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Originally Posted by raeanna74
It will not be over until Israel has been declared victorious by all or until Israel is completely obliterated. There will be no middle ground for the arab countries. -snip- Any respect other countries may have for us will be lost. The U.S has backed Isreal for those 50 some years. To change our mind now would signal weakness to other countries.
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That's just it, Raeanna... it's a lose-lose situation, as it stands. You said it in your own post; there is no middle ground for the Arab countries. However, at this point there is also no middle ground for the U.S. on Israel.. and for that, I find no good explanation.
To expect the Arab countries to ever unconditionally accept Israel, especially without a Palestinian state, is to demand that they signal their own weakness and irrelevance to world politics. How can anyone possibly expect them to do something that we as a country cannot seem to do, ourselves? I'm reminded of that scene at the beginning of Gladiator (I know, I know, but the movie did have a few choice lines): just as the Romans are about to conquer the "barbarians" in Germania, there is an exchange between Maximus and his officers.
Quintus: "People should know when they're conquered."
[pause]
Maximus: "Would you, Quintus? Would I?"
NO ONE wants to back down, even when it means their own destruction. But how can we possibly base our entire foreign policy on the idea that "that's what we've always done, and if we do anything different, no one will respect us." Who respects us now, in the world? Israel? Of course they respect us; what choice do they have? But we've *lost* respect in the world for supporting Israel, not gained it.
The only way out would be for both the Arab countries and the US to somehow be willing to confess the futility of their unchanging stances, agree that the whole situation is a clusterfuck, and try something completely different. Together.
Otherwise, this whole damn thing is going to go on in its sisyphean madness, until someone hits the red button and the whole planet gets blown to shit.
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Originally Posted by roachboy
By supporting Israel, the administration also is losing its standing with the Lebanese public and the fragile democratic government in Beirut -- which has been Bush's poster boy for Western-style democracy in the Middle East, experts said.
"They believed that they were the center of the Bush administration's democratization program, and to suddenly have their international civilian airport bombed without much protest from the U.S. is pretty shocking for the Lebanese," said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
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roachboy, I'm listening to you. And I appreciate your posts. This quote especially, taken from the article you posted, is very illustrative... I'd like to see discussion on this topic in particular. The fair-weather friendedness of the current administration. So much for our moral American high-horse.
Where is everyone else on this thread?? There have got to be more opinions out there than just a handful...