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Many Palestinians don't feel they are being represented by those people. You are absolutely correct that there is (IMO) a healthy amount of Arabs elected to th

• relics443 10y ago
  "Many Palestinians don't feel they are being represented by those people." Source? Assuming that is true, they have the ability to vote. There are some companies that go out of their way to employ them (Rami Levy and SodaStream are some of the largest). Unfortunately, extremists use this as an attack vector against innocent men, women, and children, as they exploit their jobs to be able to murder and maim civilians (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Jerusalem_synagogue_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Jerusalem_synagogue_attac...). Israel provides electricity to the PA even though they haven't paid their bill in years, and will probably never pay it in full. We're talking debts of $500M+ (http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-pa-said-to-reach-deal-on-massive-palestinian-electricity-bill/ http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-pa-said-to-reach-deal-on...). Palestinians have the potential for a very good life in Israel. Sure, there are extremists on both sides. However, Israel is not a country made up of extremists (in fact they are a tiny portion of the population). The key difference is that most Arabs support their extremists though they won't carry out acts of terror (centrists celebrate in the streets after terrorist attacks are carried out; most vocally support terrorism against Israel and the West even if they wouldn't do it themselves, and they would rather see Israel destroyed than have a two state solution implemented) [I know there are sources for this, but I can't seem to find them. I'll instead attribute this to my personal experience with this, and leave you to draw your own conclusions]. The way I see it, it's best summed up with a quote from Golda Meir (disputed, but accurate nonetheless): “Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.”
  • selimthegrim 10y ago
    Israel is the occupying power, it's mandated to provide electricity to Gaza for example. Do you think they should be cut off from the power station at Ashkelon? If there is plenty of support for illegal settlements how can you say that most Israelis don't support the extremists, because only a minority are violent?
    • relics443 10y ago
      They are not mandated to provide free electricity. To your comments on illegal settlements. Yes, there is plenty of support for them. In fact, most of the supporters contend that they are not illegal. There's a very big difference between supporting the settlements right to exist and supporting extremist violence coming from the settlements. Settler violence is very different than Arab violence. Please bear in mind that what follows is true most of the time, and I'll address a few of the exceptions. They key difference - and this holds for all cases of extremist violence - is that it is thoroughly condemned by the full spectrum of Israelis (except for other violent extremists, although depending on how heinous it was, some of the tamer elements would condemn it as well). It is something that is taken seriously by Israel, especially if it leads to a loss of life, because Israelis care about life. It can even lead to violent crackdowns against settlers (which very often turn into witch hunts that violate due process and humanitarian rights, but the Left is quiet about that - see the dubious detention of Meir Ettinger). 1. Settler violence is condemned by the Israeli public and government - from the Right to the Left 2. Settler violence is proven to have been staged by the Left or Arabs 3. Settler violence is reactionary / provoked (price tags and harrassment by leftist groups and/or Arab neighbors) 4. Settler violence is an anger outlet vs an outright desire to maim/kill and as such rarely leads to bodily harm / death 5. Reported Settler violence is often referring to an instance of an Israeli Settler injuring/killing an Arab as the Arab was infiltrating a settlement or attacking Israelis (reported by B'Tselem a far left HR organization who has since amended their page showing this - http://www.btselem.org/english/Statistics/Casualties_Data.asp?Category=3&region=TER http://www.btselem.org/english/Statistics/Casualties_Data.as...) 6. Settler violence committed by a mentally unstable assailant (Abu Khdeir killing) As I noted, there are exceptions to the above (Goldstein, etc...), but most follow the above points, and rarely end in injury or death for Arabs, as the violence tends to be rioting and property destruction. OTOH: 1. Arab violence is rarely condemned by the Arab public and government - most rejoice, and the more serious the attack the more they rejoice 2. Arab violence is often committed in public or has direct evidence of its occurrence 3. Arab violence is often out of the blue (not in retaliation for a specific personal attack or provocation) 4. Arab violence is often expressed as a desire to murder innocent Israelis and Westerners and to bring about the destruction of Israel #5 doesn't really have a corresponding bullet, because most Israeli's entering an Arab settlement do so by mistake. Doesn't stop the population from trying to lynch them (I've heard multiple first-hand accounts of this, including from relatives and schoolmates). I'm sure there are mentally unstable Arab assailants, but I don't know percentages.