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Originally posted by Undertoad
Except of course for the UN resolution where we voted to demand they leave Ramallah. You must have missed that one?

What the US votes in the UN and what we really do are two separated events. It is quite likely that even Tony Blair would have scolded George Jr if we had not voted that way. Bush's Middle East position is not held by any other nation in the world - except Israel.

In the meantime, Sharon had promised (I believe it was Colin Powell or George Jr) on the same day he attacked Arafat's HQs that he would pull out of Ramallah. Instead, Sharon moves deeper into Ramallah and many other West Bank cities since then - lying just as he did in Lebanon 20 years ago when ordered by the Israeli Prime Minister - multiple times - to halt. Is George Jr just another backboneless leader to lie to - or just naive - or is George Jr as racist as Ariel Sharon? Did we hold Sharon to his word? Of course not. Does our President endorse ethnic cleansing? We know Sharon lies as he has since he nearly took the world to nuclear war - and George Jr does not care. Sharon has been given a Green Light. Even Charlie Gibson suggested same tonight on ABC Network news when he noted that everyone in the Israeli government he talked to knows they will only have this Green Light for a short time. Another damning fact that suggests this George Jr. Green Light does indeed exist.

The Arab world is right to believe we have given Sharon a Carte Blanc - to do as he pleases for a few weeks - as Charlie Gibson reports. There are no facts to say otherwise. That UN Resolution (I beleive it was a Security Council proclaimation) is simply window dressing - not the real opinion of George Jr. - who blames the victim - Palestinians - for their own predicament.

<i>Listen to the BBC, et al. Most of the world, outside of official channels, really does not comdemn the Palestinians for suicide bombings.</i>

I would expect that a proper news reporting organization would not take sides.

The BBC has not taken sides. They have reported facts - noted how suicide bombings are not comdemned throughout large segments of the world - and not on the streets of any Arab nation. [Tobiasly - do not again misrepresent that as "Most of the world doesn't consider suicide bombings terrorism"]. I don't remember which news service (maybe Bloomberg) reported that only 2 nations out of 57 condemn suicide bombings. When confronted by outright oppression, is it immoral to defend your people with everything you possess? Of course not.

Meanwhile, now that Bush has mentioned 242 and Oslo many times in the last few weeks I would have expected a new take on it from you. Bush is pressing that direction; take notice.

Even George Jr is not immune from criticism from most of the world. When the Vatican dresses down your diplomats, then you can be sure the rest of the world is not happy either. Note Tony Blair's stony silence. George Jr. has antagonized or strained American relations with most of the world. Eventually even George Jr will have to confront UN 242 and 338. But currently, George Jr is limiting comments to UN 1402 - something about suspending violence. Geroge Jr talks only of the Mitchell and Tennant accords (concepts, agreements, findings?). He actually does not mention UN 242 or 338 much - not at all as far as I have heard. In yesterday's news conference in mid afternoon, he talked of 1402 - not 242 and 338 nor the Oslo Accords as far as I heard.

George Jr talks about Israel's right to defend itself. What he does not say is damning. What about Palestine's right to defend itself? Palestinians were under attack long before the wave of suicide bombings. Death rates of Palestinian civilians were in excess of 20 to 1. Where was George Jr when Palestinian farmers has their olive trees chopped down because a terrorist **might** hide there. A terrorist that would be attacking Jews traveling to an illegal West Bank settlement - just another minor point so conveniently forgotten. Where was George when the Israeli courts refused to hear that famer's petition? Where was George Jr when the government confiscated famer's land without due process either for unpaid taxes or for eminent domain - steal farmland to build a larger highway to that illegal West Bank settlement?

But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their Duty, to throw off Governement, and provide new Guards for their future Security. ... In every stage of these Oppressions, we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury.

And so those people defended themselves using terrrorism - as defined by George Jr. They immorally ambushed, attacked, and murdered British soldiers. They rioted in the cities in response to oppressive government actions. They even threw tea into Boston harbor. What makes 18th Century British any different from 21st Century Israelis? Well, the British did not openly murder 20 Yanks for every dead Brit. They did not attack policemen in Boston because of rebel ambushes in the countryside. When the British used live bullets to quash an anti-British demonstration, the shot was heard round the world - excessive force to quash a just cause. Israel's army routinely violates principals of a peace keeping force using violence even the British would not have used.

Previously Israeli army censors even attempted to censure all news reports - or shot at reporters - because honest news reports cannot be trusted. All reporters killed recently (ie one from Italy) were killed by Israeli soldiers - who are so careful not to kill innocent people?

Israeli troops keep 'accidentally' killing Palestinian children? They accidentally shot at American newsmen - the most recent being an ABC cameraman trying to fix water on their hotel. They have stolen other men's livelyhoods - outright oppression. The Palestinians have every right to defend themselves as violently as the American Colonists did in the 18th Century. That quoted principal that justified American violence - the reason that also justifies Palestinian rebellion - is from the American Declaration of Independence.

If there is plenty of blame to go around, then Americans who demanded justice in the years before the Declaration of Independence were also just terrorists - per George Jr's definitions. But then George Jr prefers to blame the victim for his own problems - not to mention that George Jr gave the Green Light to one of the world's most vile men - Ariel Sharon.

The Israelis are doing in Palestine what the Serbs were doing in Bosnia - except the Serbs did not have a Green Light from the President of the US.