| Greg, Neither is Israel. Most Muslims in the area desire peace. The exteme hatred between Jews and Muslims is equally ballanced.
The PLOs stated objective, contrary to popular belief, is not to rid the world of Jews but to end the illegal ocupation of Palestine by Israel.
Japle, as my previous sentence illustrated, Israel has invaded it's neighbour and continues to occupy Palestinian land in clear violation of many UN security council resolutions.
As for responding to attacks, when a Palestinian suicide bomber blows themself up killing innocent civilians the Israeli authority does respond. Not proportionally, as you might expect by rooting out terrorist cells and depriving terrorists of munitions or opportunity to carry out further attacks, but by destroying the home of the bomber. Thus rendering his recently widowed wife and family homeless. I am all for (strong) justice for people who commit such awful crimes, but attacking the family because the assailant is unable to stand trail is simply vindictive.
It is useless for us to debate this in depth here, the only way peace will be achieved is if both sides accept each others right to exist and Israel withdraws from palestine. Unfortunately a small minority on each side is determined to prevent this from ever happening.
Edit: To learn more about this dispute you may wish to watch "Children of Abraham" which aired on Channel 4 in the UK last night. I don't know if this is available online, but I believe documentaries such as this sometimes cross the pond to US TV. It contains some facinating interviews with advocates of extreme views on all sides of the Jewish/Christian/Muslim religeous divide. |