Arafat has said he’s willing to die a martyr:
“Is there anyone in Palestine who does not dream of martyrdom?” Arafat asked. “Is there any Palestinian who could not be martyred by daily Israeli shelling or missiles?”
Willing??? More like anxiously frothing at the mouth. Arafat’s dream is to be killed by Israeli troops, so that he will go down in history as a “martyr” and set off a whole new generation of bloodshed. His worst nightmare is to die of old age, alone in his bed.
There’s a fundamental problem when an entire culture would prefer to die for a cause than to live for it. I’m reminded of a quote from the autobiography Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, where he says that:
The master says it’s a glorious thing to die for the Faith and Dad says it’s a glorious thing to die for Ireland and I wonder if there’s anyone in the world who would like us to live.
Well, the Palestinian leadership wants their people to die for Palestine, and the terrorist groups want them to die for jihad against Israel, and (unfortunately) many Israelis don’t care much if they live or die because they’re sick of terrorism. And of all the international groups, human rights groups, and the like who go on and on about Palestinian rights, they’re defending terror and armed struggle too . . . so who’s left that actually wants them to live?
Like Golda Meir said, many feel that peace will come to the Middle East only when the Arabs want their children to live more than they want ours to die. The problem is, a society needs more than that to live for. They need a love of life, an embracing of progress, and of the notion of a future. When the stakes are brutally high, they’ll fight to defend peace instead of war, just as Israel is doing. Because the stakes are high for Israel. The Israelis didn’t sit for fifty years languashing in refugee camps and blaming others for their woes. No, they built a country, and consequently they built up something to live for.
you make me wanna hurl, segacs. “when the Arabs want their children to live more than they want ours to die.”–you actually believe yourself when you write shit like this?
Sadly, I think many people believe that Israeli’s want peace more than the Palestinians do. Inevitably, the Palestinians call for “justice”, which can be as innocuous as just getting their own state or as ridiculous as a full fledged demographic assault euphamistically called a “right of return”.
I think there is another quote… I forget who said it or exactly how it goes, but I’ll give it a shot:
“If the Arabs put down their guns today, there would be peace tomorrow. If Israel put down its guns today, there would be no more Israel tomorrow”
I think that statement only reflects the current situation… I am actually fairly hopeful that in a generation or so, the urge for peace will be equal on both sides of the mideast battle.
If the Palestinians don’t want their children to die, why do they teach them to die?
Assuming they did teach them Stan…I’d say for the same reason the Israelis teach their children to die.