Quote:
Originally posted by Yorick:
Cerek, how many of the nations that declared war on Israel actually signed peace treaties? I know Egypt did, and Egypt got Sinai back. Hamas, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda and various other Palestinian, Syrian, Jordanian, and other Arabic groups are certainly at war with Israel. Israel are in a constant state of war.
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Just as a slight point of information: there have been several occasions where Israel has attacked whilst under the influences of truce's and peace treaties. It's not just an aggresive Arabic thing.
Although I will have to disagree with Skunk: its one thing to deplore heavy-handidness by Israel in the occupied territories, but when we get on to the international scene the situation is far more ambiguous and many of Israel's actions were justified. It would be naive I think to assume that if Israel got rid of its nukes, the surrounding Arab states would stop the arms race. They'd need them to protect from America if anyone.
Whilst for the practical realization of the Israeli state it could be argued that military expansion was necessary (the pre-1967 borders being indefensible in places), Israel has never expressed a desire to do anything more than defend itself. Sure, the way in which it does that is undoubtedly aggressive and controversal, but when you consider Israeli history this is not particularly suprising or indeed unreasonable at times.
Whilst Arabic rhetoric is indeed legendary, and a gap does certainly exist between this and the reality, I am not convinced of your argument that once the military balance was restored they would simply forget about past incidents and sing a 'rousing round of kumbya' as it were.
[ 06-10-2004, 10:00 AM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]