Thursday, February 26, 2009

Middle East Shenanegans

I don't condone what Hamas does. I definitely don't condone what Israel does. But this isn't necessarily about that...at least not directly. In this article, reference is made to the fact that the US, EU and UN are all willing to work with Hamas for a peace deal if they recognize all of the previous treaties, deals and agreements made between the PLO and Israel. Seemingly makes sense, except for the fact that the US, EU and UN don't make Israel do that. If they did, Israel would have stopped producing new settlements in Palestinian territory AND withdrawn back to their 1967 borders, much like those agreements and UN resolutions require them to. 

So I pose this question:  What sense does it make for Hamas to willingly accept previous treaties, agreements and resolutions made with Israel when Israel won't do the same? When Israel isn't even required to do the same? 

And for the record, I do not support terrorism. I do not believe that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. MLK, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi were freedom fighters. Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda are terrorists. However, I do believe in an organized armed rebellion a la French Revolution and American Revolution, and to some degree, the American Civil War (it wasn't terrorism, they were fighting for some of the wrong reasons, and in all fairness to the South, they felt there was no other way to address their grievances with the government...one might wonder if we need another one). But an organized, armed rebellion should always be a last, final, well-calculated resort. Basically, the entire situation is one giant gray area. 

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