RavenW
05-17-2004, 11:34 PM
Hello everyone :)
I've been reading this forum for some time (6 month) before I decided to join the discussion. Here is the outline for my project and I would like to hear from you, what do you think? I tried to be as balance and objective as person can be...
This is just outline and some personal thoughts about the conflict, but it would be nice to hear some critics and I would like to know, do you agree with me on the approach how to DEFINE and analyze the conflict/problem.
Also, if you have some questions about specific areas like lets say Chapter 5 section h. I would love to answer it as fully as I understand it myself.
Thus, Ch. 5 Sec. h. would be CHAPTER "History of Zionism" Section h. Jewish pioneers before Zionism (1860). And so on...
You got the idea. Just give me the part that interest you the most and I think we can find un-biased truth to that particular episod. I also interested particularly in your opinion about thoughts in Chapter 20 "ISLAMO-FASCISM" and CHAPTER 19 "So WHO IS RIGHT in the conflict? (Personal thoughts on the conflict/Personal life experience).
And finally, why do I bother with this project in the first place? Because I found the vast majority of such topics to be unorganized and without some principal structure and formal aproach. Plus I was very interesated to learn the truth about facts on the ground and unfortunately found out that there were almost no good (truthful/unbiased) sources on the subject.
I hope to bring some sense of formal discussion to such explosive topic.
Ok, here is the project itself. Thank You. :)
ISRAEL and PALESTINE (The Conflict)
The look of bystander
Outline/plan and chapter content
1. INTRODUCTION.
a. What this conflict is about?
b. Why this conflict is important?
c. Benefits of resolving the conflict for people of the region.
d. Benefits of resolving the conflict for people outside the region.
e. Disadvantages of resolving the conflict for people of the region.
f. Disadvantages of resolving the conflict for people outside the region.
g. Why there is a grim perspective of resolving the conflict in the near future?
2. DEFINITIONS of TERMS and CONCEPT APPROACH.
I. NECESSARY DEFINITIONS (What is _? For our discussion lets define terminology). Write about the IMPORTANCE OF DEFINITION and RIGHT TERMINOLOGY for our study.
a. Happiness.
b. Peace.
c. Absence of Peace.
d. War.
e. Spiral (cycle) of violence/tit-for-tat - why it does not apply for this conflict.
f. Terrorism/Acts of Terror.
g. Guerrilla attacks/Acts of War.
h. Collateral damage.
i. Codes of War.
j. Bias.
k. Independence.
l. Anti-Semitism.
m. Occupation.
n. Liberation.
o. Disputed territory.
p. Sovereign.
q. Democracy.
r. Nationalism.
s. Prejudice.
t. Freedom of Speech.
u. Torture.
v. Beatings/Mistreatment.
w. Equality/Equal treatment/Equal opportunities - difference.
x. Racism.
y. Xenophobia.
z. Tolerance.
aa. Intolerance.
bb. Fundamental moral values/Core human values.
cc. Assumption about human nature.
dd. Assumption about people in general.
ee. Culture.
ff. Civilization.
gg. Racism.
hh. Anti-Semitism.
ii. Progress/progressive.
jj. Natural as in “Typical thing”.
kk. Reaction as in “opposite of progress”.
ll. Nation, People, National identity.
mm. Crime. (Traditional definition).
nn. Crime against Humanity.
oo. War Crime.
pp. Genocide.
qq. Ethnic cleansing.
rr. Pogrom.
ss. Propaganda as a tool/War of information.
tt. Positive aspects of propaganda (examples).
uu. Negative aspects of propaganda (examples).
vv. Brainwashing.
ww. Basic Fundamental Laws of Human beings and Human Rights.
xx. Laws of War/Laws of Peace – difference.
yy. Normal as in Normal person.
zz. Abnormal as in “abnormal person” (e.g. full of hatred by brainwashing and propaganda).
aaa. Ignorant or ignorance.
bbb. Normal society.
ccc. Abnormal society (do they exist? See System of Coordinates).
ddd. Cancer of society.
eee. Savagery and barbarism.
fff. Immoral as immoral person.
ggg. Moral as moral person.
hhh. Problems of defining moral of society.
iii. Judeo-Christian values/culture/traditions.
jjj. American ideology/American values.
kkk. Evil/evilness as in infanticide.
lll. Necessary evil as in “necessary sacrifice such that the goodness’ would prevail” (aside question of possibility of reaching goodness by compromise with evil and the question of necessary evil… how necessary is it?).
mmm. Minimize as in “minimize impact or minimize casualties”.
nnn. Justice/just cause.
ooo. Terrorist/Militant/Guerrilla/Soldier - difference.
ppp. Soldier (army) – definition.
qqq. Armed combatant – definition.
rrr. Unarmed protestor –definition (with examples of real life deadliness of unarmed protestor shielding a terrorists from SWAT sniper). (Negative image of unarmed protestor) Absence of protestors or lack of substantial protest during such events as Holocaust, genocide of Christian minority in Middle East, genocide in Rwanda, human rights abuses in Sudan, Algeria and Niger. Question of absence of voice of protest against genocide carried out by Saddam Hussein regime during his dictatorship.
sss. Unarmed protestor – definition of positive unarmed protestor. (The legality of protest as well as administrative process involving a nonviolent protest, its activity and means to carry it out).
ttt. Legal as in “legal purchase of land”, “legal act of war”.
uuu. Illegal as in “illegal confiscation of land/property”.
vvv. Claim of ownership/question of “belongingness” of land, property, territory to someone
www. Land of Israel
xxx. Palestine/Palestina
yyy. State of Israel
zzz. Palestinian Authority (PA)
II. CONCEPT and APPROACH to problem
a. Choices of System of Coordinates
b. Different perspectives on the conflict arise from different definitions/systems of view at things and stylistic approaches.
c. Two fundamentally different systems of coordinates or systems to view things
(Fixed point of view on moral and cultural values [closed system], flexible point of view on moral and cultural values [open system])
Religious aspects of two systems (typical religions for systems Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Krishna), level of intensity of two systems (extremism and relax variations of both systems, examples), Tolerance to people who live by different systems
III. STYLES OF APPROACH
a. Idealistic/humanistic approach (way to view things/facts)
b. Cynical approach and materialistic approach
c. Real politik approach
IV. WAY TO SOLVE PROBLEMS
a. Use of system (what system I choose) and approach when I look at the heart of the problem
3. HISTORY OF LAND before British Mandate
a. Pre-Historic times (Paleolithic Age).
b. Ancient Times (Neolithic Age/Arrival of Semites from Ur).
c. Kingdom of Israel.
d. Split of Kingdom of Israel into Northern Kingdom of Israel and Southern Kingdom of Judea.
e. Babylonian captivity and Assyrians.
f. Philistines and Phoenicians.
g. Ancient State of Israel.
h. Greek Occupation.
i. Roman Occupation.
j. Life under Roman Occupation.
k. Great Patriotic War (Jewish War against Occupation).
l. Moment of Independence.
m. Destruction of Judea/Birth of Palestine.
n. Another genocide of Jews. Last Jewish apprising in Palestine.
o. Forceful exile of Jews from the land.
p. Roman/Byzantine rule.
q. Persian invasion and control.
r. Arab invasion and control.
s. Medieval Turkish control.
t. Ottoman Empire control of the land.
u. How the British began to control Palestine.
4. HISTORY OF JEWISH PEOPLE.
a. Ancient Hebrew (Semitic) Tribes.
b. Jews become Jews. c. 1000 BC
c. Jews and their religion.
d. Jews and their homeland.
e. Jews and their culture, tradition, history.
f. Jews in the exile.
g. Anti-Semitism (Definition, Types (Political, Economic, Domestic) and Periods: Ancient, Medieval, Industrial, Modern, neo Anti-Semitism).
h. Bias and how is it different from Anti-Semitism.
i. Bias and anti-Semitism combined together.
j. Jews and return.
k. Who are Jews anyway? Religion, secularism and national identity.
l. Accomplishments of Jews in arts, literature, science, philosophy, religion, music, entertainment, medicine, economics, technology.
