The Israeli/Palestinian transfer window

Aside from a mini-FU to Arafat, you've pretty much summed it up.

This is nothing new. Israel has been doing lopsided deals like this for 20 years now.

I can't wait to see what happens if/when Hamas starts kidnapping Israelis.

 

Just like the time when Israel withdrew from Souther Lebanon, it gave an aspiration to the palestinains to do an armed struggle just like hezbollah did, so israel will ultimately withdrawl...

Palestinian milita groups who had a open windown to regroup from 1997 to 2000, saw an opprotunity of a life time when israel without any peace conditions, without any agreement or even a single armistice reconciliation, withdrew out of the blue and left the north of israel vulnerable to more attacks and reprisals from lebanon....

The question i keep getting from many people is that why did israel release 450 prisoners and get only 4 back.

The easy way to explain it, is that israel does not have 500 prisoners in the arab world. 2 count, before the swap deal, there was 1 civilian who was in custody, 3 confirmed dead bodies of soldiers and then there is another israeli who was shot down in 1986...

Along with that there is 3 israelis who got kidnapped after a 1982 battle vs. Syria and another Israeli who was kidnapped or presumed 'missing' in 1997, from the Golan-Syria border.

Either way, israel's top priority, whatever the case may be is to always bring our soldiers home. Its the "YAD LE BANIM" quote...where it states "HAND TO THE BOYS[soldiers]". Israel will do anything to get back the hostages...at any cost...

 

Kappa my friend, glad to see you got your red reduced to a yellow

Gringo, I'm afraid you're right my misguided leftie frined

 

Always a pleasure

 

...although RED looks really nice on you!!

Kappak and Red go hand and hand

 

Sorate kasifet ghermez beshe, ahmagh

 

translation: Love means, never having to say you're sorry

 

translation: I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream. But we have none, it's a sad world.

 

Translation: Sardina is a freak!
And a cross dresser as well

 

Yes my darling one.

 

Damn!!! I thought that this was going to be about those Bobby Convey to Maccabai Haifa rumors floating around

 

no personal insults Kappaky!!!!

 

Here's an interesting article concerning the "transfer."

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/389998.html

The three Israeli soldiers who were kidnapped were 150 meters away from a United Nations "peacekeeping" force. The "peacekeepers" videotaped the incident. The UN denied the existance of the tape, then stonewalled Israel when they demanded its production. By the time Israel received it, the three soldiers were corpses. This is just one reason Israelis have a huge distrust of the UN, and is something anti-Israel critics might want to consider when they try to lecture Israel on "international law."

The most vocal critics of the UN are the family of Omar Suwad, one of the soldiers. If you haven't figured it out, the Suwads are not Jewish. Yet Israel holds a ceremony upon the return of Omar's body, complete with an Imam to lead a prayer. And Moshe Katsav, Israel's president, pays a personal call to the home of the Suwads.

"The bereaved mother, H'dra Suwad, told the president she had given the most precious thing she had and he did not come home alive. "Every day in the past few years seemed like a year to me. I thank the government for not sparing efforts to bring the sons home," she said.

Omar Suwad's twin brother Amar said "the president did not leave us for one second. His heart is with us. He felt as if this was his problem too, supported and strengthened us. We thank him wholeheartedly."

Amazing how Israel is called a "racist apartheid state," while Arafat is praised for his tolerance when he has breakfast with Adam Shapiro of ISM.

 

doesn't the israeli constitution specifically state that israel is a jewish state? if that is the case, then the nation is inherently xenophobic, if not actually racist. it is actually is very arguable that proclaiming a nation to be a homeland for a specific ethnic group is racist. i don't see why that is such a hard concept to grasp.

 

shouldn't you be burning a cross somewhere?

 

u are such a piece of trash. instead of addresing the question, you pull the classic liberal trump banal trick: you label somebody a racist, sexist or homophobe: the holy trinity of political correctness.

 

Israel does not have a constitution. Perhaps you should do a little research into Israeli political history prior to labeling them inherently xenophobic, no?

 

This is not the 1st time the UN withstood its mission and gave up on israel.

Back in 1973, the U.N patrolled the Sinai. Nasser told the UN to take a hike..cause he was going to attack israel by surprise, and they did just that...

So what kind of peace missions do the UN actuall do, in which they harm there intrest as well as the intrest of others....

