How?

I think it's unfair to claim that suicide bombers are blowing themselves up for money. There are plenty of other reasons that these people would give you (were they still around). Posted by Dom

Some people may characterize the fact that suicide bombers blow themselves up for money as unfair, but I characterize it as fact. Granted, there are many ideological reasons for the suicide bombers to do what they do, but the financial situation is certainly a significant part of the process, and the general Palestinian population does nothing but support this system.

The Israeli's don't currently seem to be interested in a peaceful settlement, and until they are, things will not get better for either side... Posted by Dom

If I remember my history correctly, I seem to remember that the last time Israel and Yassar Arrafat sat down for serious peace negotiations, Israel agreed to approximately 95% of all Palestinian demands... but Yassar still turned them down, because he didnt get 100%. I would point to that fact as an indication that the Palestinians are NOT interested in making a peace settlement... Either that or Yassar Arafat has absolutely no clue when to shut up and make a deal....

DragonRider, get your facts right.

The last time Arafat sat down at the table agreement was close, the talks were suspended but were meant to resume. However, Israel voted in a hardline government and those talks have never resumed. Admittedly Arafat could have capitulated to all of Israel's demands, but he felt that more time was needed to negotiate over the settlement.

Remember that under it Israel would have indeed given them 95%... of the land... with 5% of it kept as heavily armed civilian settlements, set up illegally on Palestinian land. I'm afraid to say that Arafat was not being offered something he couldn't refuse.

There is hope, but both sides need to be willing to negotiate, and at the moment the Israeli government is showing no signs of wanting to do so. Indeed, the US government doesn't seem to want to put any pressure on them to negotiate either... and the palestinian militants... well, they've become a lot stronger thanks to the Israeli response... it'll take a long time to sort out that mess.

dictionary definitions:



Source: The Collins English Dictionary
terrorism [trrzm]
n.
1. systematic use of violence and intimidation to achieve some goal.
2. the act of terrorizing.
3. the state of being terrorized.

terrorist [trrst]
n.
a. a person who employs terror or terrorism, esp as a political weapon.
b. (as modifier): terrorist tactics.

When we're talking about the palistinian terrorists, to say its about money is a bit simplistic. Palistine has no effective military and their land is being invaded. Now, i do not agree with them targeting civillians but try to see it from this perspective:
I hear the phrase "you'll take my gun out of my cold dead hands" etc from a lot of americans when they are talking about gun control laws. What if it was your land that was under threat, and you had no guns? I'm sure you would be willing to fight to the death for your country. As we all know modern warfare mainly involves strikes from the air and heavily armoured vehicles and tanks. What if you had none? You'd try and hit them at home with whatever method you had, right?
The Palistinian suicide bombers are mostly young people in their early 20's with the same fears and desires as all of us, and they have plently of reasons to live, and more not to die just for money for their families. They do it out of sheer desperation and love for their country, which i'm sure any patriotic american can understand.

We never try and cure the source of the problems, only the resultant actions which only serves to enflame the people more, give the real terrorists more ammunition to call people to them and create more 'terrorists'. This is what will happen when we invade Iraq. The terrorists will have more 'evidence' of what they portray as a war on Islam, more people will join them, and a lot of ordinary people outwith the terrorists groups will belive them and hate the west more.