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Quote by: Nono No, because that would be an exercise in abstraction. Then the Mexicans (a Spanish-inspired entity) should 'give' it back to the generally poor, unmixed descendants of the original inhabitants and so on ad infinitum. |
And yet that doesn't apply to a part of the world that has changed hands repeatedly every few hundred years? Interesting. At least with Israel, as I said, if you keep pealing back through the conquerers, you end up back with the Jews and their homeland of Israel.
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Quote by: Nono Simply put, too much time has passed to do anything about it, just as too much water has gone under the bridge in so many other land-grabs around the world. |
Is that right? Pakistan was created in 1947. What's the statute of limitations on such things? 50 years? 100 years? 150 years?
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Quote by: Nono But we aren't talking about Israel, Sonart. |
Actually we kind of are, but that's another discussion.
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Quote by: Nono We're talking about territories occupied militarily by Israel -- somebody else's territory -- which was taken within living memory (I sure remember it) and whose inhabitants have been kicked off their land in drips and drabs over the years as the Israelis have moved in their own people or, very often, people barely off the boat -- Russian Jews (or "Jews") for example. |
Territory taken after yet another war of annihilation was about to be launched on them. How long did the U.S., Britain and France occupy West Germany after defeating the regime that attacked them? Besides, the West Bank belonged to Jordan. Has Jordan asked for it back? Has Egypt asked for the Gaza strip?
I'll be very honest... back in 1968, (when I was all of 19 years old) I never quite understood why Israel never simply annexed the entire West bank and the Gaza strip. To my pragmatic mind, with Gaza and the West Bank, while Israel would have more territory, it would have far
less border to defend. A vitally important consideration if the Arabs were going to insist on invading every 10 years. (or 5 years, as it turned out)
As to the poor Palestinians caught in the middle, hey, c'est la guerre, doods. If you don't wanna keep losing sh!t, then stop attacking Israel. If you don't want to leave, become a Arab Israeli.
To the point, however, the West Bank is what it is, and I think stealing it by "dribs and drabs" while simultaneously declaring your intentions for peace is onerous. Not nearly as onerous as Hamas and Hezbollah, but bad enough to criticize.
As to Shrike's point about these being on annexed territory... after looking up Pisquat Zeev and Givat Zeev, methinks the issue is far greyer than he makes it sound and clearly provocative.
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