[Buddha-l] Re: buddha-l Digest, Vol 32, Issue 17

[Dan Lusthaus]

Richard B., unfortunately your misinformation -- which if you actually
believe, you have my deep sympathies and compassion -- continues to deepen.

On the illusion that meaningful negotiations between Israel and the
Palestinians is any sort of desideratum for Iran or the majority of Arab
states, see the link I posted previously to that unreliable zionist rag, the
NY Times.

http://tinyurl.com/2lpfvj

> Fortunately, so I didn't have to wade through those rational Christian
(CPT,
> Presby, ...) and Israeli (Haaretz, Shalom, Tikkun, ...) sites

The links I provided on Iranian Jewry are from Iranian Jews (no longer in
Iran, since such sites would lead to arrest and worse), and such sites such
as the BBC, long known as extremely unsympathetic to Israel. BTW, Tikkun
(which no one has cited in this context) is probably more pro-Palestinian
than you are.

> An Israeli-Palestinian  negotiation is, at best, lopsided.

Yes. Israel must make concessions, and the Palestinians get to pick and
choose which they will accept and ultimately honor. Hamas has made it clear
that it is not interested in any negotiations, and even refuses to honor or
recognize any of the previous agreements already reached. I agree that is
very lopsided, and I am hard pressed to think of a single other example in
the long range of human history in which the losers of a conflict get to
dictate the terms of settlement. Can anyone cite just one example? I can
assure you that should Israel lose a war, the other side will not offer them
that luxury.


> Palestinians
> cannot offer to  return captured Israeli prisoners there are none.

Yes there are. Israelis are kidnapped and held for years, ransomed back for
hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in return, even when, as has been the
case, the sole Israeli traded for these hundreds is returned as a corpse.
Presently there are Israelis held prisoner by Hamas, Hizbollah and by
murkily identified parties in Syria. The recent war in Lebanon began with
the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers, and they have still not been returned.
Egypt has been trying for over a year to negotiate the release of the
Israeli held by Hamas. Israel has unofficially conceded to many of Hamas'
demands, including several major prisoner releases, but so far Hamas has not
returned the Israelis.

>Palestinians
> cannot offer to  return Israeli water/water sources,

Obviously our previous exchange on this fantasy left little impression on
you. Yes, you are right. Jews are the devil incarnate -- the Quran said so.
Well, actually it didn't, but a lot of Muslims seem to think it does. So any
calumny is fine. As an observer of the situation of Iranian Jews in the
mid-19th century noted at the time: "Daily and hourly new suspicions are
raised against the Jews, in order to obtain excuses for fresh extortions;
the desire of gain is always the chief incitement to fanaticism." Nothing
changes. It's just a reminder, forgotten these days, of why the creation of
Israel was a long-overdue necessity.


> Palestinians cannot  agree to stop demolishing Israeli homes,

They break into Israeli homes and kill women and children, blow up pizza
places and school buses, deliberately targeting children. They have been
shelling Sderot daily with Qassam rockets for years, targeting as best they
can the schoolhouse, which has taken serious hits.

But why let reality disturb your manichean fantasy? When Hamas becomes more
interested in raising the quality of life of the citizens of Gaza than in
killing Jews and eliminating Israel, there might be a light at the end of
the tunnel.

Dan