5. HISTORY OF ZIONISM
a. What is Zionism?
b. Birth of Zionism.
c. Defining moments of Zionism (historical homeland/modern homeland).
d. Zionism and reality (Dreams become True/Palestine and reality).
e. Jewish presence in Palestine (1825).
f. Comparison 1. The State of European people (1850) and their search for independence. (Specific examples – Hungarians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Irish, Italians).
g. Comparison 2. The State of American people (1850) and their search for independence (Specific examples – Americans, Mexicans, Cubans).
h. Jewish pioneers before Zionism. (1850)
i. Jewish pioneers (Allyah) and the spirit of Zionism. (1895).
j. Second and third Allyah. Waves and Patterns of Jewish migration to the land of Israel/Palestine.
k. Professional Zionists.
l. Labor/Socialist Zionism.
m. Revisionism in Zionism.
n. Relationship of Zionism to socialism, communism, bolshevism.
o. Zionism, anti-Zionism and Racism.
p. Anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.
q. Jews, Zionism in process and Palestine.
6. HISTORY OF ARABS
a. Pre-historic Arabs (Semites) and formation of Arab identity.
b. Who are Arabs anyway?
c. Variations of Arab identities (Tribes, Bedouin, Druses)
d. Birth of Arab nationalism.
e. Pan-Arabism.
f. Accomplishments of Arabs in arts, literature, science, philosophy, religion, music, entertainment, medicine, economics, technology.
7. HISTORY OF ISLAM
a. Arabs before Islam.
b. Birth of Islam.
c. So what is Islam? Comparison with Judaism, Christianity.
d. Development of Islam.
e. Islamisation of nations.
f. Medieval Islam.
g. Reaction in Islam (stagnation).
h. Modern World and Islam.
i. Wahabism and fundamentalism in Islam.
8. HISTORY OF PALESTINIANS (Palestinian Arabs)
a. So what do we mean by Palestinians?
b. Jews as Palestinians of the land (1885).
c. Arabs in Palestine/land of Israel.
d. Immigration #1 of Arabs in Palestine/land of Israel (1850).
e. Immigration #2 of Arabs in Palestine/land of Israel (1930).
f. Migration of Arabs in Middle East.
g. Reasons for immigration/Arab migration in Middle East.
h. Palestinians become Palestinians (birth of Palestinian nationalism) de-facto.
i. Development of Palestinian nationalism.
j. Palestinians today.
k. Accomplishments of Palestinians (Arabs) in arts, literature, science, philosophy, religion, music, entertainment, medicine, economics, technology.
9. HISTORY OF CONFLICT between British Mandate and Madrid/Oslo Peace Talks
a. Between British Mandate and creation of the State of Israel.
b. Deep analysis of the question of claim on the land. From the perspective of 1900s person and analysis of British and French claim on the land. British and French presence in the land of Israel/Palestine (Medieval times, Imperialist age).
c. Deep analysis of the question of claim on the land. Modern perspective/ idealistc humanistic perspective. (Comparison of what we know from previous chapters about Jews, Arabs, Palestinian Jews and Palestinian Arabs)
d. British partition of Palestine. Palestine looses its character.
e. Creation of Transjordan and the politics of Imperialist States (Great Britain).
f. British/French Secret Agreements and Imperialism.
g. Division and creation of modern Middle East.
h. The consequences (historical, militarily, political) of such divisions.
i. Balfour Declaration. Promise to Jews.
j. Promise to Arabs.
k. Jewish immigration
l. Rise of Arab nationalism in Palestine.
m. Arab Revolt #1 (1920s)
n. Jewish response/Formation of Self-Defense
o. Arab Revolt #2 (1930s) (against British)
p. Arab Revolt #2 (1930s) (pogroms against Jews)
q. Jewish militancy and response to Arab Revolt #2 by self-defense as well as pogroms of Arabs.
r. Jewish relationship with British (1930s) (friends and foes, specific examples).
s. “Eye for an eye” mentality in Palestine and what is true and what is not true about this notion?
t. Holocaust.
u. Jewish response to Holocaust.
v. Jewish resistance during Holocaust.
w. Jewish resistance during WWII in Europe.
x. Jewish Revolt. (1940s) (Against British).
y. Jewish support of the British in 1940s.
z. Arab support of the British in 1940s.
aa. Arab support of Nazi Germany in 1940s.
bb. Middle East in WWII (Big Picture).
cc. Palestinian Arabs and the genocide of Jews in Europe.
dd. Survivors of Holocaust and the destiny of Jews/DP (Displaced Persons)
ee. Sad facts of history/Palestine and crimes against humanity (Jewish and Arab crimes/Jewish and Arab terrorism/Jewish and Arab Guerrilla warfare – specific examples, similarities and differences of each act).
ff. Europe after war. State of Europe at the end of War.
gg. European Crimes against Jews after Holocaust and liberation of Europe from Nazis (facts, specific examples).
hh. Treatment of Jews in Middle East after the war by governments and local authorities.
ii. Treatment of Palestinian Arabs in Middle East after the war by government and local authorities.
jj. Treatment of Jews by British authorities in Middle East after the World War II.
kk. Treatment of Palestinian Arabs by British authorities in Middle East after the World War II.
ll. Big picture of Middle East after World War II.
mm. Palestine after the World War II.
nn. UN and partition of Palestine.
oo. Jewish Reaction to partition
pp. Arab reaction to partition
qq. Palestinian Arab reaction to partition/Palestinian Arabs influence on the conflict
rr. War for Independence (Creation of Jewish State).
ss. Important issues of the conflict during creation of State of Israel.
tt. Changing image of the conflict at the War for Independence.
uu. First years after the War for Independence.
vv. Refugees, Refugees, Refugees (Jewish/Arab).
ww. Relationship between Israel and the World/International community.
xx. State of Conflict between Israel and her enemies before 1956.
I. Stance of Arab governments.
II. Stance of Palestinian Arab population.
III. Stance of Israeli government.
IV. Stance of Israeli population.
V. Arab attacks and Israeli response.
yy. Israeli covert operations and Palestinian militant operations (examples).
zz. Analysis of Israeli Operations in terms of nature and style (terrorism/sabotage/militancy/guerrilla/spy/black op – differences and similarities). Choice of terminology.
aaa. Why is Terminology so important?
bbb. General consequences of Arab/Israeli operations.
ccc. Level of Government participation in such operations.
ddd. Level of local population participation in Arab/Israeli operations.
eee. Question of sponsorship of such operations/State sponsorship of terrorism in Middle East/Europe/USSR/USA and Government view of such operations/government response in Israel and Arab countries.
fff. SINAI CAMPAIGN.
I. Pre-conditions.
II. Last days before the War.
III. Start of the War.
IV. Victories and Defeats.
V. Direct Results.
VI. Indirect results (region/super-powers).
ggg. Situation at the beginning of 1960s.
hhh. SIX-DAY WAR.
I. Pre-conditions.
II. Last days before the War.
III. Start of the War.
IV. War on all fronts.
V. Victories and Defeats.
VI. Direct Results.
VII. Indirect results (region/super-powers).
iii. Issues created by Six-Day War.
jjj. War of Attrition.
kkk. Palestinian/Arab militancy in Israel and abroad.
lll. Jewish militancy in Israel and abroad.
mmm. YOM KIPPUR WAR.
I. Pre-conditions.
II. Last days before the War.
III. Start of War.
IV. War on all fronts.
V. Victories and Defeats.
VI. Direct Results.
VII. Indirect results (region/super-power).
nnn. Greater Israel/Israel expansionism.
ooo. Jews return to their homes and cities in the West Bank.
ppp. Jewish pioneers/settlers in the West Bank.
qqq. Jewish pioneers/settlers in Gaza.
rrr. Jewish pioneers/settlers in Sinai.
sss. Importance of West Bank and Sinai from militarily point of view.
ttt. Important differences of West Bank and Sinai from religious/spiritual perspective point of view.
uuu. Importance of Jewish return to the West Bank from humanistic/secular point of view.
vvv. Question of right of return of Palestinian Arabs in the State of Israel.
www. Question of right of return of Palestinian Arabs in the land of Israel (West Bank).
xxx. Situation in territories/living conditions (improvement and difficulties)/mood on Palestinian streets.
yyy. Evolution of Palestinian Terrorism in 1970s/Soviet hand.
zzz. Israel makes “peace” with some of its neighbors.
aaaa. Consequences of “peace” accords with Egypt,
bbbb. Israel and Syria.
cccc. Syrian occupation of Lebanon.
dddd. Israel and Lebanon.
eeee. Reasons for Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon.
ffff. Operation PEACE FOR GALILEE.
