[TommyJefferson]

Here's an idea.

Why doesn't "the west" stop putting sanctions on anyone in the middle east and stop giving my tax dollars to anyone in the middle east?

[Tyler_JC]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TommyJefferson', 'H')ere's an idea.

Why doesn't "the west" stop putting sanctions on anyone in the middle east and stop giving my tax dollars to anyone in the middle east?

[TommyJefferson]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', 'B')ecause the flow of Black Gold towards the US of A would cease.

[Tyler_JC]

Trust me TJ, I prefer a world in which foreign aid was unnecessary.

But we've built our civilization around a few key premises and cheap oil is one of them.

We shouldn't need to support dictatorships but the alternative is just so much worse.

Once we gain energy indepence (or suffer a collapse), we can leave the Arabs alone.

[rogerhb]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', 'O')nce we gain energy indepence (or suffer a collapse), we can leave the Arabs alone.

[Polemic]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')srael wanted to radicalize the dispute by moulding Hamas into a fundamentalist militant crusade to ape the Khomeini revolution in Iran. So much so that Israel groomed potential Hamas leaders, pressuring Israeli authorities to give them licenses to set up food kitchens, clinics, schools, and day-care centers, to create a governing structure alternative to Arafat's Fatah. These were known as ‘Village Leagues’ - and provided future Hamas operatives with a political and governmental foothold. This began in 1978 when Prime Minister Menachem Begin, himself a former terrorist leader, approved an application from Sheik Ahmad Yassin to license the Islamic Association, which would later produce a military wing, Hamas, in 1987. The Israeli Likud party propped up Yassin because they both had the same agenda, to destabilize Arafat’s Fatah.

The Village Leagues were then infiltrated by the Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet, which provided weapons training for the Palestinians and also created a network of thousands of informers. This funding and support continued even after the signing of the 1993 Oslo accords.

The deliberate insertion of a competing faction would dilute support for the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Current Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had a key role in the formation of this policy. After the first wave of suicide bombings began in 1994, Israel could also discredit the PLO by linking it with Hamas after every terrorist atrocity. The hard line Likud party could then increase its standing amongst the Israeli people by promising a brutal crackdown on Palestinian terrorism. Chaos and anarchy on the West Bank entails order – Likud’s order.

Hamas: Puppet on a String

[PenultimateManStanding]

Strangely enough, I read this at debka.com:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')EBKAfile’s military sources reveal that last week, US and Israel transferred a quantity of automatic rifles to Abu Mazen’s Fatah forces

The guns reached Dahlan who handed them over to the faction’s suicide wing, al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Abbas’ only reliable strike force. Dahlan is now in command of the armed campaign against Hamas from presidential headquarters in Ramallah. Israeli officials are turning a blind eye to transfer of the arms into the hands of the most badly-wanted masterminds of Fatah suicide killings, such as Jemal Tirawi from Nablus.

[Cid_Yama]

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a top aide to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said, "Kosovo is not better than us. We deserved independence even before Kosovo, and we ask for the backing of the United States and the European Union for our independence."

But another negotiator and senior official, Saeb Erekat, disagreed arguing that the Palestine Liberation Organisation had already declared independence in 1988.

"Now we need real independence, not a declaration. We need real independence by ending the occupation. We are not Kosovo. We are under Israeli occupation and for independence we need to acquire independence," Mr Erekat said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7254434.stm

[mos6507]

What exactly does this have to do with energy geopolitics? Aren't there other forums for you to visit where you can propagandize?

[americandream]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'W')hat exactly does this have to do with energy geopolitics? Aren't there other forums for you to visit where you can propagandize?

[PopeGideon]

I think it's relevant.

Hard to argue they don't have a point.

If anything, their case is substantially stronger than Kosovo, where Albanians have only been the majority for 50 years.

[mekrob]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'K')osovo is not better than us.

[EnergyUnlimited]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mekrob', '
')So why does no one ever mention opening up diplomatic talks with Somaliland or Puntland? In my estimation, they are far more deserving than Kosovo, Palestine, Chechnya or Kurdistan for complete independence. (I'm not including Taiwan since I know so little about that situation)

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', '
')Oil....Middle East....tension....ding.....does that ring a bell!

[Taghayee]

For years Palestinians have complained about 'civilized' and 'democratic' Israeli actions and for years the Mass Media has rejected them and instead labeled them as uncivilized and undemocratic.
If there were phon-cameras in past decades I wonder what they would have recorded...


The real IDF

[mos6507]

Wake me up when they stop shooting rockets or blowing up restaurants and maybe I'll give a damn.

[holmes]

You mean psuedostinians. They do not exist. There never was a palestinian Kingdom or King. It is a loony media creation. They are Arab castouts from Arab nations. Their own people do not want them so they covet what Israel has created. Yawn.

[kam3Oen]

One day soon the Palestinians will have a home, Jordan. And Israel will live in peace, while the arabs go back to what they do best, killing each other.

[da23]

How many American kings has there been holmes? stop talking and get back in the woods oiling your squaws.

mos= shill or troll, likes waitress service by the sound of it.

kam, please repost that pic of you with the semi-auto ready to defend, it was hilarious.

[pedalling_faster]

the Palestinians have their own History of 1948. They call it Al Nakba.
It refers to the destruction of 400 Palestinian villages, and the killing
of the people in them - in 1948. For them, that was their Holocaust.
This incident is largely ignorred in Western "Civilization".

There were no suicide bombers in 1948. Just Palestinian villagers
being killed & having their land stolen, by Israel, with the backing of
the US & England.