Rwanda is just one good case.....

With the soliders...
Yes, it is true...
and Imam led the prayers for the body of Omar Suwad. He is a Druze Arab....Eventhough he is An Arab, many of the Druze infiltrated into israel between the late 40's and 50's and pledged legion for Israel and the country. Much of there men are warriors...not just in the arab-israeli wars, but also over thousands of years ago.. It is a sort of honour or privilage to send a druze son into the army for some....

but as all....Omar was one of the boys, and like all, we wanted his body back home. Our top privilage was to have our soldiers who are missing back. You may call Israel losers in the 4 people prisoner for 400, but if we're losers on that issue, so be it.....

 

Israel does not have constitution and does not specify that Israel is only for the jews!

Look at Saudi Arabia. They say that Saudi Arabia is an Islamic country and yet, 99.9% of the people there are Muslims and the laws are under islamic/whabbist laws... Yet, that is not racist? Especially when they imprisoned and tortured Bulgarian Paramedics who they accused were spearing aids....that is not racist...

Israel, if you didn't know is a very multicultural country. Yes..It is a jewish state...but a jewish state with many different backrounds. One...Many of these jews who live in the jewish state and make up a majority come from many parts of the world. They don't just all come from Russia or the "communist bloc" like my family orgins, i come from Syria..Which is an Arab country.. And they are jewish from many other places...like Bosnia, Morroco, Spain, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, India, Uzbekistan and so on...

There is also in Israel Arab minority who comprise of about 15.5-17.5% of the population. This minority is over 85% muslims and just about 15% Christian/Druze. Both the Jewish and Arab population get same rights and same benefits as everyone in Israel do. In the knesset, which is the White House in Israel...Arabs represent themselves and have a right to vote and have a right to an attorney and property in israel....

Yes, There is discrimination like always..but the gap of differences are coming apart and reconcilation is building...Even in hard times.... One day the gap will be closed and harmony will persist....although PatrickM ignorance will still be around

 

bit hard to take you seriously, oh all powerful attorney, when you make claims of a non-existent constitution.
You'd better run - your white sheets should be back from the cleaners by now - just in time to meet the Imperial Dragon.

 

The Knesset is more akin to Congress, than the White House. But since it's a parliamentary system, there is no perfect analogy to U.S. institutions.

As I recall, Israel was supposed to draft a written constitution, and this was something Barak proposed finalizing. Something else got in the way though...

It does have a series of "Basic Laws" that have constitutional effect. The Israeli constitution is a lot like England's "constitution." It is unwritten and based on various other documents and principles. Ultimately, England has a doctrine of parliamentary supremacy, which means that if Parliament passes the law, then it is the law, regardless of anything else. There is no written "check" that can stop a parliament hell bent on getting something done.

As for Israeli Arabs, I don't think one can say that they don't face discrimination. They do. But they do have a full spectrum of political rights. There are even exclusive Arab political parties, some of which have essentially allied themselves with the PLO. Try and imagine an "Al-Qaeda party" in the U.S., and you may understand (although not justify), the sometimes hostile attitude Jews in Israel hold toward Israeli Arabs.

As Kappa noted, there are certain "minority minorities" within the Israeli Arab society. These include the aforementioned Druze, and Bedouin Arabs (sort of like nomads, although that's changing in this day and age). Bedouins have a high volunter rate in the army, and the Druze community is subject to mandatory conscription just like Jews are.

Here's one Israeli Arab who certainly doesn't think Israel is a racist state.

http://www.ishmaelkhaldi.com/

 

If the shoe fits...

 

The rest of the post was ok JP, but Al qaida = PLO is dumb.

They are palestinians no wonder they feel themselves to be near to PLO.

Maybe you meant hamas or jihad = al qaida, and also this would be far from being an exact matching comparation.

For example, it's a long time palestinians have abandoned hitting out of Israel/Palestine.

So the hostile attitude is mostly due to the fighting but nonetheless PLO is not = Al Qaida.
The most relevant difference amongst many others being PLO Laical vs Al Qaida fundamentalist.

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HRW - Israel/Palestine
http://hrw.org/doc/?t=mideast&c=isrlpa

Some Human Rights Watch' pages regarding israeli arabs discrimination in Israel.

http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/12/SecondClass1205.htm

http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/07/israel072803.htm

http://hrw.org/press/2002/06/israel0706.htm