I. Pre-conditions.
II. Last days before the War.
III. Start of the War.
IV. Victories and Defeats.
V. Direct Results.
VI. Indirect results (region/super-powers).
gggg. Palestinian crimes against humanity. Lebanese Christian Arabs are massacred by Palestinians.
hhhh. Lebanese Christian Arabs crimes against humanity. Palestinians are massacred by Lebanese Christian Arabs.
iiii. The role of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Middle East.
jjjj. The role of Israelis in Lebanon’s occupation and massacres that happened in the territory under their military control.
kkkk. The role of PLO in Lebanon’s occupation and massacres that happened in the territory under their military control.
llll. The role of Syria in Lebanon’s occupation and massacres that happened in the territory under their military control.
mmmm. Palestinians in Lebanon. (General overview)
nnnn. Palestinian traditional street crimes/unlawfulness.
oooo. Lebanese government in relationship to Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon.
pppp. Lebanese population in relationship to Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon.
qqqq. “Peace” movement in Israel.
rrrr. Peace movement/anti-war movement/pure demagogues – difference.
ssss. Palestinian “Peace” movement in territories.
tttt. First Palestinian Intifada.
I. Pre-conditions.
II. Last days before the Intifada.
III. Start of Intifada #1 (1980s-90s).
IV. Victories and Defeats.
V. Direct Results.
VI. Indirect results (region/super-power).
10. ISRAEL’S AND PALESTINIAN INTERNATIONAL IMAGE DURING FIRST INTIFADA
a. Israel’s image in 70s.
b. Israel’s image in 80s.
c. Israel’s image because of Palestinian Intifada #1.
d. Palestinian image in 70s.
e. Palestinian image in 80s.
f. Palestinian image because of Palestinian Intifada #1.
g. Comparison and trend. Image and Reality.
11. MORE CLOSE AND DETAILED ANALYSIS OF FIRST INTIFADA.
a. Intifada #1 as a weapon
b. Intifada #1 as a tool and an instrument.
c. Intifada #1 as resistance.
d. Intifada #1 as violence and criminal/terrorist activity.
e. New forces emerge from the First Intifada.
f. Formation of HAMAS as serious threat to Arafat and PLO.
g. HAMAS as a threat to Israel and initial Israeli reaction to HAMAS.
h. Differences in Palestinian militancy (types/styles/goals of terrorisms).
12. MODERN ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT and ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT.
a. Situation in Israel and ‘territories’ de-facto.
b. What kind of peace different sides wanted? Israeli and Palestinian view on peace/International view.
c. Madrid and Oslo accords.
d. Reasons and hopes of people (Israelis/Palestinian) after signing “peace” accords.
e. Reasons and hopes of governments and leaders after signing “peace” accords.
f. Jewish state and right wing extremists.
g. Jewish state and left-wing extremists.
h. Arafat arrives to territories.
i. “Normalization” of relationship with Jordan.
j. Terrorist wave after the signing of accords. (1996s)
k. Israeli response to terrorism wave (1996s).
l. Israel and its Northern border.
m. State of Israeli and Syrian relationship in 1990s.
n. Israel’s withdrawal from South Lebanon.
o. Consequences of Israel withdrawal. (Positive/negative) Lessons learned by all sides.
p. Israeli public opinion of withdrawal from Lebanon.
q. Lebanese public opinion of withdrawal from Lebanon.
r. Palestinian Arabs public opinion of withdrawal from Lebanon.
s. Terrorism at the end of 20th century and breakdown of ‘peace’ talks.
13. BIAS, MEDIA and PROPAGANDA DURING 1990-2000
a. In Middle East.
b. Outside Middle East/International.
14. SECOND PALESTINIAN INTIFADA (Intifada Al-Aqsa)/OSLO WAR.
a. Camp David 2.
b. Stalemate.
c. Situation in Middle East (pre-conditions).
d. Beginning of Second Intifada.
e. Deep Analysis of the causes and reasons for the start of Second Palestinian Intifada “Al-Aqsa”/Serious analysis of the beginning of hostilities of Oslo War.
f. First month of Second Intifada.
g. Hard years of Second Intifada.
h. Operation Defensive Shield.
i. Reasons for Operation Defensive Shield.
j. Results of Operation Defensive Shield.
k. International/World response to the Operation Defensive Shield.
l. Analysis of International/World opinion of the Operation Defensive Shield.
m. IDF in territories in general.
n. IDF in territories in particular (positive examples).
o. IDF in territories in particular (negative examples).
p. Evaluation of actions of IDF. Conclusions.
q. Palestinian Authority forces in territories in general.
r. Palestinian Authority forces in territories in particular (examples).
s. Palestinian terrorists/militants in territories in general.
t. Palestinian terrorists/militants in territories in particular (examples).
u. Local population response to Second Intifada. (Jewish Israeli, Arab Israeli and Palestinian Arabs actions – specific examples).
v. Outside influence on conflicts (Egypt, Syria, Iran, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States, North Korea, China, India, EU, USA, Russia, UN)
o. Lives under Intifada.
I. Lives of Jews in territories.
II. Lives of Palestinians in territories.
III. Lives of Israeli citizens in general.
IV. Lives of Israeli Jews.
V. Lives of Israeli Arabs.
VI. Lives of Christian minority.
w. Intifada and Media War.
x. Bias, Bias and brainwashing propaganda of Oslo War.
15. CLOSE AND DETAILED ANALYSIS OF SECOND INTIFADA.
a. Its consequences.
b. Intifada #2 – Lessons for Israelis.
c. Intifada #2 – Lessons for Palestinians.
d. Conclusions derived from second Intifada.
16. Current State of Affairs.
a. What happens now?
b. Why does it happen? (Causes and leads [Local/International] to current situation)
c. Current Issues. New Issues.
d. Old Wounds. (Old unresolved Issues)
17. World and International community in relationship to MODERN conflict.
a. World Views as a whole.
b. European stance on the conflict.
I. Different views
II. Views by groups, countries, classes.
III. Dominating View.
c. American stance on the conflict.
I. Different views
II. Views by groups, classes.
III. Dominating View.
d. Russian stance on the conflict.
I. Different views
II. Views by groups, classes.
III. Dominating View.
e. Arab nations stance on the conflict.
I. Different views
II. Views by groups, classes.
III. Dominating View.
f. Muslim stance on the conflict.
I. Different views
II. Views by groups, classes.
III. Dominating View.
g. India stance on the conflict.
I. Different views
II. Views by groups, classes.
III. Dominating View.
h. African stance on the conflict.
I. Different views
II. Views by groups, classes.
III. Dominating View.
i. Asian stance on the conflict.
I. Different views
II. Views by groups, classes.
III. Dominating View.
j. Latin America stance on the conflict.
I. Different views
II. Views by groups, classes.
III. Dominating View.
k. Australia/Canada stance on the conflict.
I. Different views
II. Views by groups, classes.
III. Dominating View.
18. LOOK AT THE FUTURE
a. The look at the future of Israelis as a nation.
b. The look at the future of Israeli Jews.
c. The look at the future of Israeli Arabs.
d. The look at the future of Israeli Minorities (Christians).
e. The look at the future of Palestinian Arabs as a whole.
f. The look at the future of Palestinian Arab refugees in Diaspora.
g. The look at the future of Israeli Jewish refugees from Arab countries and Jews Diaspora.
h. The look at the future of Jews in territories (West Bank/Gaza).
i. The look at the future of Muslim Arabs (Palestinians) in territories (West Bank/Gaza).
j. The look at the future of Christian Arabs (Palestinians) in territories (West Bank/Gaza).
k. The look at the future of Jews and Jewish Diaspora.
