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| Gaza Strip |
Aljazeera has a short history of Israel and Palestine, along with several graphics, one of which is shown above. You might expect Aljazeera, being Arabic, to lean towards the Palestinians, but the story pretty much sticks to the historical facts. Well, near as I can tell, I haven't checked any of it. I have heard rumors of horror stories from Israel's early years, so it rings true.
Near as I can tell, Iran is the source of all the trouble. I don't think the situation will ever be resolved until the Saudis and Iran go to war, but Arabs don't seem to be able to wage a competent war. Every time Egypt went up against Israel, they got their ass kicked. Iran and Iraq fought a war for like ten years and all they accomplished was to kill a bunch of their people. Neither country was conquered and the leadership on both sides remained entrenched. So maybe Saudi Arabia is hoping Israel will be provoked into stomping on Tehran.
Defeating your enemy in combat is one thing, but what do you do then? We basically took over and rebuilt Germany and Japan after WW2 and I think we did a pretty good job. Iraq was another story. We had a chance to rebuild that country but we didn't and now it's just another shithole.
I dunno, maybe the Arab world is too alien to be amenable to Western ways. But Japan and the Nazis in Germany were pretty far out there and those countries were civilized. Perhaps the amount of destruction necessary to ensure obedience is more than we are willing to inflict. In that case this shit will just continue indefinitely.
On the other hand, maybe the Ayatollahs are right, their version of Islam is the correct one and all us infidels are doomed to an eternity in hell. I suspect that they don't really want to win, they just want to stay on the front page of their local media.
Since 2007 Gaza is a 141 sq mi (25 long by 3.7 to 7.5 wide, POW camp for 2+ million people.
ReplyDeleteThey are dependent on most food, water, and power from their jailers.
I don't think we could have rebuilt Iraq because there were too many factions hating us, the puppet government, and each other. They were all fighting for control. In order to rebuild they first have to be defeated and submissive. That won't happen in any Arab country.