07-23-2003, 05:01 AM
Quote: If you decide to do this suicide attack your life stinks so incredibly and you are without hope that it is the only thing you want to do. If you kill yourself, why not take with you some of the "enemy", that is how they think.
This is what many people think, because it sounds like a relatively rational cause for suicide bombings, but it is simply not true. A good amount of the suicide-bombers of the recent intifada are actually relatively well-off people.
Quote:disagree. This conflict is all about religion, neither side can see through their blinders. Suicide bombers do what they do because they are "promised" (read brainwashed) by their leaders. It's these same religious leaders that run the countries, and if it's not a religious leader, you can be sure that there isn't one far away somewhere in the administration of that leader. The suicide bombers are nothing more than tools.
If this conflict is all about religion, how do you explain the fact that a good part of the Palestinian terrorist movement consists of secular groups like PFLP ?
And the majority of the Israeli population is not very religious, either, nor are the Israeli decision-makers.
No, this conflict is not all about religion. Nor is it about territority. It is fueled by a number of circumstances, but the core reason today is ideology. The problem is the ideology currently dominating in the Arab world (not only among religious Arabs), which will never accept the very existance of Israel, no matter how much territory Israel hands over.
The conflict can only be solved if this ideology changes and the more rational voices in the Arab world gain influence. Some recent developments can be seen as small, very small causes for hope. Arafat's slowly fading poltical influence and the willingness of the Arab governments to at least officially accept Israel's right of existance. The end of the Baath regime in Iraq may also help.
Quote:Yikes. Either both sides have the right to "defend" themselves, and this is going to continue until Israel is destroyed and the Arabs ruined, or both sides are going to learn Mr. Gandhi's lessons, and the killing might stop.
What you miss is that one side (the Arab terrorist movement) is only attacking and the other side (Israel) is only defending.
The Arab side has no right to "defend" itself, because it is not attacked. Noone in Israel seriously demands the extermination of all Arabs. But what the terrorists strive for is the complete extermination of Israel (As a side note: When groups like Hamas speak of "the occupation", they always mean Israel as a whole, not only the officially "occupied territories" - this is important in order to understand what their statements actually mean).
It was pointed out before, but I want to make it clear once again: There is a fundamental difference between the suicide bombings and Israeli revenge operations: The intent of the bombings is to kill as many civilians as possible. The revenge operations may accept civilian deaths as a side-effect, but it is not their intent.
One can argue that some of the Israeli actions are not right, not well executed or politically stupid, but they are definately not the same as the terrorist attacks on civilians.
A huge majority in Israel wants peace with the Arabs. Opinions within that majority differ about the acceptable cost for the peace. But in the Arab world, hardly anyone wants peace with Israel. I know it does not fit your nice "both sides are guilty" scheme, but this is the current reality.
Moldran