19. (This might be interesting) So WHO IS RIGHT in the conflict? (Personal thoughts on the conflict/Personal life experience).
a. In my Humble Opinion (IMHO)/Who am I to judge? The look of bystander.
b. Why one side is more right than the other?…. or Well, why NOT one side could be more right than the other? J Why NOT? Question of possibility of one side be more right than the other (Historical examples).
c. Some Logic for Dummies. Careful assumptions. Questions of noise. Eliminating unnecessary data/use of data. Physics is the science of simplifying stuff in order to predict ones behavior/noise reduction.
d. Lets define what is a ‘good’ side and what is a ‘bad’ (‘less good’) side in ANY conflict. Why there are two sides and how are they different? Can both sides be ‘good’ or ‘bad’ at the same time? How do we grade the ‘goodness’ or ‘badness’ of the side?
e. How IMHO I view the conflict? Why do I think one side is more right than the other?
f. “Enemy of my friend is my enemy”.
g. Who supports whom? Difference between democratic society and totalitarian regimes. While in democratic society there is a whole spectrum of ideas and variety of opinions (so much that it is actually hard to recognize the ‘good’ side, people listen to different sources and get confused), in totalitarian society there is only one official view of solidarity and support. Guess which side is supported by totalitarian regimes. Israeli or Palestinian side? Think why it can be easier for a person under brutal dictatorship and totalitarian regime to recognize the side of goodness. “Friend of my enemy is my enemy as well…”
h. Moral character of people on both sides of the conflict/different sides of solidarity/blame game.
i. Careful! Simplification leads to mistakes. But simple logic is: “I don’t know X (side), but I know Y (side). If Y against X AND Y=good, then X=evil” (assuming of course that ‘good’ side and ‘evil’ side are always in geometrical opposition to each other) It’s primitive, but it’ll help you through the day of confusion.
j. What I know about “Y” side - Israel. Personal experience. Why I consider Israel “good” side?
k. Why I consider X (opposite) side evil?
l. Mathematical formulas and why they do NOT work in real life conflicts. Also question of inner instinct.
m. Question of oversimplification. Is my proof too simple?
n. Responsibility of making personal choice between the sides lies with the reader. Knowledge of fundamentals of the conflict is important to make a decision. Lets talk about why someone must make a decision and choose a side? Why can’t a person be neutral and abstain from getting involve in the conflict? Question of neutrality.
o. What is wrong with neutrality? Why is it dangerous?
p. Can the person be unbiased, balanced and objective in own views and still support only one of the sides?
q. Most frequently asked question: WHO IS RIGHT?
r. Not simple question leads to not simple answer. Question should have been rephrased.
s. More accurately: Who is MORE RIGHT than WRONG? Or who is LESS WRONG than other?
t. Why is it important to support side of ‘MORE RIGHT/LESS WRONG”? Why can’t people support both sides? Multilateral answer. On surface, the question of balance and fairness? Why is it wrong to place an equal sign in this messy equation of Middle East? Back to the question of morality, human values and the spirit of civilization. Deep question of human moral values and beliefs. “Not with bare hands!” (Answer to Hitler, Goebbls, Mussolini, Lenin, Stalin, Saddam, Arafat, bin Laden) Leitmotiv and tools of abusers of humanity. The question of tools they using and to what strings of soul they appeal. Appeal to the basic animal instincts, usage of old anti-Semitic rhetoric (examples). Opposite to appeal to the high moral values and humanity. Why is this appeal so unpopular in modern world? Why is appeal to humanity heard less often than appeal to pogrom and destruction (examples, genocides in Rwanda, Cambodia, Sudan and call to the physical destruction and removal of thousand of homes on innocent civilians like Jews many of whom are elderly survivors of the Holocaust)? Question of cynism and moral system of core human values in the world. The state of moral values? The presence or absence of change? Change and stability in multidimensional world of human values. Different planes show different state of human moral – from stable to dramatic change.
u. Why you, personally, should support the State of Israel and her People?
20. ISLAMO-FASCISM as the plague/disease/virus/cancer of 21st century.
a. So what is Islamo-fascism?
b. Why Islamo? Why fascism? Evil’s stake on religion, Previous evil’s stake was on race/ethnicity/nationality.
c. Origins and roots. (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, racist Iran, Nationalism and Religious Extremism of Middle East)
d. Early years and encouragement of spread and growth by the World International community.
e. The ‘disease’ moves from incubation period to the open (extreme) form/1980s.
f. Attacks on Jews as ‘lacmuse‘/orange paper for test of chemical presence of extremism in society. (Jews as vulnerable and at the same time powerful minority).
g. The case for minority. Why Jews? Why now? Why always?
h. Israel as a Jew among the nations. Can attack on Israel be viewed as an attack on the fundamental principles of our civilization? In order to understand Islamo-fascists look for the goals. What is the goal of Islamo-fascism?
i. Today’s jihadists as Medieval Crusaders? West and East – flip-flopping of civilizations. Interesting similarities. Question of what is more closely resembles what? (Medieval Islam, modern Western Civilization, Medieval Europe, Modern Middle East) Question of why oh why do we always try to make a comparison with something ‘totally’ different? Answer to cynics who enjoy this type of questions. As in crime, history tends to repeat itself. Something like that or of similar nature was already probably happened before. It is easier to recognize a new disease by the old traits even if disease went through evolution. People are always the same and human psychology as well as human nature rarely changes. Question of human evolution. Question of time of brutal mega-murders and closeness of that brutal period to today’s world. Yesterday’s brutality is 0 meters from us, today.
j. Why did we win World War II? Why we might loose World War III? Question of allies. The need for leaders of World War II and their absence. Remarkable similarities of French position in both conflicts. Why “War against Islamo-fascism” not “War against Terror”? Question of what is terrorism- terrorism as a tool of Islamo-fascism. Terrorism as a loyal servant of evil Islamo-fascist ideology. Terrorism as a tactic, makes ‘War on Terror’ useless because the war against tactic cannot be won until there would be clear definition of who is the enemy. Terror is mere tactic. The war against terror (tactics) cannot be won before the war against Islamo-Fascism (Strategy and Ideology). Different fronts on the war on terror in reality are different fronts in the War against Islamo-fascism. (Examples, Chechnya, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kashmir, Pakistan, Turkey, Libya, Algeria, Tunis, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Israel… they are all fronts of that war).
k. Can we even possibly loose the War against Islamo-fascism? Yes. So what would happen after defeat?
l. Another question – can we ultimately defeat the evil of this world? Can we ultimately win the War? Is there such thing as total victory? Reappearance and comeback/rebirth of dark phoenix of evil and why this war is “so” eternal? War for thousand years? Dark Ages and genocides as the victories of ‘Evil’ side and V-Day (1945) and the crush and fall of Nazism and Communism as the victories for ‘good’ side. Point of view, an opinion if you will – constant struggle between good and evil in the world.
m. Many faces of Evilness and the tools it’s using. Mimicry and the camouflage of the Evil since the end of World War II. Evolution of the Evil. Its use of new tactics in order to survive in modern world. Old tricks and new style. Question of society anti-bodies against the virus of Evil. Use of terminology and again the importance of understanding why this ‘War of Words’ is so important and why does the ‘Evil’ side so often twist it?
n. So what is Evil? Is it a group? NO. Is it a race? NO. Is it a religion or religious group? NO. Is it a nationality? NO. It is invisible, deadly and uncatchable as lead fumes. Is it possible to detect? Yes, if we look very carefully. Traits of Evil: intolerance, xenophobia, extremism, fundamentalism. Important difference between fundamentalism and believe in fundamental human and moral values. The importance of tolerance and allocation of space for mistakes and imperfection make the belief in fundamental moral values NOT harmful, comparing to zealous rage of intolerance of fundamentalists. Fundamentalism and fundamental values – what’s the difference? Difference between fundamentalism and fundamental human values. (Clarify position) Draw a border between conservative tradition and right-wing intolerance and extremism.
