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Wednesday, September 01, 2010

The luck of the Irish won't help

Here's Barry Rubin on why peace came to Northern Ireland, but is unlikely to come to Israel and the 'Palestinians.'
In this case, though, [British Foreign Minister Jack] Straw dumped cold water on [US Secretary of State Colin] Powell's world view." What he said is worth quoting fully:

"Could I just add one thing to that, if I may? Of course, negotiation is far, far better--infinitely better -- than military action. As far as Northern Ireland is concerned, we welcome hugely the progress that has been made following the Good Friday Agreement. It also has to be said that before that happened, there had to be a change of approach by those who saw terrorism as the answer. And that approach partly changed because of the firmness of the military and police response to that terrorism. And if there had not been that firm response by successive British governments and others to the terrorist threat that was posed on both sides, we would not have been able to get some of those people into negotiations. We would not be marking what is a satisfactory day in the history of Northern Ireland today."

In other words, the terrorists were defeated by tough action, saw they couldn't win, and thus had to change their approach. Of course, in the Israel-Palestinian case, there has been no such attitude toward terrorism internationally. Hamas has been saved as the Gaza Strip's ruler thanks to Western action; the Palestinian side has not been forced to pay the price for violence and intransigence (rejecting Camp David and the Clinton plan, launching a second intifadah, continuing incitement, etc.) and thus has not had to give up the hope of total victory and belief that violence and intransigence could bring that about.

That's a key reason why the current talks will fail.
Read the whole thing.

3 Comments:

At 4:59 PM, Blogger Juniper in the Desert said...

I'm sorry but there is no true peace in Northern Ireland.there have been many attempted bomb atacks and actual ones, recently killing a policeman.

some refs:

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/i/irish_republican_army/index.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8614723.stm

N Ireland became part of the British empire; a colony. arabs want Israel to be THEIR colony:

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/09/ground-zero-mosque-imam-rauf-in-a-true-peace-it-is-impossible-that-a-purely-jewish-state-of-palestin.html

Sorry about so many links but this guy should do more research!

 
At 5:00 PM, Blogger NormanF said...

Hamas handed out candy to happy children exulting in the slaughter of Jews.

This is what they educate their children to take pride in: the murder of men, women and unborn babies.

It will take more than the luck of the Irish to bring peace to the Middle East when revolting scenes like this are rehearsed among the Palestinian Arabs like clockwork.

There will be no peace in our lifetime and five dead Jews is the proof of it. What peace have they attained in this world?

 
At 7:37 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Jack Straw made this astute observation in 2001 to a world that remains deaf, dumb and blind. The UN did not spend half its resources and establish dozens of committees to support Northern Ireland's terrorism and attempt to marginalize Britain. As long as Arab terrorists think terrorism will achieve their goals, they will continue killing.

 

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