1956, the great military hero Moshe Dayan, speaking at the funeral of a yoing kibbutz commander said this...."For eight years now,they have sat in the refugee camps of Gaza and have watched how, before their eyes, we have turned their lands and villages, where they and their forefathers previously dwelled, into our home" and predicted that the enmity will last for generations.
Sixty years , four wars and many incursions later, the enmity endures. Death and destruction have been the constant companion to misery and deprivation and as each year and generation go by the gulf becomes deeper and the despair and degradtion grow more keen. From tine to time the Israelis go "grass cutting", launching military assaults and the Palestinians launch rockets in return ( in the latest in mid-0November, over 100 Palestinians and five Israelis were killed ). Death and destruction. No escaping the cycle. The Israelis finally left Gaza in Sept.2005, drained and frustrated and in 2006, the Islamic Resistance Movement, better known as Hamas won the election, drove out the Fatah party and has ruled there. Fatah/ PLO remain in power on the West Bank.
Many attempts at peace, have been made but none have been succesful. The closest was , when Yitzak Rabin was Prime Minister but he was assissinated by a religious Jew, because he dared to give up the "biblical" land of Judea and Samaria. The present Prime Minister Netanyahu, has been influenced too much by his Zionist father, and is not eager for peace, if it means alienating the settlers/colonists and the religious zealots (he needs their votes to stay in power). Hamas does not accept the Israeli state, while Fatah does, but you need all three to make peace.
As the years and the generations have gone by, peace has become more intractable. Israel expands settlements and peace talks stop. Hmas launches rockets from Gaza and peace talks stop. Israel seizes more Palestinian lands on the West Bank and the PLO walks away.
Nov,29, 2012, the United Nations General Assembly voted by an overwhelming majority of 9 with 41 abstentions to recognize the Palestinians as a non- member observer state, the same as the Vatican. This was diplomatic setback for the USA, Canada and Israel as they could muster a few "minnows" Palau, Panama, Czech Republic, Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Nauru (beholden to them) to vote against, while France, Sweden, New Zealand, Belgium and Spain led the "yes" side.
America fumed; Canada fulminated and Israel railed and threatened, especially after Mahmoud Abbas told the General Assembly that "it was being asked today to issue the birth certificate of Palestine". Netanyahu was beside himself, calling the Abbas speech "defamatory and venomous", saying that it was "full of of mendacious propaganda", even accusing the UN of violating past agreements between the Israelis and the Palestinians .
The Palestinians have finally gotten a victory and as they proudly unfurled their flag on the floor of the General Assembly, you could imagine Arafat and the thousands who have fought and died for their cause, gently applaud, smiling .
Sixty years , four wars and many incursions later, the enmity endures. Death and destruction have been the constant companion to misery and deprivation and as each year and generation go by the gulf becomes deeper and the despair and degradtion grow more keen. From tine to time the Israelis go "grass cutting", launching military assaults and the Palestinians launch rockets in return ( in the latest in mid-0November, over 100 Palestinians and five Israelis were killed ). Death and destruction. No escaping the cycle. The Israelis finally left Gaza in Sept.2005, drained and frustrated and in 2006, the Islamic Resistance Movement, better known as Hamas won the election, drove out the Fatah party and has ruled there. Fatah/ PLO remain in power on the West Bank.
Many attempts at peace, have been made but none have been succesful. The closest was , when Yitzak Rabin was Prime Minister but he was assissinated by a religious Jew, because he dared to give up the "biblical" land of Judea and Samaria. The present Prime Minister Netanyahu, has been influenced too much by his Zionist father, and is not eager for peace, if it means alienating the settlers/colonists and the religious zealots (he needs their votes to stay in power). Hamas does not accept the Israeli state, while Fatah does, but you need all three to make peace.
As the years and the generations have gone by, peace has become more intractable. Israel expands settlements and peace talks stop. Hmas launches rockets from Gaza and peace talks stop. Israel seizes more Palestinian lands on the West Bank and the PLO walks away.
Nov,29, 2012, the United Nations General Assembly voted by an overwhelming majority of 9 with 41 abstentions to recognize the Palestinians as a non- member observer state, the same as the Vatican. This was diplomatic setback for the USA, Canada and Israel as they could muster a few "minnows" Palau, Panama, Czech Republic, Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Nauru (beholden to them) to vote against, while France, Sweden, New Zealand, Belgium and Spain led the "yes" side.
America fumed; Canada fulminated and Israel railed and threatened, especially after Mahmoud Abbas told the General Assembly that "it was being asked today to issue the birth certificate of Palestine". Netanyahu was beside himself, calling the Abbas speech "defamatory and venomous", saying that it was "full of of mendacious propaganda", even accusing the UN of violating past agreements between the Israelis and the Palestinians .
The Palestinians have finally gotten a victory and as they proudly unfurled their flag on the floor of the General Assembly, you could imagine Arafat and the thousands who have fought and died for their cause, gently applaud, smiling .