o. Why to have all this talk about ultimate ‘Evil’ and the question of its existence. Back to the question of the system of moral coordinates. Look at system of human values and its spectrum. Extremes (opposite ends) of the spectrum. Question of ‘Pure’ (unearthly/unnatural) Goodness and ‘Pure’ (unearthly/unnatural) Evilness. Where people and humanity lies? Somewhere in between? The question of grayscale as opposite to the black/white scale. Imperfection of this world and its inhabitants. The ability of grayscale to allow different variations or mixtures of good and evil in real world. Absence of perfection and the presence of imperfection on the scale. Why do I think American and Israeli civilizations are the same and why do I think that they are better than Palestinian/Arab ones. Question of moral high ground and the importance of understanding the difference between moral high ground ‘superiority’. Dangerous term of ‘superiority’. Understanding the term and what it is implies as a generalization about the society as group of people united by common national/cultural/traditional/political/religious identity. Question of “moral” superiority: in character of an individual, in group of people, in society and country as a whole. Stressing out the importance of existing imperfection as in Israel/America system as in Palestinian/Arab society. Importance of recognizing that both sides have tremendous and terrible imperfections and many wrongs and wrongdoings, but one side is ultimately MORE wrong than the other. NOT on biological level, NOT on physical or genetic level, but on the behavioral level acquired by living, been nurtured, grown up and formed in the society of criminals and society of sane (“normal”) individuals. Example, suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism against innocent civilians (non-combatants). Example, opinion on the terrorist activity in the time of crisis for Jewish and Palestinian society. How did Jews viewed terrorism in the times of personal despair? How does Palestinian society view it now? Comparison of false excuses and justification about the lifestyle to the lifestyle of people who live in other Arab countries (worse conditions than Palestinians), in African and Latin American countries as well as in Europe. Also compare the desperation of Palestinian Arab population to the desperation of the Jews in the ghettos of WWII and their responses to those living conditions. How many Jews attacked innocent German children with knives yelling ‘G-d is Great!’ during the time of personal crisis for the Jewish nation and the years of active extermination of Jews by German, Hungarian and Polish murderers. Recognizing the falsehood of justification for the terrorist/bandit/criminal society that uses poverty and bad livelihood as an excuse for its crimes. Recognizing that the real reason behind terrorism is active and vicious spiral of xenophobia in Palestinian society – its worst form of hatred rather than fear toward the people of other religion and nationality – Jews.
p. Fundamental question of the choice of the system of morals by which person/groups of people live demand different views of the same events/conflict. Depending on the system through which we wish to look at the conflict, we might see different picture.
q. Recognizing that this is a war of Ideologies as well as the war of civilizations, where Jews and Palestinian Arabs are unfortunately on the different end of opposite spears (larger than they are themselves). The Land of Israel or Palestine is just a place where those civilizations collide. Because the ideologies so different from each other they cannot possible co-exist in the same area of influence.
r. Examples of previous stand off between different ideologies/moral systems: communism vs. capitalism (Cold War), totalitarian vs. democracy, Nazism vs. Humanism (World War II).
s. Collide of civilization and the question of previous history of co-existence. Periods of polarization/conflict and confrontation.
t. Recognizing the difference of American-Israeli and Islamo-fascists ideologies. The difference is in its values.
u. Question of destiny for our today’s modern Western civilization. Does civilization goes in spiral cycles upward toward enlightment or does it moves in the wave form with its own ups and downs. Question of Dark Ages. Possibility of new Dark Ages after this period of englightment. Duality of History’s nature. As in quantum mechanics, light can have both wave and impulse (particles) form, so perhaps History might have. Sinusoidal waves and spiral twists upward.
21. ROLE OF WORLD SUPER-POWERS AND THE FUTURE OF OUR PLANET.
a. Importance of super-powers in Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
b. Importance of super-powers in the War against Islamo-fascism.
c. Responsibilities that super-powers have for today’s World and Peace.
d. Kipling’s “Burden of White Man” or the delicate question of responsibilities that our Western Civilization has for future of our planet.
e. Kipling’s “Burden of a White Man” as actually a “Burden of Civilized Person”. Question of RACISM. The problem not in color of skin, but in the mind of a person and his/her character. Recognition of Kipling’s mistake and forming of correct postulate.
22. BEFORE FINDING A SOLUTION.
a. Before finding Solution lets find (define) the Problem.
b. Now, since we found the Problem. Lets make step-by-step points to solve the problem. What parts can be solvable and what won’t be accepted.
c. Red lines of the conflict: Refugees (Jewish/Palestinian Arabs), independent and sovereign states (Israel/Palestine), status of Holy city (Jerusalem’s future), the national identity of Israel (its ethnic face and its Jewish roots), demilitarization of Palestinian Arabs, security for Israel, peace and recognition by its neighbors as well as the rest of Arab and Muslim world.
d. Conclusions. It’s possible to solve the conflict only by defining important moments (outcome of all of this) prior to the negotiations of the way to implement it. We have to define our end goals.
e. Terrorism goes first. There is NO progress with terrorism on Israeli and Palestinian streets.
f. Violence and incitement must be stopped, through the controlled violence (war/military operations of IDF/Arab authorities making actions and real steps forward).
g. Defining the fundamental difference between terrorism and the violence of armed forces. In other words, there is NO tit-for-tat or cycle or spiral of violence. Defining “War against Islamo-fascism” and solving a solution with 2 PARTNERS. (Differences)
h. There is problem with terrorism and violent response of democratic state against it.
i. Recognizing the asymmetry of the conflict from all possible viewpoints… that both sides are NOT equal and never were equal between each other, there was always some asymmetry in the conflict: political, economical, legal, world sympathies, neighbors’ relations etc.
23. LAST IN-DEPTH LOOK AT TERRORISM AND ABUSES.
a. Terrorism. What is terrorism? Last thoughts on definitions.
b. Causes of Terrorism – fake explanations and the real ones.
c. Terrorism as means (tactics) of delivering and accomplishing goals (strategy) – Xenophobia, Racism, Intolerance, Hatred.
d. Acts of terrorism and why they can be called as such.
e. Acts of terrorism in the process – the mechanic of ticking bombs.
f. The result of terrorism on the ground (immediate direct results).
g. Long-term results of terrorism as the strategic goals of terrorism and terrorists.
h. Why someone’s freedom fighter is NOT someone else terrorists. Also, why terrorists is NOT someone’s freedom fighter.
i. Terror act as carefully prepared and calculated attacks – NOT a spontaneous acts of desperation.
j. Why terrorism as racism or genocide never should be excused?
k. Why we should not negotiate with terrorism?
l. How can we fight terrorism?
m. ABUSES. Army abuses and abuses by militants as well as civilian participation.
n. The response to the accusation and the means to answer those accusations.
o. Geneva Convention. Introduction (A Little bit of History).
p. Why is Geneva Convention is no longer useful to the humanity in the form it is written?
q. What the world should do with Geneva Convention? (Name specific options)
r. Why is disbanding Geneva Convention is wrong and harmful for our civilization?
s. If cancellation of Geneva Convention is NOT an option that what is it?
t. The modernization of Geneva Convention and restructure of its nature.
u. The importance of changes and their impact on the legal level.
v. Would Amendments weaken the Convention or would they actually strengthen it?
w. Case for the change of Geneva Convention and addition/re-writing some of the articles to accommodate asymmetrical warfare with terror/non-conventional forces.
x. What should be the response of the army in case of abuses?
y. What should be the response of the public in case of abuses?
z. Why do abuses make a threat to our society as we know it? (Question of moral equivalency with terrorism, why it does not apply and question of moral high ground. [Closed system of perception of human nature and human values]).
aa. Last thoughts about terrorism and army crimes and abuses.
