Obama, back to the 60's

What Israel looked like just before the 1967war

Maybe Obama does not remember the 60's, maybe all he remembers is Woodstock or the the girls with flowers in their hair. The Israelis have different memories of that time, war on their doorstep, threats to destroy them. in 1967 the Israelis pulled off one the most impressive feats of arms since the end of WWII, destroying 3 armies all poised to attack them. In turn making their tiny country more secure and winning the long sought prize of Jerusalem.

One factor that totally escapes Obama, is that even in 1966 there was no "Palestinian State", Gaza belonged to Egypt and the West bank to Jordon, in fact there has been no "Palestinian state" for centuries, prior to 1948, it was a mandate that UK took over from the Ottomans, who treated the area as part of a province of their empire.
The reality is that the Palestinians have enough to start a real state, Gaza strip is 364 sqKm and combined with West Bank land it compares well with Singapore. Also like Singapore, the only real resource that both countries have are their people. Singapore invested in it's people and the results are well known. The Palestinians instead invested in homemade rockets and suicide vests, the result are rather predictable. Their current plan to gain statehood by attacking Israel have achieved none of their aims and helped their economy to hit rock bottom and still digging.
So far all the "Great one" has achieved is to get both Israel and Hamas to agree his idea sucks, albeit for different reasons. No peace will be achieved till the Palestinians realize that the state of Israel is not going anywhere and the "Right of return" is a myth that will not happen. To people so morally opposed can not live in the same house and that is the simple truth here. The longer we enable the Palestinians to live this lie, the longer they will suffer. Fairly soon the number of people who actually did leave in 1948 will be a handful, every decade it will be less, till no one from that episode is alive from either side. Shall we allow the Palestinians descendants to carry living the lie and paying it's price?

If you need any help understanding why the Israelis don't want to give up land, take a look at this map. The 1967 borders were undefendable with no space to recover from a tactical error. In the 1973 war, the Syrians came within a hairbreath of breaking through the IDF lines in the Golan, only luck and a timid response from the Syrian saved them.

Note, can't remember the blog I got the maps from, but will credit them as soon as I find the link.

So guess which is the safest country for Gays and Christians in the Middle East?

Quotes:
This trend has accelerated in the last 10 years." The Center focused on disturbing trends in the Palestinian territories, where "Christians are declining dramatically.

Syrian security forces are implicated in the disappearance of an estimated 17,000 individuals during this period. (lets not forget about Hama either)

Reports have revealed that gay Palestinians are regularly assaulted and tortured by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.

Human rights activists have cited severe discrimination - enshrined in legislation and enforced by the government - of the estimated 300,000 to 400,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon. In 2001, Lebanon's Parliament passed a law banning Palestinians residents from owning property.

"Unfortunately we have heard about a lot of sexual harassment and assault specifically towards women in the West Bank recently. We have included this section to address how women can hopefully avoid sexual assault and harassment, what to do in case it happens, and how we can all help to stop this and support people that it has happened to.

Enforced Misery

An excellent read on how the politics and propaganda of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict uses ordinary Palestinians as pawns, where there suffering is more important than living a normal life. When it comes to the Muslim world sympathy for the Palestinians because they are their “Muslim brothers and sisters” I take it with a large bag of salt. I noted in Malaysia that the sympathy for the Indonesians (who are both their Muslim and ethnic brethren) is quite a bit less than it is for the Palestinians, I guess distance really does make the heart grow fonder! My heart does go out to the average Palestinian who wants a normal life, they are caught between a rock and hard place.

Any regime with an ounce of compassion would have shut Balata down and integrated its people into the surrounding community. Balata is a place without hope, a quagmire of despair, where the day-to-day misery of its inhabitants is partially ameliorated by Western charities and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA), while inadvertently building a culture of dependence.

Balata’s creation could ostensibly be laid at Israel’s doorstep, but its perpetuation cannot. The current residents of Balata are only refugees by a crude reworking of the meaning of the term. They themselves have fled from nothing, and sought refuge from nothing. They are the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of the people who fled or were expelled during the 1948 war.

Read more at Pajamas Media

The three state solution?

RAMALLAH: A senior Hamas official on Wednesday said that achieving a national unity agreement between Palestinian factions, mainly the rival Fatah movement, is “beyond reach.” read more

More likely he means: The evil Zionist are preventing us from tossing you from tall buildings like we did to your comrades here in Gaza. However if you submit peaceful to our enlightened rule we will only toss you from 2 story buildings.

Warning following link is not safe for work, children or squeamish stomachs: Death of Fatah member.