:Suspiciou i say bring em on! Isreal kicked ass in the 70's. They only gave back the west bank and gaza so they can invade them again!

Only kidding for all those ppl that have a political degree on world current affairs or that have family in the forces.:Whatever_

They gave up the West Bank ? :eek:

When did that happen ?

Loving the adverts...

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I don't really see how Hamas getting into power is a bad thing - after all if you look at similar cases - Arafat and the PLO and Adams and Sinn Fein - once you get these kind of organisations bogged down in the quagmire of politics they have no real choice but to denounce violence in order to appear credible. There will be the inevitible split-off factions which prefer to wage guerilla war but these will become increasingly isolated and Hamas will have to distance itself from them if it wants to actually make any improvements to the life of Palestinians.

Now what is the attitude of the Palastinian Electorate?
Is this a sophisticated Electorate deciding to vote Hamas into power believing that that will be the way to achieve a negoiated settlement because Hamas would have to give up armed action and would have to persue diplomatic methods?
Or because the Electorate believe in the opinions that Hamas have previously expressed? In which case do the Electorate think and want a war to remove Israel?
All questions as usual.

I don't understand why everyone is getting their knickers in a twist about Hamas? The PLO was a terrorist organisation and both Israel and the US happily dealt with them and the Israelis themselves were terrorists at one point, so why should Hamas be treated so differently?

:confused:

Dunno why people are getting their nickers in a twist generally.

Hamas is a far more aggressive and extremist organisation than the PLO thats why.

have to agree with previous comments, that are not coming thru on the official news briefs - that Hamas are just following tradition, recently seen with the IRA / Sinn Fein and previously seen with the terrorist Stern Gang.

And what also doesn't get publicised is the social programmes run by Hamas for the Palestinian people.

In fact Hamas seem to have got a majority of votes that most western political parties can only dream about.

.. oh, the irony.

Erm... you did know that there is a large rebellion faction in Fatah, that wants to continue to use arms ?

That was one of the reasons why Abbas wanted to postpone the elections: he knew the people were sick of the corruption and the lack of progress in the peace road map. It was clear for months now that Hamas was going to do very well in the elections.

BTW: Europe now has to decide if they want to continue to pay the wages of the Palestinian civil servants...

I think you need to re-read your history books then. Try googling up Arafat, Munich and a few others.

Yup. They are about the only ones who actually are seen to be building schools, hospitals, etc...

I'm sure there's a movie about this somewhere :D

Yep. Even the Daily Mail readers should have made the connection.

;)

Yes that was a very long time ago and Arafat wanted change, he thrived on the publicity. Do you see Hamas having a leader with the same self gratification as Arafat? I don't.

Indeed. Democracy in action. Can't see what grounds there are for any Western governments to complain - especially after the way that Bush was jerrymandered into office.

hey, you said you were bored of this topic, so stop reading the thread!

What happened to the Judean People's Front', 'The People's Front of Judea', and (with only one member) 'The Judean Popular People's Front'.

Are they still in the running?:confused:

http://www.wumingfoundation.com/engl...e_of_brian.jpg

He's over there....

"Splitter!!"

:lol1:

you have got that spot on there!

No, and that might be a good thing actually...

They did have Sheik Yassin, but he got blown to smithereens by the IDF, hum.

The Middle East has been a flash point in world politics for many many years now. If there was a major conflict there which could easily start up, there would be so many vested interests from the rest of the world that B2Zero's theory is not in the least far fetched.

Les

Since the Balfour declaration really :)

Yes-not surprising really.

Les :)

Damned Brits ! ;)

Joking aside, it is fascinating to see how far you have to go back in history sometimes to understand what is happening today. Of course there's a whole history leading up to that declaration as well BTW.

It is true that if a country behaves badly towards another country or its people, or carries out questionable or illegal activities, that will always come back to haunt it for many many years to come in the future.

Bit like starting war in the Middle East without Security Council backing I suppose !

Les

is true that if a country behaves badly towards another country or its people, or carries out questionable or illegal activities, that will always come back to haunt it for many many years to come in the future.

Bit like starting war in the Middle East without Security Council backing I suppose !