24. HOW COULD WE SOLVE THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT (In the presence of partner for peace as well as in the absence of such)?
a. No easy answer. Honestly, don’t know and, please, don’t trust anyone who says he/she knows the ‘real deal’ solution.
b. Lets define possibilities and necessary ingredients as well as pre-conditions.
c. Peace requires both sides (forcefully or not) to recognize each other.
d. Peace requires a long time and serious effort.
e. Peace requires partners and partnership.
f. Peace requires compromise and tolerance.
g. Make emphasize on painful compromises as a stimulus and the only way to move forward.
h. Peace requires love and respect for fellow human beings from BOTH sides.
i. Peace requires different mentality than currently exist in the Middle East.
j. When we talk about PEACE we talk about change in Middle East mentality – the mentality of a whole region.
k. So what could world do about the conflict?
l. Lets give a place for a fantasy and try to analyze rare and unrealistic scenarios of actual true peace in the Middle East.
m. Idealistic view. What would be the idealistic view of solving the problem? (If the OTHER side did not exist… what if)
n. Cynical and materialistic view.
o. Real politik view/Reality.
p. It is unrealistically to find the solution in near future because of apparent indifference of the world to the suffering of others and unwillingness of the world to sacrifice personal comfort and happiness for the sake of other fellow human beings.
q. The last five decades proved that World as a whole (Arab nations particularly) has a lot of words, but does NOT really care about Land of Israel/Palestine and its inhabitants.
r. The money, time and effort that the World spends every year in order to destroy the State of Israel could turn the West Bank and Gaza into exotic paradise as well as transform and improve the whole region. But lets not mention what would happen with weapons sales, narco-bussiness and warlords status if peace would prevail.
s. There is again question of real willingness for peace. Does it exist on both sides?
t. How long do we have to wait for the generation of genuine peacemakers?
u. My own two different roadmaps – two different solutions (based on 2003-4 situation).
I. PLAN A: Semi-Realistic (in terms of actual implementation by super-powers), quick, just and not so effort consuming (5-10 years), but NOT fundamentally right and only partly successful.
Three State Solution: Israel (Jews), Jordan (Palestinian Arabs), Palestina-Judea Federation (Mixed areas of Jewish and Arab inhabitance under the strict control of American/Israeli and UN/French troops). Different Laws and Customs for different Areas of Living. Jewish Laws for the Jewish areas and Palestinian Arab Laws for Palestinian Areas.
II. PLAN B: Very unrealistic (in terms of actual implementation by super-powers), long (20-30 years) and very scary (ARMAGEDON) and heavy burden on the world, but really Just and Morally right solution.
Total World War on Islamo-fascism with subsequent de-Palestinization of Palestinian Arabs (as in de-Nazification of Germans), de-fundamentalization and de-militancy of Saudi Arabia and Arab Peninsula (as in the end of militancy and imperialism of Empire of Japan), complete surrender and capitulation of Muslim (Islamo-fascist) countries in such a war, surrender/liberation of Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Gulf States from Islamo-fascism, liberation of Europe (France in particular) from Islamo-fascist occupation and hegemony, liberation of Asian states by China (Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines would become liberated).
Why China and the deal with the devil. Question of Allies and back to the role of world powers and their leaders.
Complete change and reform in Muslim society, Arab laws, and customs. Tolerance toward women and people of other race/religion. Tolerance to fashion and music of other cultures. Tolerance to people of other opinions. The restoration of right of Jews and Christian to practice their religion in Arab countries and areas currently occupied by Islamo-fascist regimes.
Total war in Media and Information. Complete prohibition of Islamo-fascist literature as well as Islamo-fascist propaganda and symbols. De-islamo-nazification of countries and return to the True NON-Perversicve Islam – the religion of tolerance and peace.
Super Powers (Great Britain, USA, Russia, China, India) devide the world between themselves on the rights of winners. France finally free from Muslim (Islamo-fascist) occupation and can control its own destiny regardless of Muslim dictate. France joining the victorious Allies in defeat of Islamo-fascism. The importance of Europe’s liberation and their cooperation with Britain, Russia and American forces.
Jews who were hidden by their friends-neighbors in Riyadh finally see the light of Day. The diary of the Jewish girl who lived in Damascus under Islamo-fascist occupation gets published. Also there is an establishment of the Museum of Tolerance (Ramallah, West Bank) and gallery of Jewish refugees of Arab-Israeli wars and victims of genocidal terror that Palestinians carried out against civilian population of Israel. Thus the new young generation of Palestinian Arabs would learn first hands about the crimes of their grandparents.
This war would take millions of innocent lives, but it would be worse fight for. The world would fight for the just cause. Finally, there would be a victory of Allies (Great Britain, Russia, Americans, Jews, Chinese and India) in World War III against Muslim tyranny and totalitarian regimes of intolerance. The Rise of British, American, Russian and Israeli flags over ruined Grand Mosque pf Mecca (Reichstag) at the heart of Islamo-fascist hordes.
In short - ARMAGEDON with HAPPY ending.
Of course, this is very scary, frightening, terrible and unrealistic portrayal of the situation that would happen as a result of World War III.
Lets hope that the world would not need another great war of liberation.
Both plans would NEVER be adapted by World Community and would require personal leadership and great courage as well as vision for American and British Allies. There is a serious skepticism about implementation of this plan - see the reasons in above chapters.
25. CONCLUSION
a. Final words about the conflict itself.
b. Why the forces of Goodness would prevail sooner or later and the question of human nature.
c. Personal appeal to support the State of Israel and her People.
I hope that we can base our discussion of the conflict on the outline that I provided, thus leaving NO space for bias and propaganda.
Naturally, I hope to have a dialoge with my fellow forum readers, not a flame war.
2. DEFINITIONS of TERMS and CONCEPT APPROACH.
I. NECESSARY DEFINITIONS (What is _? For our
discussion lets define terminology). Write about the
IMPORTANCE OF DEFINITION and RIGHT TERMINOLOGY for our
study.
a. Happiness.
Happiness is very philosophical and personal issue.
For our discussion, I decided to give primitive
definition of what can be considered happiness if
there would be a need to use such word in our
discussion.
Definition (for our discussion):
Happiness – a state of human being, when such being
feels security, comfort and satisfaction in his/her
own life.
Happiness (alternative definition) – absence of
tragedy/absence of unhappiness.
b. Peace.
Definition (for our discussion):
Peace – state of human society when society and
people in it as a whole can live in happiness without
a fear of war.
For our discussion, I assume that the ultimate
goal of resolving the conflict is to achieve peace and
happiness for people who live in the region.
c. Absence of Peace.
Definition (for our discussion):
Absence of Peace does not necessary mean war; it
is just actual absence of such condition (as peace) in
the fabric of society. Traditionally, for our
discussion, we would consider “absence of peace” as
presence of violence/insecurity in people’s lives.
d. War.
Definition (for our discussion):
Extreme case of “Absence of Peace” or special
state of relationship between groups of nations or
groups of people, when sides resolve conflict through
the extreme violent confrontation without presence of
police force between sides that could control the
level of violence.
Generally, when we talk about wars we talk about
HIC (High Intensity Conflicts) and extreme violence.
War is the state of society that rules by laws that
are different from the one present in peacetime.
War can be called armed conflict between
countries or groups that involves killings and
destruction.
e. Spiral (cycle) of violence/tit-for-tat - why it
does not apply for this conflict.
Definition (for our discussion):
Spiral (cycle of violence)/tit-for-tat -
repeated circle of violence in which attacks do not
serve any other purpose than mere revenge for the
previous action of a cycle. Thus, making those acts
useless for both sides of the conflict.
Note: Spiral of violence is fundamentally
different from the acts of controlled violence
performed by armed forces or police in order to
prevent the future possible attacks as well as to stop
them all together.
Controlled violence performed by armies during
the times of war as well as actions of police force
and acts of self-defense do NOT necessary stop all the
perpetrators of attack immediately, but it still does
not allow anyone to put an equal sign between the
actions of firefighters (army) and gang-formations
(fire).
The actions of those two groups are completely
different in nature as well as in style and methods.
There is fundamental difference between their goals.
f. Terrorism/Acts of Terror.
Definition (for our discussion):
Terrorism is a deliberate (intentional) act of
violence where civilian non-combatants are the main
targets of attack.
Note: Terrorism is a peacetime equivalent of “war
crime”.
War crime can be a deliberate (intentional) act of
violence where civilian non-combatants are the main
targets of attack during the times of war.
Specific examples of terrorism:
A bomb that is placed in civilian market with intent
to harm/murder innocent bystanders (civilians) who
belong to some particular religious/ethnic group or
been chosen by terrorist(s) indiscriminately from
random visitors of this market is terrorism.
The same bomb placed five blocks from this market at
the entrance to the military base and whose explosion
resulted in the murder of innocent passer-by would be
an act of guerrilla warfare with poorly plan of attack
that produced mass collateral damage.
