Cue the Violins

Palestinians had the world's pity. They lost all their wars with Israel, they became refugees and they make certain that the world feels badly towards them. They still want all their land back and who could blame them? So now, what tactics should be used?
Courts of law? nah.
Constant requests to the UN? nah.
Assimilation into other Arab countries so that life can go on? nah.
Negotiations with the war winner for self govt? nah.
Constant war with that winner, a clearly stronger opponent? Yes, lets do that!

Ismael Haniyeh is in the Washington Post today complaining about what Israel is currently doing in Gaza.

The current Gaza invasion is only the latest effort to destroy the results of fair and free elections held early this year. It is the explosive follow-up to a five-month campaign of economic and diplomatic warfare directed by the United States and Israel. The stated intention of that strategy was to force the average Palestinian to "reconsider" her vote when faced with deepening hardship;

Actually, all those economic/diplomatic warfares things were not to force the avg Palestinian to "reconsider" her vote, but to point out to the avg Palestinian that there are consequences for actions. If you want to have terrorists in charge, that's fine. However, we don't deal with terrorists....
I love this paragraph:

Israel's unilateral movements of the past year will not lead to peace. These acts -- the temporary withdrawal of forces from Gaza, the walling off of the West Bank -- are not strides toward resolution but empty, symbolic acts that fail to address the underlying conflict. Israel's nearly complete control over the lives of Palestinians is never in doubt, as confirmed by the humanitarian and economic suffering of the Palestinians since the January elections. Israel's ongoing policies of expansion, military control and assassination mock any notion of sovereignty or bilateralism. Its "separation barrier," running across our land, is hardly a good-faith gesture toward future coexistence.

Not one mention of why these things are in place. Why is there a "separation barrier"? Hmmmmmm. Could it possibly be to keep bombers away from restaurants? And the policy of expansion? Israel actually withdrew from places last year. Does that not get even a mention here?

That's ok, he has a fix:

But there is a remedy, and while it is not easy it is consistent with our long-held beliefs. Palestinian priorities include recognition of the core dispute over the land of historical Palestine and the rights of all its people; resolution of the refugee issue from 1948; reclaiming all lands occupied in 1967; and stopping Israeli attacks, assassinations and military expansion. Contrary to popular depictions of the crisis in the American media, the dispute is not only about Gaza and the West Bank; it is a wider national conflict that can be resolved only by addressing the full dimensions of Palestinian national rights in an integrated manner. This means statehood for the West Bank and Gaza, a capital in Arab East Jerusalem, and resolving the 1948 Palestinian refugee issue fairly, on the basis of international legitimacy and established law. Meaningful negotiations with a non-expansionist, law-abiding Israel can proceed only after this tremendous labor has begun.

Yeah, that will work. Israel will do all that negotiating with a group that refuses to remove in it's charter that it's one aim is to destroy Israel.

If Israel is prepared to negotiate seriously and fairly, and resolve the core 1948 issues, rather than the secondary ones from 1967, a fair and permanent peace is possible. Based on a hudna (comprehensive cessation of hostilities for an agreed time), the Holy Land still has an opportunity to be a peaceful and stable economic powerhouse for all the Semitic people of the region.

Until the core of current issues are solved and that means admitting that Israel is there and it's there to stay and you have no right to destroy it, I see no reason why Israel should be dealing with Palestinians at all, except in order to protect themselves.

The answer is simple: Admit that Israel is there, it exists and it won all it's wars with you. Give them back their soldier. Appeal to the UN concerning your prisoners. Appeal to the UN concerning any concern you have about anything. They are your lapdog. Use them. Stop the bombing of Israel. Get your own infrastructure. Get your own businesses going. Get your own sources of energy and money that have nothing to do with Israel. Quit raising your children to be suicide bombers. If you do all of that, each time that there is an act of unfairness, or agression or whatever by Israel you will be backed. If you don't do that, then I'll back Israel every time.

You guys have mucked up your sympathy so badly that you even have Iraqis becoming sympathetic to Israel. ie

"Hamas with their radical false-heroic speech opened the door for extremists in Gaza and Damascus to open a battlefront that will harm the innocent Palestinian citizen and destroy the peace process. Hamas has long been against the peace process and has long worked on halting it"
Ahmed Talib al-Taii: Baghdad/Iraq

Click on the link for more quotes and a great blog.

Give them back Shalit.