Roger, having said about the Persion Gulf war what I just said in the last posting, which of course, disagrees strongly with some of the points posted by you, I have to say that I believe firmly that American foreign policy, in certain aspects has lead directly to the point of the latest terrorist attack in the US and has been a factor in the increasing terrorism emanating from the Arab world directed again the West. We should attempt to understand why. I believe we err greatly, no matter how sympathetic we feel as individuals one to another, to give such unconditional support to the Israeli government at the expense of the Arabs. On the one hand you have a small, quasi-democratic state with roughly six million citizens, one and a half million of which are Arabs, which suppress mightly another two million on the West Bank and Gaza. This state slowly intrudes itself into Arab land and society, after having already taken Israel proper, displacing millions who yearn to return to what were their homes in what is now Israel, and continuing to displace others, all of which cannot be done without AMERICAN support. The missiles that blow up Palestinian homes are made in America, paid for with American money and delivered by American made helicopters. Many of the settlers on the West Bank are American religious fanatics out to displace the Arabs and they and the other settlers have always the connivance and, more or less support, as the case may be, of the Israeli government and public. These isolated but numerous settlements have been considered Israeli territories by all Israeli governments as are the roadways that connect them. Consider this, at the beginning of the Oslo peace process there were approximately 100,000 settlers in the West Bank and Gaza. Now there are almost 400,000! The roadways and settlements are built and controlled by the Israelis as are the resources necessary for their maintaince. The resources needed by the settlements, water and other things, receive priority and those of the neighboring, Palestinian areas may be diverted and are always secondary resulting disruptions in the basic necessities of civil life. In the various so-called peace proposals many are to be retained and controlled by Israel. No proposal contemplates abandoning all of them and returning East Jerusalem to the Arabs. This is more in the nature of stealing something from somebody then insisiting they sign a thank you note and then undertake to publish it worldwide at their expense. . I ask all of you what state anywhere in the world would accept such a hotchpodge? This is all enabled by American money and support. A merest fraction of oppresion on this scale and for these reasons, essentially religious, against Americans or citizens of the developed and near developed world, of whatever race, color, creed or religion would never be tolerated here in the United States or elsewhere for the slightest second and would create an immense brouhaha. . On the other hand you have two hundred million or so Arabs, heirs as are we to classical civilization, spread out over a large area, controlling, at least to some degree a vast proportion of the world's oil, and ardently supported by another billion co-religionists. This group as a whole commands a great proportion of the worlds important resources and must not be alienated for many, many reasons. I ask all where does the interest of the West lie? Not in any way to justify the killing of innocents but the hyprocisy of the West is plain to all in the Middle East and should be on reflection to anyone. The use of the veto by the United States to protect Israel from compliance with UN resolutions is but one example. Some in the Middle East, less fanatical and more secular overlook this hypocrisy, but others are motivated to give their lives to strike back. We should avoid what is essentially developing into a chronic war now brought home to our backyards by understanding that the situation that has developed to this point is, in fact, greatly at odds with the values we profess. The rule of law, respect for human rights, etc, etc, cannot be delivered during eviction at the point of a gun from one's home to see it deliberately blown up, , by the blasting of people with helicopter gunships and imprisoning millions of people by military occupation, stealing their resources and lands, etc., and we in the United States should not countenace it. So, I will agree that American foreign policy has contributed to the present situation. Regards Robin.
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