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To: Polybius

"Throughout history, whenever a population has been conquered through war, the choices have been:

1. Extermination……………Nazi Germany’s choice with the Jews"

This is the second time you have made a similar statement. What war did European Jews lose to the Germans? When did the European Jews fight the Germans? Your statement makes it sound (inadvertantly I will credit) as if the German's had to "exterminate" a warring Jewish insurgency in their midsts.

...............

As to your other points,you have omitted two important pieces.

"Attacks against Israel will be met with air power, armor and artillery. No more foot patrols in hate-filled Arab streets.'

A change to that tactic could have been implemented with Jewish communities in Gaza. It did not for the reasons it will not occur after disengagement -- civilian deaths,and the humanitarian and PR issues they elicit.

....................

"These “Palestinian Arabs” had a lot to be angry about. According to Peretz’s 1954 article, “Today (1954), nearly half the new Jewish immigrants live in homes abandoned by Arabs. They occupy nearly 400 Arab towns and villages. About a quarter of the buildings now in use in Israel formerly were Arab property. The Arabs left over 10,000 shops and stores in Jewish hands. The Israel Custodian of Absentee Property took over more than 4,000,000 dunams of former Arab land, or nearly 60% of the county’s cultivable area. This was nearly two and a half times the total Jweish-owned property at the time the State of Israel was established and includes most of its olive orchards, a large part of its fruit and vegetable crop land and almost half the citrus.”

Jews decimated in Hitler's Europe and Jews kicked out of Arab lands they had lived in for centuries, forced to leave with nothing despite extensive wealth, had "a lot to be angry about" too. Jews lost more than the Palis ever did. Whole families wiped out. Entire cultures destroyed.

But they moved on and made new lives. They did not become perpetual refugees, haters and killers. More Jews were expelled from Arab lands than Arabs from Israel.

.................

I heard Victor Davis Hanson on John Bachelor show tonight. He made a very similar point about retreat to the one you made. He said that retreat, though sometimes necessary, is always treated as a 'victory' by the other side.




669 posted on 08/15/2005 10:40:48 PM PDT by dervish (tagline for rent, inquire within)
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To: dervish
1. Extermination……………Nazi Germany’s choice with the Jews" .......... This is the second time you have made a similar statement. What war did European Jews lose to the Germans? When did the European Jews fight the Germans? Your statement makes it sound (inadvertantly I will credit) as if the German's had to "exterminate" a warring Jewish insurgency in their midsts.

Did I say anything at all about "warring"?

Did I give any justification or reason?

Did what I wrote not include everything down to "The Nazis did it because they were evil bastards and they just felt like doing it"?

If you prefer another example without any modern sensitivities how about:

Extermination……………The Athenian's choice with the Melians during the Peloponnesian War.

Look it up.

**********************

............... As to your other points,you have omitted two important pieces. "Attacks against Israel will be met with air power, armor and artillery. No more foot patrols in hate-filled Arab streets.' A change to that tactic could have been implemented with Jewish communities in Gaza. It did not for the reasons it will not occur after disengagement -- civilian deaths,and the humanitarian and PR issues they elicit.

You point focuses on the tactical while completely ignoring the larger strategic issue that a small nation with a small population has no hope of ever maintaining a perpetual occupation of a larger hostile population that doubles its size every generation.

Israel has much more justification for responding to attacks from a hostile non-occupied neighbor than for responding to attacks from an occupied population fighting that occupation.

The strategic lesson to take away is that perpetual occupation, like grabbing a tiger by the tail, is a guarantee of future disaster.

**************

.................... "These “Palestinian Arabs” had a lot to be angry about. According to Peretz’s 1954 article, “Today (1954), nearly half the new Jewish immigrants live in homes abandoned by Arabs. They occupy nearly 400 Arab towns and villages. About a quarter of the buildings now in use in Israel formerly were Arab property. The Arabs left over 10,000 shops and stores in Jewish hands. The Israel Custodian of Absentee Property took over more than 4,000,000 dunams of former Arab land, or nearly 60% of the county’s cultivable area. This was nearly two and a half times the total Jweish-owned property at the time the State of Israel was established and includes most of its olive orchards, a large part of its fruit and vegetable crop land and almost half the citrus.”

Jews decimated in Hitler's Europe and Jews kicked out of Arab lands they had lived in for centuries, forced to leave with nothing despite extensive wealth, had "a lot to be angry about" too. Jews lost more than the Palis ever did. Whole families wiped out. Entire cultures destroyed. ....... But they moved on and made new lives. They did not become perpetual refugees, haters and killers. More Jews were expelled from Arab lands than Arabs from Israel.

In that I totally agree with you.

If you read over my post, you will see that I said that I was very sorry for them...............Right up until I go back and consider their dreams of "massacre" and "extermination" on the eve of the 1948 war.

For whatever reason, these people are HOMICIDAL MANIACS.

' Comparing them to the nice Jewish families that picked themselves up and rebuilt their lives after World War II while these people became hate-filled, revenge-craving lunatics only reinforces my point that a perpetual occupation of such people who double in number every generation is not a viable strategic option.

**************

I heard Victor Davis Hanson on John Bachelor show tonight. He made a very similar point about retreat to the one you made. He said that retreat, though sometimes necessary, is always treated as a 'victory' by the other side.

So be it.

Do you want to win your military objective or merely believe you have achieved your military objective?

To bring back the example of Napoleon's Russian Campaign, Napoleon believed he was victorious on his advance to Moscow. Napoleon believed he had won the war when he captured Moscow.

Napoleon treated the entire campaign as a victory right up until it dawned on him that his "victory" was actually a trap that ended up almost totally annihilating one of the greatest armies ever assembled up to that point in history.

695 posted on 08/16/2005 8:59:50 AM PDT by Polybius
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