Nuances/Important differences of “terrorism” from
other terms:
Example #1: A bomb that is placed on the road with
intent to harm/murder soldiers of enemy force cannot
be counted as terrorist attack because it is a
guerilla type of attack even if civilian
non-combatants died as a result of pre-mature
explosion.
The perpetrators of an attack did not target civilian
non-combatants on purpose thus their deaths resulted
as unintentional collateral damage.
Example #2: Nuclear strike/precision strike on a
military installation that resulted in the death of
civilian non-combatants that were in direct proximity
of the strike is not an act of terrorism, since it is
carried out as an act of war and does not
intentionally target civilian non-combatants of that
particular area/it was not intended for the murder of
civilians.
That is why it is important to keep the military
installations like barracks, bases, power plants,
artillery pieces and cars from civilian locations.
Both sides must avoid placing their forces in civilian
neighborhoods, as they must understand that such
positions are potential targets of attack from
opposing force. Therefore, the forces that place their
military installations like cars and headquarters in
areas that are densely populated by civilians carry
the responsibilities that arise from their death by
opposing force as collateral damage of war.
Example #3: Any civilian death that resulted from
unintentional/accidental targeting of civilians can be
declared as unfortunate collateral damage.
Example #4: The attack on such military installation
as building of Pentagon can be considered an act of
war or guerrilla type of attack, but the attack on
such civilian installation such as World Trade Center
(NY) can be considered a terrorist attack during
peacetime or “war crime” during times of war.
Example #5: The destruction of Kabul’s home for
elderly and disabled citizens of Afghanistan can be
considered an unfortunate collateral damage since it
was targeted mistakenly (not on purpose/cruise missile
malfunction) and by accident in the fog of war.
Example #6: Bombing of U.S. Marines barrack in Beirut
can be considered act of guerrilla warfare during the
times of war or unprovoked surprise attack that starts
the war between the sides that participated in the
attack because the intended target was a military
personal of opposing force that was on active duty
deployed for combat in the foreign nation.
However, targeting of the same U.S. Marines by armed
opponents in the sanctity of their civilian homes in
America would an act of terrorism since they are
off-duty and not in active army and therefore they
become civilian non-combatants.
Even more to say, targeting of Palestinian militants
in the sanctity of their homes can be considered
lawful acts of war and NOT acts of terrorism since
Palestinian militants converted their home civilian
facilities into actual active military headquarters of
terrorists organizations, thus making them a military
installation (barracks/bases) in the densely populated
areas of residence. Therefore, home/military
installations can be targeted as any other military
installation including car, boat or any other type of
a vehicle that militants/terrorists use as a military
equipment or weapon.
Moreover, terrorists refusal to recognize Geneva
Convention and their repeated offences against Codes
and Laws of War make them official ‘”unlawful/illegal
combatants”. This status assigned to them even by
military during thr battle and in official military
correspondents. Thus, we can argue that Geneva
Convention designed for armed soldiers of conventional
army does not apply to those paramilitary formations
that do not recognize its authority and actively
participate in as many “war crimes” and “terrorism” as
possible.
Technically, since Geneva Convention does not say
anything about unlawful combatants and deals only with
lawful combatants (soldiers wearing uniform) and
civilian non-combatants, we can assume that we do not
have to apply it in the treatment of those individual
who refuse its protection in the first place and who
do not recognizing its authority. For more
information, see Chapter about TERRORISM and ARMY
ABUSES.
Last Important Note about terrorism:
ONCE A TERRORIST – ALWAYS A TERRORIST.
Someone’s terrorist is everyone’s terrorist – NOT a
freedom fighter.
This means that even if person participates in other
types of warfare, they can be and must be labeled
terrorists if they actively participate in creation,
ordering or carrying out terror attacks.
For example, if person loves his family and community
during day, but murders and tortures children by
night, such person can be considered an “evil” being
even though he/she can accomplish lots of good things
in life.
If person acts as a true gentleman with his lady, but
rapes other women, such person cannot be labeled as
decent and can justly be labeled as a pig (no offense
to innocent animals).
In the same manner, if person commits acts of
non-violent resistance during some part of a day and
then another part of a day actively participates in
creation or carrying out terror attacks, such person
cannot be called “freedom fighter”, “struggler”,
“militant” etc. He/she is a terrorist.
ONCE A TERRORIST, ALWAYS [stay] A TERRORIST.
No excuses. No double standard.
g. [b]Guerrilla attacks/Acts of War.
Definition (for our discussion):
Guerrilla attacks – type of warfare where one
side (usually paramilitary) uses non-conventional
(asymmetrical) style of warfare against opposing force
(usually a conventional army) in order to win the
battle and/or achieve its goals.
Examples of guerrilla attacks:
Example: Armed resistance of paramilitary force
from local population (militants/partisans) that uses
attacks against a conventional army of enemy in order
to liberate particular territory from enemy control
(end of occupation).
Note: Those guerrillas who actively participate
in terror attacks and use terrorism as tactical as
well as strategic tool for their goal cannot be called
“liberators”, because in order to be labeled partisan,
person must abstain from the actions described under
the definition of “terrorism”. * - Look terrorism.
Guerrilla - irregular militant, usually
politically motivated: a member of an irregular
paramilitary unit, usually with some political
objective such as the overthrow of a government.
Guerrillas usually operate in small groups to harass
and carry out sabotage. (guerrilla warfare).
h. Collateral damage.
Definition (for our discussion):
Collateral damage - unintended damage to
civilian life or property during a military operation.
i. Codes of War.
Definition (for our discussion):
Codes of War – some written and non-written, but
traditionally recognized laws that govern the process
of war and the way it should be carried out.
For example, such thing as declaration of war,
traditional agreement not to harm civilian
non-combatants that might be in the location of active
conflict or at least minimize damage wherever
situation permits to do so without putting lives of
soldiers in unnecessary danger. Effort of both sides
to minimize the collateral damage that cannot be
avoided during armed conflict can be called one of the
traditions of conventional warfare.
Example: When during Battle for Berlin, Russian
soldier risked his live in order to get the little
German girl from the line of fire, he committed a
courageous act of heroism, but in theory noone require
this action from him because of serious risk that
involved his personal safety of going at the line of
fire and taking her from the ruins of Berlin strasse.
Because of his courage and good heart and in
recognition of carrying out even more duties than the
one described under the Codes of War (that technically
would permit him to witness the death of the girl by
some ricochet), German people placed a memorial
monument in his owner in Berlin.
j. Bias.
Definition (for our discussion):
Bias – unjustified and unsupported assumption
about something that appears in persons thinking
process as well as in his/her views and writings that
develop independently without actual knowledge about
matter or subject.
Bias – an unfair preference or dislike of
something.
Examples:
Bias toward particular group when we talk about
rightful ownership of West Bank of Jordan River. An
assumption that this particular territory belongs to
one group more than it does to the other is biased
assumption. Bias can be an unfair preference or
dislike of particular ethnic group based on the
refusal to accept a connection of any particular group
to the land of its ancestry or historical homeland.
k. Independence.
l. Anti-Semitism.
m. Occupation.
n. Liberation.
o. Disputed territory.
..........
to be continued...
I've been reading this forum for some time (6 month) before I decided to join the discussion. Here is the outline for my project and I would like to hear from you, what do you think? I tried to be as balance and objective as person can be...
This is just outline and some personal thoughts about the conflict, but it would be nice to hear some critics and I would like to know, do you agree with me on the approach how to DEFINE and analyze the conflict/problem.
Also, if you have some questions about specific areas like lets say Chapter 5 section h. I would love to answer it as fully as I understand it myself.
Thus, Ch. 5 Sec. h. would be CHAPTER "History of Zionism" Section h. Jewish pioneers before Zionism (1860). And so on...
You got the idea. Just give me the part that interest you the most and I think we can find un-biased truth to that particular episod. I also interested particularly in your opinion about thoughts in Chapter 20 "ISLAMO-FASCISM" and CHAPTER 19 "So WHO IS RIGHT in the conflict? (Personal thoughts on the conflict/Personal life experience).
And finally, why do I bother with this project in the first place? Because I found the vast majority of such topics to be unorganized and without some principal structure and formal aproach. Plus I was very interesated to learn the truth about facts on the ground and unfortunately found out that there were almost no good (truthful/unbiased) sources on the subject.
