'Israel hastened Arafat's death'- The Times of India

'Israel hastened Arafat's death'- The Times of India

Boy it's hard to give the Muslims a break when they have so little understanding of the world. Let me explain quickly and we can get on with other things...

"Arafat loved India, mostly because Indians could understand our situation, our struggle. As even India was under forced occupation by the British for 200 years. Indians too were beaten up," Musa said. "The Indian freedom struggle inspired Arafat."

"No, we will not appreciate it if Israel stops beating us up to assert their supremacy. Israel is guilty and will always be guilty. You can't clap for those that stop beating you up, for they shouldn't be beating you in the first place. That's what we believe. It's what our leader taught us," he said.

Certainly we understand that an embassador's job is to pitch his "country's" image in the best possible light to the people he is an embassador to. So the Palestinian embassador to India can be excused for being so utterly wrong. The "Palestinians" have been getting a lot of sympathy from this kind of language for years. They act as if the Israelis invaded their country and took them prisoner and they're fighting for their freedom. But that's not the truth.

Shortly after the establishment of Israel in 1948 the new country was attacked and invaded by Egypt, Syria, Transjordan (later Jordan), Lebanon, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Since then Israel has been repeatedly attacked by it's arab neighbors. Most of what is considered Palestine is actually land captured during invasions by neighboring countries after they were defeated. The beating the Palestinian embassador refers to is simply the Israeli goverments attempts to stem the terrorist attacks that have been a constant threat to Israeli civilians for 50 years. The groups funded by Syria, Iran, and Iraq have been responsible for countless deaths. For Israel Palestine represents a buffer zone between hostile Arab neighbors and Israelis.

Look at the map of Israel from teh CIA World Factbook and see where the occupied territories are. The Golan heights are between Israel and Syria, The West Bank is between Jordan and Israel, The Gaza Strip is along the coastal boarder with Egypt. There has been considerably less "beating up" going on in territories where neighboring countries has made efforts to normalize relations with Israel. Egypt was perhaps the first country to extend the olive branch and that border with Israel is less of a hot spot than the Golan Heights or the West Bank where money and supplies from Syria, Iraq and Iran flow into the tiny country. Jordan while recently taking a decidedly less militant tact in recent years still bows to pressure from Iraq, Syria and Iran when it comes to moving things through the country.

Now that all the facts are present, can we really say that Israel is the oppressor or are they sincerely attempting to keep the peace and protect their citizens? Maybe. Certainly, after 50 years of near continuous hostilities, the Israelis have lost some of their purely self defense motivated innocence. But we cannot pretend the Palestinians are freedom fighters either. There was no Palestine before. It was part of Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. If it were all about Israeli occupation, then those countries should be pleading their case to the UN, as Kuwait did in 1991. But, these countries in their defeat at the hands of a surprising Israeli military conceded those territories to Israel. Abandoned by their original mother countries, Palestine now wants to be independent.

It's interesting to note again the linguistic predispositions here. You have two Semitic peoples fighting for protection of a destiny. Incredibly stubborn and unwilling to concede defeat to the other at any cost. Add to that the relligious differences and BOOM! We may never see peace there.

On the day after Arafat's death, here's a quick roundup of the post-Arafat rhetoric:

Hamas vows more attacks after Arafat

Palestinians grieve over Arafat death

Arafat Demonstrations Turn Violent

Palestinians pour out grief over Arafat's death

Top moderate resurfaces after Arafat

Israel on high alert, hopeful after Arafat's death

Arafat dead

Palestinian leader Arafat dies at 75

And so on... As always the full gamut of media attention can be browsed at Google News.