Your thoughts on the conflict in the Mideast
Do you think the Israeli offensive in the West Bank is an effective way to halt terror attacks against Israelis? Do you think the United States has been an effective leader in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations? Are you concerned the conflict is making a terrorist attack on the US more likely? Share your thoughts.
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I think the Palestinians brought this situation upon themselves, by either supporting suicide bombers or by not doing enough to prevent them. I also think there is still hope for a seize-fire after Israel finishes the clean-up and leaves the Palestinian areas. I hope Palestinians will be smart enough to seize this opportunity.
Baltazar, Cambridge
If someone was barging in on your territory, and being prejudiced against you, wouldn't you want to defend yourselves too? If the Israelis want to take what's not theirs, they should be ready for the consequenses. That doesn't mean that I think that the Palestinians should be suicide bombing places in Israel though, but I see where they're coming from. Israel seems to want to get all the Palestinians out... and if it's not closely watched, I'm afraid we'll see more genocide in the world.
Melissa, Boston
The Israelis and Palestinians have been locked into an internecine war which can never be won with the strategies they are pursuing. A constant stream of suicide bombers will never bring the nation of Israel to an end. On the other hand, Israels policy to demolish the homes and round up Palestinian men as punitive measures against terrorist acts will never resolve the larger issues of why this this mutually destructive struggle began. Both sides must put an end to their methodologies before they truly "fight to the death" because there will be no Israeli or Palestinian's left living in the homeland they fought for. Then what would it all have been about?
Michelle, Dorchester
Both sides of this conflict should be ashamed of themselves. Arafat should have put an end to the suicide bombings long ago. I don't believe for one second that he cannot control the fanatics. However, Sharon, with his desire for revenge from the early 80's, is not helping by depriving the Palestinian people of a basic right to exist. Suicide bombers attacking innocent people is NOT the way to win a cause, however, we in this country have no idea what it is like to grow up and spend an entire life in a refugee camp. Bottom line is Israel needs to secure itself over the next few weeks using whatever means available and begin to think about withdrawing completely from the West Bank and Gaza.
Mike, North Attleboro
Anyone who feels Israel is 100% justified has completely ignored the recent history of this conflict. Sharon does NOT want peace and has intentionally ivited further conflict starting 18 months ago with his 1000 police parade, and most recently with his refusal to withdraw from the Palestinian territories. Being Jewish in America does not mean one has to have a blind loyalty to Israel's short-sighted politics and state-sponsored terrorism.
Alan, Natick
I am appalled that President Bush is standing by while the Israeli's act inhumanely toward the palestinians and their people. Even when we were bombing Kabul we had the decency to drop food and supplies to the innocent civilians; the Israeli's are blocking injured Palestinians from seeking medical care and not allowing ambulances to get through to the injured. How is this helping the "war on terrorism?" This is only making more innocent people suffer and not aiding anyone in a solution. For our government to defend this sort of action is embarassing!
Kristen, Boston
Like Northern Ireland, I now firmly believe there will never be 'peace' in Israel. It is painfully obvious to me that Israelis and Palestinians cannot co-exist peacefully. The history of this conflict is so complicated to me, that I have given up trying to understand just exactly what has caused such a hatred between Israelis and Palestinians in the first place. The fact that Palestinians hate the Israelis so much that they are willing to use their children as sacrifical lambs to blow themselves up in order to maim and kill Israelis tells me peace will never be achieved in Israel, at least during our lifetime.
Donna, Woburn
The people of Palestine are the victim of an 80 year old campaign of ethnic cleansing, which Sharon and consorts want to complete now. They have every right to use every means to defend themselves against the Jewish invaders. Thank God, they finally lost fear and are throwing all the racist hypocrisy so dear to Americans and Israelis right back into their faces. Yes, there will be more terror attacks in the US. The US is Palestine's bitter enemy and will be hit and deservedly so. One cannot make peace with racism and both Israelis and the US are racist towards Palestine ( see the Mark from Cambridge comment). The only road to peace in Palestine is to force the Israelis to recognize that they had no right to ethnically cleanse Palestine and to sit down and ask Palestine to sell the right to build a state. Pay for it in money, good neighbourhood and respect. That will be a lot cheaper than being at war all the time. Otherwise Palestine will never make peace with them, and boy are they right to defend themselves! Any US involvement that doesn't turn Zionism from a racist colonial project into one that respects the rights of the people of Palestine ( all of Palestine) is completely irrelevant. Zionism must die so that Israel can live. And better bury it soon, or else you will bury a lot more humans, Palestinians and Jews alike.
mark, brookline
The Israelis have no right to do what they are doing. By bringing in tanks and calling up over 20,000 more soldiers, they are just adding fuel to the fire. How can Arrafat do anything if he is trapped in his house with no water, electricity, or phone to lead his people? The US is saying that he is not doing enough to stop the suicide bombers. Why has Bush not come out and said, "Do not commit any more murder"? Because he knows that he cannot control that. At least the suicide bombers are sacrificing themselves for a future generation. People in the United States kill others just for the fun of it. Nobody can contol a suicide bomber. They feel that they have a mission and are willing to kill themselves for it. That is how strongly they feel about it. Israel should give the Palestinians their land back, and not just the land that they took over in 1967 but the land that they stole from them in 1948. Families have been living in refugee camps for over 50 years and others have been forced to leave their homes, land, and family and not allowed to return. Israel will not stop until they rid the entire world of Palestinians. The US should step up and take a stand against Israel like the rest of the world has.
AJ, Quincy
The Israelis are trying to get support for their actions by comparing it to the 9-11 terrorists acts. This is not the same thing. They are occupying Palestinian territory with a military funded primarily by US and other foreign aid. The Palestinians are defending themselves with the only means that they have. They do not have tanks of their own with which to fight back. The Israeli occupation and treatment of the Palestinians over the past months is no more humane than the Nazi treatment of the Jews in the early part of WWII.
Sharon, Somerville
