I found an interesting article online today. You can find it here
Basically Saudi Arabia seems to be siding with the Palestinians, and saying that what Israel is doing to them is state sponsored terrorism. Saudi Arabia said that the international community needs to take a stand and pressure Israel to end these "atrocities".
I find this very interesting. I don't know enough about the entire situation to form an educated opinion, but I do know (from this class and others), that Palestinian terrorists constantly carry out suicide bomb missions against Israel. Is that not considered terrorism, or atrocities, by Saudi Arabia? While I understand the Palestinian grievances, I don't think terrorism is the way to address them, and I certainly don't place blame on Israel for trying to defend their cities.
What do you think? Who is guilty of terrorism here in this situation?
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8 comments:
The issue between the Israelis and the Palestinians continues to perplex and is very complicated....A lasting peace with both nations having official states is made difficult due to access to fresh water among other things. Israel does have a very strong lobby in Washington with lots of money which affects American policy in the area as well. You can check out their website
and read a little about them.
The Palestinians use terrorist tactics because they cannot face the Israeli military in a conventional fight, and Israel finds it ever more difficult to avoid hurting innocent Palestinians when countering these terrorist tactics.
Certain Israelis are unwilling to give in to any concessions-- one Israeli, Yigal Amir, killed Yitzhak Rabin because Rabin was giving the Palestinians some land in the Oslo Accords and Amir believed that this went against the promises to the Jews as recorded in the Bible. No agreement since has come so close...anyway, just some things to consider
Let's be clear about our terminology. The claim is that the Israeli government itself is committing terrorism, not that they are sponsoring or supporting some third party. We would not call this state-sponsored terrorism, but rather "state terrorism." (See Hoffman, p. 15-16.)
What is going on here is that Saudi Arabia is accusing Israel itself of committing terrorist acts. There are rogue elements on both sides that carry out terrorist acts, but in this case, Saudi Arabia's problem is specifically with what it views as the Israeli military carrying out terrorist acts. It is obvious that neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians have been able to control the rogues in their camps but government actions themselves should be beyond reproach in terms of terrorism. That's Saudi Arabia's point. I don't know what Israeli military did that the Saudis specifically are referring to as terrorist (maybe the blockade in Gaza???). Regardless, I wouldn't be surprised if both Israel and Palestine are and or have been state-sponsors of terror but I would be surprised if either currently practices state terrorism (as per Prof Payne's def). This conflict is really complex as Israel tries to find the fine line of good national defense between tactics that are too harsh on innocent Palestinian civilians or too lenient on both rogue and sponsored Palestinian terrorists. For the sake of class discussion/argument I'd say that many of Israel's more recent defense tactics are too harsh against the Palestinian civilians and may end up making more enemies than solving problems.
I think actually Hoffman says state terror, instead of state terrorism. Sorry for the confusion.
Saudi Arabia is a Muslim nation, despite its lack of theocratic rule. The monarchy and government are only members of the Saud family. They are very conservative Muslims. That means that in general they think of anyone outside of their orthodoxy as an infidel. Jews, clearly are not Muslims, and are therefore infidels. On the other hand Palestinians are Muslim. It behooves Saudi Arabia to support the Palestinians. It has little to do with tactics, and all to do with ideology.
the fact that Saudi Arabia supports Palestine is not a new issue, even in the face of the terrorism that Palestine may commit. in years past Saudi Arabia has limited ties, though never severed alliances, with the US because of our strong backing of Israel. the fact that SA is siding with Palestine and is accusing Israel of acts of terror is not an excuse for Palestinians actions, but rather a rebuke against a nation that it feels is in the wrong, and who is more likely to point fingers than to take blame. SA position is not new and neither is it refusing to accept Palestines wrongs; it merely points out their problems with Israel.
The conflcit in Israel between them and Palestine is akin to two people with a choke hold on each other, both saying they are going to keeping on choking harded until the other stops. It's going to kill them both in the long run.
State terror by Israel? Probably. They have been pretty brutal in their treatment of the Palestinians. But honestly, what else can they do? Defending/fighting terrorism is like trying to nail jello to a wall. Lets hope they can find a solution, but honestly it's not likely any time soon.
While I would certainly never condone terrorist actions against anyone I think it quite bold to place most of the blame on the Palestinians. The Israelis have done much to hurt the civilian population in the Palestinian territories. Not only have they made life miserable for the Palestinians, they continue to take their land even when international law forbids them to. The Israelis have continually disregarded the international community and have committed many human rights violations against the Palestinians. This issue looks simply enough from the outside, but a deeper look at the situation reveals how truly complex this issue is and neither party is innocent, the Israeli government is no exception.
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