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>- PLO and other Islamist groups indiscriminate rocket strikes on Isreali settlements You're getting things mixed up a little bit here. PLO is not a terrorist

by carlob 13y ago

>- PLO and other Islamist groups indiscriminate rocket strikes on Isreali settlements You're getting things mixed up a little bit here. PLO is not a terrorist organization nowadays, it has recognized the right of Israel to exist in peace 20 years ago and it has ceased violent activity in the seventies. It is considered Palestine's political representation at the UN. Because of this even if it were bombing Israeli civilian houses this would be considered more of an act of war between states than terrorism. This is not to say that there are no terrorist organizations in Palestine, just that the PLO is not one of them.

vinceguidry 13y ago
The PLO is not a singular organization in the way we tend to think of organizations. They're more like a banner under which various groups place their actions. It has a leader, but he's more of a "first among equals" figurehead. He can make agreements, but his only way of executing them is to issue a decree and hope everyone complies. This dynamic is one of the reasons why peace in that area has been very difficult to achieve. The other is that Israel consistently acts in a manner opposed to peace as it hinders their expansionist aims. Palestine is being recognized as a state by both Israel and the UN, but that doesn't really make it a state the way we think of states. The institutions of governance simply aren't there. There's no way, for the PLO to, say, collect taxes legitimately. They are simply an organization looking to start up a state in Palestine, much like any revolutionary body. They don't have power, they aspire to it. One can proclaim the PLO as a terrorist organization or not, that's none of my concern, but there's no question that they've engaged in terrorist attacks, and that's what I was referring to.
- carlob 13y ago
  Well if one considers PLO more akin to a government, as the UN seems to do, then any act of violence they commit can't be considered terroristic, because of the monopoly of violence that nations hold. If you start counting that as terrorism so do Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Dresden. Again I'm not debating whether what the PLO does is right or wrong, I'm making a commentary on the free pass nations get when killing civilians.

by carlob 13y ago

vinceguidry 13y ago

The PLO is not a singular organization in the way we tend to think of organizations. They're more like a banner under which various groups place their actions. It has a leader, but he's more of a "first among equals" figurehead. He can make agreements, but his only way of executing them is to issue a decree and hope everyone complies. This dynamic is one of the reasons why peace in that area has been very difficult to achieve. The other is that Israel consistently acts in a manner opposed to peace as it hinders their expansionist aims. Palestine is being recognized as a state by both Israel and the UN, but that doesn't really make it a state the way we think of states. The institutions of governance simply aren't there. There's no way, for the PLO to, say, collect taxes legitimately. They are simply an organization looking to start up a state in Palestine, much like any revolutionary body. They don't have power, they aspire to it. One can proclaim the PLO as a terrorist organization or not, that's none of my concern, but there's no question that they've engaged in terrorist attacks, and that's what I was referring to.

carlob 13y ago
Well if one considers PLO more akin to a government, as the UN seems to do, then any act of violence they commit can't be considered terroristic, because of the monopoly of violence that nations hold. If you start counting that as terrorism so do Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Dresden. Again I'm not debating whether what the PLO does is right or wrong, I'm making a commentary on the free pass nations get when killing civilians.