ybo - "I'm against Zionism"
By your enemies you shall know them. Thank you for the compliment. As for the justification for Zionism, Jews were treated like second-class citizens, murdered, abused, and persecuted for centuries in both Europe and the Arab middle east for centuries without recourse. In a few generations they built a modern economy for themselves in a barren desert, unlike all their neighbors. Sorry, ybo, you're gonna just have to learn to live with it. If you were to welcome Israel to the region, you might just learn something from their success in life and benefit, but that is clearly too intelligent a response for your self-nurtured anger and indignation. As the Koran says somewhere, "Perish in your rage".
ybo - "I refute the entire concept of killing terrorists as anything but wicked."
Again, proving my point. It is clear that ybo, a terrorist sypathizer, wants to get something from terrorism (Israeli withdrawal) and not peaceful adult negotiation and does not want the terrorists killed. Terrorists murder because they think it will get them something (e.g. withdrawal to the Green Line). They are, in that narrow sense, rational. Therefore their behavior will be altered by frustrating their desires. Sharon has made it quite clear that the Palestinians will not be offered all of the West Bank or anything near what Clinton and Barak wanted to give them. That was then, this is now, and the Palestinians must lose something big and permanent as a lesson and penalty for the intifada. Otherwise they will just resort to violence next time they are unhappy with one or another thing in their lives, as seems to be their wont. One should note that terrorism in the mid-east reaches a high point when Israel or the US tries to negotiate or meet apparent concerns of terrorists. It declines when Sharon and Bush ignore them and kill their leaders. Ignoring terrorists and killing them is clearly the best reaction.
In general, ybo's posts and the Palestinians reactions are symptomatic. The Palestinian society has turned itself into a death-worship cult that sacrifices its own children, just so they may kill others, ignoring their own economic needs, losing the skills that would allow them to engage in the modern world, or provide anything of any use to anyone. The main skills they learn are extortion (via terrorism) and begging (from the UN and the EU). Until they change, they will be a failure, with or without a state, it doesn't matter.
My personal view is that the Palestinians should not get a state or anything else until they prove by decent humane behavior over several generations that they deserve to join with the rest of humanity and earn the respect of others. Until then, they should stew in their self-created misery while we ignore them. Like a child throwing a temper tantrum, the best response is to ignore it.
