my question to this is who gains anything from these bombings? think about it...the Israeli's dont want this 'Road Map to Peace' period. So, what better way to stop it than to have these attacks happen at just the right time.

There are also plenty of radical Palestinians who don't want peace with Israel. I just find it all a bit depressing to be honest. The only way forwards is for both sides to calm down a bit, instead the Israelis have ignored the roadmap and started incursions into Gaza etc., then the Palestinians respond with some suicide bombings, the Western media only really reports the latter and Sharon gets away with not having to move towards peace.

If only the UN hadn't been totally destroyed by the US there'd be some hope that they could take over security in the region...

Alas, Dom: I fear you have touched upon the truth, here.
Funny how little the Western media make of driving bulldozers over Americans.

I agree that the continuing suicide bombings are terrible, but Israel isn't so innocent. Israel has tanks, bulldozers and advanced technology - the Palestinain freedom fighters are using the most effective weapon at their disposal. The fact that Palestinians are willing to blow themselves up to detonate these devices demonstrates how desperate they are and how deep their hatred for Israel goes.

I watched a UK Channel 4 programme last night called "Gaza: The Killing Zone". It showed the Israeli's killing American protestors and two British news reporters. The one American woman was run over by the bulldozer and they showed her still alive immediately afterwards. One British reporter who was wearing an orange vest to identify him as a non-combatant was shot through the head by a sniper.

The people there live in virtual terror of being killed in their homes by Israeli sniper or machinegun fire. They are surrounded by Israeli watchtowers from which, Israeli soldiers fire into their homes. The reporters went into a Palestinain doctor's home and showed the walls peppered with bullet holes. He and his family were living in virtual terror everyday. They also showed several Palestinian children who had been wounded by schrapnel from Israeli missle attacks.

This dispute is centuries old and I honestly don't see either side giving an inch towards living peacefully side by side. I seriously doubt if a meaningful and lasting peace will ever be achieved there.

In my opinion, Israel is working to it's own time-scale. It just isn't ready for peace quite yet. The situation in Iraq isn't stable enough yet and there are still loose ends to be tied up in Israel itself.
Israel can use the bombings as an excuse to stay away from the peace table and when it does finally start making a deal it will look like it is making huge concessions as stopping the bombings was the first step. An impossible step as the Palestinian authorities have no power to stop the suicide bombers.

I believe that the roadmap WILL be implemented. Israel and the West have too much to lose if it breaks down. The bombings are beneficial to the Isreali administration as they give an opportunity to stall for peace and in the meantime strengthen the poker hand that they will bring to the peace table.

The Palestinians who are perpetrating these acts are going to find it really hard to gain support once the actual peace proceedings begin. Any group which tries to hinder peace by the use of violence will have no justification and will find that an all out war has been declared on them from many sides.
It's a cruel fact but these bombings are nothing more than an irritant that will only help the Israelis in the long term.

"An impossible step as the Palestinian authorities have no power to stop the suicide bombers."

Yep, only Arafat has that power....especially as he's the one paying them...

explain this to me cause im confused, if Hamas has claimed responsibility for the suicide attacks, then why doesnt shrub just go in there with 10 bombers
and level a few hamas suburbs, i mean the hamas are on the TV all the time, i recognise at least 2 of them now just by there voice. surely if you are in a war against terror you wipe out the terrorest organistions that you know exist and you know where they are before you take on the hidden ones.

I love bacon

Originally posted by seedy_sid
you wipe out the terrorest organistions that you know exist and you know where they are before you take on the hidden ones.

Hamas has to be defeated by the Israelis.

It's simply not possible for the US to take out Hamas. Militarily they might be able to do it and achieve short term results but the long term effects and political fallout means that Hamas isn't a serious enough threat to the US for it to get involved at this time.

The US would be operating in Israel. The Arabs will just see it as the US openly fighting a war for Zionism. The fallout would be enormous.

Have you ever wondered why you never hear about US troops being stationed in Israel?

Hamas' fight is with Israel. Not the US.

Yeah I saw "Meet the Press" but what I found even more interesting is the same person talking about how a certain number of suicide bombers were known dead so they were specifically looking only for the ones that were alive.

My gut feeling on this was that the Government of Saudi Arabia had by
this response exposed itself as being
totally FOS.



[Edited on 21-5-2003 by Toltec]

I think the point with Hamas is that they gain strength from every single crackdown against the Palestinian people as a whole. The only real way to track them down and kill them is to oppress the whole Palestinian population, and so you guarantee that you can't ever get rid of Hamas, because if you manage to kill all the present members, you'll just create twice as many new members in the process.

The only real solution is to act on the issues that are leading people to these extremist perspectives, i.e. get Israel out of the West Bank and the Gaza strip, and stop the Palestinians from living in such extreme poverty.

But I guess that policy doesn't have quite the same ring as "kill them all, kill the evil terrorists", so it's going to take a strong leader to seriously attempt to bring peace to the middle east by solving the conflict sensibly. I doubt Dubya is the man for the job.

"stop the Palestinians from living in such extreme poverty"

Hmm....even I can't afford an AK-47 pretty easily... Funny how they do...

Sorry, couldn't resist...(not a serious statement)