I hope to bring some sense of formal discussion to such explosive topic.
Ok, here is the project itself. Thank You. :)
ISRAEL and PALESTINE (The Conflict)
The look of bystander
Outline/plan and chapter content
1. INTRODUCTION.
a. What this conflict is about?
b. Why this conflict is important?
c. Benefits of resolving the conflict for people of the region.
d. Benefits of resolving the conflict for people outside the region.
e. Disadvantages of resolving the conflict for people of the region.
f. Disadvantages of resolving the conflict for people outside the region.
g. Why there is a grim perspective of resolving the conflict in the near future?
2. DEFINITIONS of TERMS and CONCEPT APPROACH.
I. NECESSARY DEFINITIONS (What is _? For our discussion lets define terminology). Write about the IMPORTANCE OF DEFINITION and RIGHT TERMINOLOGY for our study.
a. Happiness.
b. Peace.
c. Absence of Peace.
d. War.
e. Spiral (cycle) of violence/tit-for-tat - why it does not apply for this conflict.
f. Terrorism/Acts of Terror.
g. Guerrilla attacks/Acts of War.
h. Collateral damage.
i. Codes of War.
j. Bias.
k. Independence.
l. Anti-Semitism.
m. Occupation.
n. Liberation.
o. Disputed territory.
p. Sovereign.
q. Democracy.
r. Nationalism.
s. Prejudice.
t. Freedom of Speech.
u. Torture.
v. Beatings/Mistreatment.
w. Equality/Equal treatment/Equal opportunities - difference.
x. Racism.
y. Xenophobia.
z. Tolerance.
aa. Intolerance.
bb. Fundamental moral values/Core human values.
cc. Assumption about human nature.
dd. Assumption about people in general.
ee. Culture.
ff. Civilization.
gg. Racism.
hh. Anti-Semitism.
ii. Progress/progressive.
jj. Natural as in “Typical thing”.
kk. Reaction as in “opposite of progress”.
ll. Nation, People, National identity.
mm. Crime. (Traditional definition).
nn. Crime against Humanity.
oo. War Crime.
pp. Genocide.
qq. Ethnic cleansing.
rr. Pogrom.
ss. Propaganda as a tool/War of information.
tt. Positive aspects of propaganda (examples).
uu. Negative aspects of propaganda (examples).
vv. Brainwashing.
ww. Basic Fundamental Laws of Human beings and Human Rights.
xx. Laws of War/Laws of Peace – difference.
yy. Normal as in Normal person.
zz. Abnormal as in “abnormal person” (e.g. full of hatred by brainwashing and propaganda).
aaa. Ignorant or ignorance.
bbb. Normal society.
ccc. Abnormal society (do they exist? See System of Coordinates).
ddd. Cancer of society.
eee. Savagery and barbarism.
fff. Immoral as immoral person.
ggg. Moral as moral person.
hhh. Problems of defining moral of society.
iii. Judeo-Christian values/culture/traditions.
jjj. American ideology/American values.
kkk. Evil/evilness as in infanticide.
lll. Necessary evil as in “necessary sacrifice such that the goodness’ would prevail” (aside question of possibility of reaching goodness by compromise with evil and the question of necessary evil… how necessary is it?).
mmm. Minimize as in “minimize impact or minimize casualties”.
nnn. Justice/just cause.
ooo. Terrorist/Militant/Guerrilla/Soldier - difference.
ppp. Soldier (army) – definition.
qqq. Armed combatant – definition.
rrr. Unarmed protestor –definition (with examples of real life deadliness of unarmed protestor shielding a terrorists from SWAT sniper). (Negative image of unarmed protestor) Absence of protestors or lack of substantial protest during such events as Holocaust, genocide of Christian minority in Middle East, genocide in Rwanda, human rights abuses in Sudan, Algeria and Niger. Question of absence of voice of protest against genocide carried out by Saddam Hussein regime during his dictatorship.
sss. Unarmed protestor – definition of positive unarmed protestor. (The legality of protest as well as administrative process involving a nonviolent protest, its activity and means to carry it out).
ttt. Legal as in “legal purchase of land”, “legal act of war”.
uuu. Illegal as in “illegal confiscation of land/property”.
vvv. Claim of ownership/question of “belongingness” of land, property, territory to someone
www. Land of Israel
xxx. Palestine/Palestina
yyy. State of Israel
zzz. Palestinian Authority (PA)
II. CONCEPT and APPROACH to problem
a. Choices of System of Coordinates
b. Different perspectives on the conflict arise from different definitions/systems of view at things and stylistic approaches.
c. Two fundamentally different systems of coordinates or systems to view things
(Fixed point of view on moral and cultural values [closed system], flexible point of view on moral and cultural values [open system])
Religious aspects of two systems (typical religions for systems Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Krishna), level of intensity of two systems (extremism and relax variations of both systems, examples), Tolerance to people who live by different systems
III. STYLES OF APPROACH
a. Idealistic/humanistic approach (way to view things/facts)
b. Cynical approach and materialistic approach
c. Real politik approach
IV. WAY TO SOLVE PROBLEMS
a. Use of system (what system I choose) and approach when I look at the heart of the problem
3. HISTORY OF LAND before British Mandate
a. Pre-Historic times (Paleolithic Age).
b. Ancient Times (Neolithic Age/Arrival of Semites from Ur).
c. Kingdom of Israel.
d. Split of Kingdom of Israel into Northern Kingdom of Israel and Southern Kingdom of Judea.
e. Babylonian captivity and Assyrians.
f. Philistines and Phoenicians.
g. Ancient State of Israel.
h. Greek Occupation.
i. Roman Occupation.
j. Life under Roman Occupation.
k. Great Patriotic War (Jewish War against Occupation).
l. Moment of Independence.
m. Destruction of Judea/Birth of Palestine.
n. Another genocide of Jews. Last Jewish apprising in Palestine.
o. Forceful exile of Jews from the land.
p. Roman/Byzantine rule.
q. Persian invasion and control.
r. Arab invasion and control.
s. Medieval Turkish control.
t. Ottoman Empire control of the land.
u. How the British began to control Palestine.
4. HISTORY OF JEWISH PEOPLE.
a. Ancient Hebrew (Semitic) Tribes.
b. Jews become Jews. c. 1000 BC
c. Jews and their religion.
d. Jews and their homeland.
e. Jews and their culture, tradition, history.
f. Jews in the exile.
g. Anti-Semitism (Definition, Types (Political, Economic, Domestic) and Periods: Ancient, Medieval, Industrial, Modern, neo Anti-Semitism).
h. Bias and how is it different from Anti-Semitism.
i. Bias and anti-Semitism combined together.
j. Jews and return.
k. Who are Jews anyway? Religion, secularism and national identity.
l. Accomplishments of Jews in arts, literature, science, philosophy, religion, music, entertainment, medicine, economics, technology.
5. HISTORY OF ZIONISM
a. What is Zionism?
b. Birth of Zionism.
c. Defining moments of Zionism (historical homeland/modern homeland).
d. Zionism and reality (Dreams become True/Palestine and reality).
e. Jewish presence in Palestine (1825).
f. Comparison 1. The State of European people (1850) and their search for independence. (Specific examples – Hungarians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Irish, Italians).
g. Comparison 2. The State of American people (1850) and their search for independence (Specific examples – Americans, Mexicans, Cubans).
h. Jewish pioneers before Zionism. (1850)
i. Jewish pioneers (Allyah) and the spirit of Zionism. (1895).
j. Second and third Allyah. Waves and Patterns of Jewish migration to the land of Israel/Palestine.
k. Professional Zionists.
l. Labor/Socialist Zionism.
m. Revisionism in Zionism.
n. Relationship of Zionism to socialism, communism, bolshevism.
o. Zionism, anti-Zionism and Racism.
p. Anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.
q. Jews, Zionism in process and Palestine.
6. HISTORY OF ARABS
a. Pre-historic Arabs (Semites) and formation of Arab identity.
b. Who are Arabs anyway?
c. Variations of Arab identities (Tribes, Bedouin, Druses)
d. Birth of Arab nationalism.
e. Pan-Arabism.
f. