[inquest]

One thing I'd have to comment on regarding the comparison between Israel's dealings with fanatics and ours: When we funded the Afghan resistance in the 1980's, we didn't fund them directly - we let the ISI choose our allies for us. And as it turned out, they chose the most fanatical, anti-Western of them all (duh). So contrary to all the sneering from the leftist media about how our "irrational" anti-Communist stance was responsible for the current scourge of terrorism against us, it was really our lack of proper oversight in the very rational fight against Communism that really did it. There were plenty of responsible, worthy candidates for our aid in Afghanistan, who were quite willing and able to fight the Commies, but we let Pakistan give them the short shrift.

I don't know exactly how this compares to the situation in Israel, but I think making too quick a comparison can overlook some important facts.

[SJackson]

My recollection is that we didn’t fund them openly and directly because of political opposition at home. By funneling aid through Pakistan, we avoided criticism of funding specific groups, each of which could come in for criticism, as did the Contras who were funded directly. That doesn’t necessarily mean we had to lose oversight, I suspect the Pakis would fund whoever we wanted as long as they got to keep some change.

I think the real problem is that, once the Russians left, we didn’t attempt to exert much political influence in the region. We never targeted Al Quaida.

Hamas was funded as, at the time, a non violent alternative to the PLO, who Israel ended up fighting, along with Syria, in Lebanon. Stupid, I don’t know. I’d love to hear of the truly nonviolent Islamic groups operating in the West Bank at the time which could have been alternatives, I don’t know any. If there was a mistake, it was allowing Hamas to turn away from their humanitarian work (which still goes on) and embracing violence. And I don’t know that that was in Israel’s control.

While I sympathize with philosofy123’s comments on an emotional level, we should also recognize that Israel and America will soon face a replay of these two scenarios.

Like it or not, Sharon and Bush have embraced the eventual creation of a “Palestinian State”, and unless that changes soon, it will become a fact in the next 6 to 12 months.

As in the Hamas and MAK examples, the US and Israel will have to choose a “peaceful” Palestinian leader and or group to work with. I don’t see any, but one will be chosen nonetheless. In ten or twenty years we could well be having the same discussion about Sharon and Bush’s error.