JS> I found the following New York Times editorial rather
 JS> informative, as not only does it reveal certain things that
 JS> I personally did not know -- such as the real motivations
 JS> behind certain decisions which have been made over the
 JS> years by Israel's Arab neighbors -- but in its closing

 JS> paragraph, it also lays all of the cards on the table, by
 JS> being brutally honest, and telling the Palestinians what
 JS> they probably need to hear, in case they haven't already
 JS> realized it themselves; and that is that nobody is going to
 JS> help them but themselves, because everyone else involved in
 JS> the so-called "peace process" has selfish motivations. I am
 JS> referring to this paragraph:

 JS> ----- Begin Quote -----

 JS> The sooner the Palestinians recognize that their cause is
 JS> theirs alone, the sooner they are likely to make peace with
 JS> the existence of the State of Israel and to understand the
 JS> need for a negotiated settlement.

 JS> ----- End Quote -----

 IOW, the sooner they will understand the need to admit they have
 been beaten down and are defeated.

 That may end a short term problem, but guarantee a very long
 term war of attrition. Sixty years is just the beginning.

 The sooner the Israelis realize they have as much of a stake in
 justice for the Palestinians the sooner they will have real
 peace.


 JS> If my understanding of Endtime prophecy is correct, then "a

 Whether it is correct or not, if you are using Endtime prophecy
 to formulate your course of action, you will be wrong.

 JS> negotiated settlement" may indeed eventually come; and
 JS> perhaps sooner than later; and this peace deal may possibly
 JS> be the seven-year Holy Covenant, which appears to be
 JS> prophesied in the Book of Daniel, as well as indirectly in
 JS> the Book of Revelation.

 ...

 JS> which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not;
 JS> for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall
 JS> they tread under foot forty and two months." Revelation
 JS> 11:1-2, KJV

 You do realize, we are the Gentiles, don't you?

 JS> "And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the
 JS> beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like
 JS> unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And there
 ...
 JS> from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear,
 JS> let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into
 JS> captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed
 JS> with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the
 JS> saints." Revelation 13:4-10, KJV

 JS> So as I have said many times before, a peace treaty between
 JS> the Israelis and the Palestinians may eventually come, but
 JS> it will not last the full seven years, as per God's Word.

 *IF* you are correct. The odds are you are not.

 JS> The Palestinians, Alone

 JS> By EFRAIM KARSH - NYT

 JS> August 1, 2010

 JS> IT has long been conventional wisdom that the resolution of
 JS> the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a prerequisite to peace
 JS> and stability in the Middle East. Since Arabs and Muslims
 JS> are so passionate about the Palestine problem, this
 JS> argument runs, the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate feeds
 JS> regional anger and despair, gives a larger rationale to
 JS> terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and to the insurgency in
 JS> Iraq and obstructs the formation of a regional coalition
 JS> that will help block Iran's quest for nuclear weapons.

 Not only do the Arabs care little about the Palestinians, but
 even if the issue is settled that still will have little to do
 with any regional coalition to block Iran's quest for nuclear
 weapons.

 The Arabs won't do it, but they may well love it if we do.

 Although this article has another aspect to the issue, I have
 long said the Arab interest and interference in the Palestinian
 - Israli conflict has little to do with the welfare of the
 Palestinians, and everything to do with their own interests. The
 government's interests, to be more specific.

 JS> What, then, are we to make of a recent survey for the Al
 JS> Arabiya television network finding that a staggering 71
 JS> percent of the Arabic respondents have no interest in the
 JS> Palestinian-Israeli peace talks? "This is an alarming

 As I have long said, most Muslims, and most Arabs, have little
 interest in the Palestinians. Israel has always been an excuse,
 not a reason, for Arab hostility.

 This article expands on the reasons that is so.

 JS> indicator," lamented Saleh Qallab, a columnist for the
 JS> pan-Arab newspaper Al Sharq al Awsat. "The Arabs, people
 JS> and regimes alike, have always been as interested in the
 JS> peace process, its developments and particulars, as they
 JS> were committed to the Palestinian cause itself."

 IOW, not one inch further than their own interests. Much like
 what I have been saying.

 JS> But the truth is that Arab policies since the mid-1930s
 JS> suggest otherwise. While the "Palestine question" has long
 JS> been central to inter-Arab politics, Arab states have shown
 JS> far less concern for the well-being of the Palestinians
 JS> than for their own interests.

 This is exactly what I have said for many years.

 JS> For example, it was common knowledge that the May 1948
 JS> pan-Arab invasion of the nascent state of Israel was more a
 JS> scramble for Palestinian territory than a fight for
 JS> Palestinian national rights. As the first secretary-general

 Now that is one I hadn't thought of. And it does make sense. It
 clears up some lingering questions.

 JS> of the Arab League, Abdel Rahman Azzam, once admitted to a
 JS> British reporter, the goal of King Abdullah of Transjordan
 JS> "was to swallow up the central hill regions of Palestine,
 JS> with access to the Mediterranean at Gaza. The Egyptians
 JS> would get the Negev. Galilee would go to Syria, except that
 JS> the coastal part as far as Acre would be added to the
 JS> Lebanon."

 The normal way nations divide up a weak neighbor.

 JS> From 1948 to 1967, when Egypt and Jordan ruled the
 JS> Palestinians of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the Arab
 JS> states failed to put these populations on the road to
 JS> statehood. They also showed little interest in protecting
 ...
 JS> about 300,000 others emigrated abroad. "We couldn't care
 JS> less if all the refugees die," an Egyptian diplomat once
 JS> remarked. "There are enough Arabs around."

 Which fits in perfectly with the overall theme of "Take care of
 number1" that rules.

 JS> Not surprisingly, the Arab states have never hesitated to
 JS> sacrifice Palestinians on a grand scale whenever it suited
 JS> their needs.

 Yep. Let's you and he fight.

 ...
 JS> thoroughly Westernized King Hussein of Jordan ordered the
 JS> deaths of thousands of Palestinians, an event known as
 JS> "Black September."

 All of the same theme.

 JS> Six years later, Lebanese Christian militias, backed by the
 JS> Syrian Army, massacred some 3,500 Palestinians, mostly
 JS> civilians, in the Beirut refugee camp of Tel al-Zaatar.
 JS> These militias again slaughtered hundreds of Palestinians
 JS> in 1982 in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, this
 JS> time under Israel's watchful eye. None of the Arab states
 JS> came to the Palestinians' rescue.

 Nor even protested it to any significant extent.

 JS> Worse, in the mid-'80s, when the P.L.O. -- officially
 JS> designated by the Arab League as the "sole representative
 JS> of the Palestinian people" -- tried to re-establish its
 JS> military presence in Lebanon, it was unceremoniously
 JS> expelled by President Hafez al-Assad of Syria.

 Actually, probably a good idea.

 JS> This history of Arab leaders manipulating the Palestinian
 JS> cause for their own ends while ignoring the fate of the
 JS> Palestinians goes on and on.

 Yep. Exposing the big lie of Arab support for the Palestinians.

 JS> Saddam Hussein, in an effort
 JS> to ennoble his predatory designs, claimed that he wouldn't
 JS> consider ending his August 1990 invasion of Kuwait without
 JS> "the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Israel from
 JS> the occupied Arab territories in Palestine."

 Again, and excuse, not a reason.

 JS> Shortly after the Persian Gulf War, Kuwaitis then set about
 JS> punishing the P.L.O. for its support of Hussein -- cutting
 JS> off financial sponsorship, expelling hundreds of thousands
 JS> of Palestinian workers and slaughtering thousands. Their

 Once more, punish all for the actions of the leadership. And the
 Emir of Kuwait wasn't worth our effort.

 JS> retribution was so severe that Arafat was forced to
 JS> acknowledge that "what Kuwait did to the Palestinian people
 JS> is worse than what has been done by Israel to Palestinians
 JS> in the occupied territories."

 They could get away with it, so they did. Also, rape by the
 returning Kuwaiti soldiers was reported by NGOs as worse than
 under the Iraqis.

 JS> Against this backdrop, it is a positive sign that so many
 JS> Arabs have apparently grown so apathetic about the
 JS> Palestinian-Israeli conflict. For if the Arab regimes'
 JS> self-serving interventionism has denied Palestinians the
 JS> right to determine their own fate, then the best, indeed
 JS> only, hope of peace between Arabs and Israelis lies in
 JS> rejecting the spurious link between this particular issue
 JS> and other regional and global problems.

 And that is the great truth we need to learn about the area.

 JS> The sooner the Palestinians recognize that their cause is
 JS> theirs alone, the sooner they are likely to make peace with
 JS> the existence of the State of Israel and to understand the
 JS> need for a negotiated settlement.

 Again, that would require them to acknowledge they are beaten
 down and their future is hopeless.

 They need justice far more than peace.

 See the tagline.


BOB KLAHN bob.klahn{at}sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

... If you want peace, work for justice. <- Pope John Paul II
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