has often reiterated its view that it lacks a "partner for peace" on the Palestinian side of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The message conveyed is that Israel is eager for peace, but that Palestinians are not.
While Palestinian leaders, both from Fatah or Hamas, have shown very little willingness or desire for peace, I don't believe there is sufficient desire for peace on the Israeli side either. Israels expansion of settlements on the West Bank in the wake of the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords, and now its establishment of a new settlement there (see this New York Times Article) shows that Israels political leadership desires land more than it desires peace. By expanding the settlements Israel makes it more difficult (or even impossible) to find a agreement between the parties that eventually can undermine the support for violence and terrorism.
Although the expansionist policy is not universally supported in Israel, its continuation shows that Israel has not yet accepted that it cannot militarily defeat the Palestinians and that only a negotiated peace can form the basis of peaceful coexistence. Willingness for peace only on victors terms is not, in my opinion, eagerness for peace.
posted by Torsten Pedersen @ Wednesday, December 27, 2006
5 comments
5 Comments:
Israel and Palestine will always fight...It is false about the talks because they will always be planning to destroy one another...Maybe you human rights people aren't so bad but the ACLU want to take Christ out of Christmas...Well anyways good luck and take care-perez
What? Perez, I am confused as to your point. Which blog were you responding to?
Concerning Israel and the Palestinians, I have to respond to that - but the truth is, warmongers reside on both sides of the proverbial isle, and yes, there will always be fighting. Abraham sorta messed things up for his kids a few millenniums ago....
Torsten, I do not totally agree with your assessment of Israel in this conflict. I will write more later. Just had to respond to the 1st response.
Cheers...~Charles
I was kinda talking about both postings....I felt like I had to defend my idea of the ACLU and the human rights people...Both can be good and all, but they both want to control things or makes everything p c
I had a bunch of ideas that I wanted to bring to the "table". The "arguments" are very valid, but to an extent, pointless, due to a reason I will make shortly.
First, I want to make this point. Israel is the only true democracy in that region. Only in Israel are all people able to live freely. Israeli Arabs can vote. The same luxury is not afforded to Jews in Arab nations like Iran/Syria, and in many cases, they are required to wear identifications and labels reminiscent of Nazi Germany.
Second, Israel continues to allow a mosque to sit on Israel’s holiest site - the Temple Mount. They don't tear it down. Back when controlled by Jordan, no Jew was even allowed to come near the Wailing Wall.
Thirdly, Israel has been forced to concede so much over the years, but every concession yields a new wave of terror against them – not peace. This re-ignites the debate that results in the same conclusion - Israel must concede more. Give up more land, more sovereignty, etc. etc. See the recent concessions - leaving the Gaza settlements, for example. Guess what happened? The active industry of greenhouses and civility was destroyed as one-by-one, the Palestinians looted and destroyed everything, turning former beautiful neighborhoods into burned out slums and ghettos, and leaving the greenhouses and local industry in ruins. In the end, the concession demanded by the Palestinian leadership and applauded by the World Community had hurt Palestinians, as many were employed by the Jews who lived in the settlements and earned good wages - more than they will ever earn under the Palestinian rule! Secretly, many have admitted that they did not want Israel to withdraw, but did not resist for fear of being executed as Israeli sympathizers! If you want the links to these articles, I will send them.
Fourth, sure enough, terror attacks continue to rule the day, and all against Israel. You don't see Jews blowing up buses and shooting rockets at random into Palestinian Territories. You don't see them kidnapping Palestinian children at random and then killing them. But that is what the factions of the PLO/Hamas/Fatah/etc. do on a regular basis against the Jews. When Israel retaliates, the world community collectively shouts “Shame on you, Israel. How dare you defend yourself?” Yet you barely hear any condemnation of the Palestinian terrorists and murderers
Oh well, I guess that I am making the points that I think actually are pointless, only due to the futility of peace. In this region, peace only brings more war. One more point, then I will conclude. Recently the pope visited a mosque in Turkey. It turns out that this mosque was once one of the earliest Christian churches, but was conquered by Muslims “way back in the day”. These Muslims forced conversion via fear of death and turned this church into a Mosque. The pope wanted to visit it. Muslim groups threatened violence if the pope crossed himself before entering the Mosque! Just a simple act of crossing himself like all Catholics do would have sparked bloody violence and reprisals against Christians and Jews. Yet again, Muslims continue to have a mosque on Israel's holiest site - Israel allows that. This disparity in attitude and reactions can only illuminate the difference in the mentality and spirit of peace that exists in the hearts of these two groups of people.
Are there guilty parties on both sides? YES!
Are there innocents on both sides? YES!
Are Palestinians bad people? NO!
Are Jews bad people? NO!
The truth is that the human heart is inherently evil. "For all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard" ~Rom 3:23 NLT. Satan is working actively in this conflict. War is his haven. Fear and hate his weapon. Death is his victory. To assume that there will ever be peace in this land, call it Palestine, call it Israel, is assuming error. Jesus himself said in Matthew 24:6-8 that peace is not something that will happen in the "last days". Elsewhere in the Bible, it stated that men will cry for "peace and safety" but sudden destruction will come.
Peace is not something that will ever occur on this earth. Sure there will be moments of peace, but due to the nature of man and how far we have fallen from God, the selfish and evil nature will always fight against the will of God. We know that before the end of this earth, there will be rampant sin, trouble and pain, but Jesus has already declared in Scripture: “I have overcome the world”. Praise God!
In conclusion, I DO believe that all Christians should work for and strive for peace. Just because Abraham’s children can’t get along does not mean that we should at least give it a try. It should be noted, though, in this arena, who the true aggressors are. It is those who hate America, hate Great Britain, hate Denmark, hate Israel, hate Norway, and hate all those who dare to question any aspect of their faith. The final truth is, in my opinion, until all Muslims and Jews, the whole world, for that matter, accept the true Savior, Yeshuah of Nazareth, and become changed in their hearts – no peace will reign until that glorious day when our Beloved Jesus returns in Glory and takes us to the Heavenly Canaan.
Sorry I blabbed on and on. I just realized I was soap-boxing!
:-)
God bless!
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