Netanyahu tells Obama to pound sand

[MicroBalrog]

Isn't it easier to launch attacks on Israelis when they actually live IN the area?

[Tallpine]

Isn't it easier to launch attacks on Israelis when they actually live IN the area?

Okay, so they should invite more of them in to make it more convenient. 

[MicroBalrog]

Or maybe, the goal of the average Palestinian is not to launch himself at the settlers, but to have the settlers GTFO.

Settlers GTFO. We build a border and enforce it.

The average Palestinian can have a country, and the terrorists find it much harder to operate against us, since they're reduced to firing their bottle-rockets, getting shot by Abbas' goons, and on occasion by the Jordanian and Israeli armies.  More effective means of murder, such as knives and rocks, would no longer be a valuable tool.

[roo_ster]

Or, once they have country-status, they find it easier to get financing for arms & munitions(0).  So, instead of home made rockets, you get Chinese or Nork rockets and heavy mortar fire.

Honestly, I don't see much of a future for the state of Israel.






(0) Since there are a bunch of NGOs willing to toss cash at undeveloped countries chock full of savages with no chance to ever repay the loan.

[MicroBalrog]

So, instead of home made rockets, you get Chinese or Nork rockets and heavy mortar fire.

As opposed to what Hamas already had?

[Before getting pounded to such a point they have ceased all operations in this area. Only various fledgling groups fire rockets now, and the Army is rather good at getting rid of those.]

Honestly, I don't see much of a future for the state of Israel.

We've dealt with Pharaoh, we'll deal with this too.

[AJ Dual]

Or, once they have country-status, they find it easier to get financing for arms & munitions(0).  So, instead of home made rockets, you get Chinese or Nork rockets and heavy mortar fire.

Honestly that sounds almost more like the kind of "stand up" infrastructure intensive fight at which Israel and America excel. More terrifying in the short-run, but more solvable and manageable in the long run.

It's the low-intensity asymmetric warfare/terrorism that they've got now which is the perpetual pain in the ass.

[Tallpine]

I'm not sure why we're arguing...?  Ya'll can deal with the situation any way you want, for all I care.

But then - our "West Bank" used to be called "Texas" 

[kgbsquirrel]

But then - our "West Bank" used to be called "Texas" 

Or California?


Hmm, MB, didn't I recall hearing something about the Palestinians setting up a local gub'ment of their own in the west bank only to have Hamas roll in and take over? I dunno, I think I'd be kinda irked if after umpteen decades I'd finally managed to establish some sort of self-governance, only to have some out of town twit come in and forcibly take over and use my town to pick a fight with a neighbor that owns battle tanks.

Or am I completely off base with this?

[Tallpine]

Okay, the west bank of the Mississippi, then. 

Or maybe the west bank of the Atlantic 

[MicroBalrog]

What happened is, they had an election, and Hamas won a given amount of seats (IIRC a slim plurality). This resulted in a variety of fighting and scandals, but the long and the short of it was that Hamas ended up in control of Gaza, and FATAH and the more moderate types control TWB. Gaza is in a state of semi-starvation and Hamas is constantly becoming more and more idiotic in its form of governance. TWB is vaguely saner, if third-worldish, and actually maintains a degree of economic growth (if in part due to Western and Israeli aid). They have a variety of subgroups running around and executing random attacks (shootings, knife attacks, etc.) on soldiers and settlers, but the leadership actually does a semi-decent effort of putting it under control.

Hamas used to be firing a lot of rockets, but they've effectively stopped a few months after Operation Cast lead, which caused the flow of said rockets to come down to a trickle (they're fired by a variety of rogue groups). It seems from here the only real bargaining cards Hamas has left are Gilad Shalit, and the threat to fire their rockets if we invade Gaza again. Their major plan seems to be to gradually tee off everybody who doesn't hold a Hamas membership card.

[roo_ster]

Let us be candid here.  "Fatah and more moderate types" are moderate only in relation to Hamas or some of the truly whacked out types.  We're not talking some squish like Olympia Snow or Ben Nelson.

IIRC, it is Fatah that propagandizes the WB kids with anti-semetic material and created the Jew-hating Muslim Mickey Mouse who thought it fine & dandy to shoot up Jews.  And when they decided to get rid of MMM, they made it look like a bunch of Jews killed him.

[MicroBalrog]

IIRC, it is Fatah that propagandizes the WB kids with anti-semetic material and created the Jew-hating Muslim Mickey Mouse who thought it fine & dandy to shoot up Jews.

No.

You do not in fact recall correctly.

Farfour, the Jew-fighting Mouse (beaten to death by Shabaq), his successor, Nahoul the bee (dead to denial of medical care by the evil j00z), Assud the rabbit (dead in Zionist airstrike), and their current successor, Nassur the Terrorist Bear, are all Hamas creations.

[roo_ster]

No.

You do not in fact recall correctly.

Farfour, the Jew-fighting Mouse (beaten to death by Shabaq), his successor, Nahoul the bee (dead to denial of medical care by the evil j00z), Assud the rabbit (dead in Zionist airstrike), and their current successor, Nassur the Terrorist Bear, are all Hamas creations.

LMAO!

Not only was I wrong about Splodeydope Mickey, I forgot that there was a whole freaking menagerie!

You can't make that shinola up, it is too bizarre.

Anyways, my point (before you defenestrated my example) is that the PA/Fatah are a bunch of anti-semites and push antisemitic  propaganda.  One does not have to read Arabic to see such in the political cartoons from papers in the PA.  If one trusts MEMRI's translation, one can read it, too.  Populations brought up on that sort of hatred & paranoia usually keep those attitudes.

I doubt things will get any better once these folks have an independent state and all that goes with it.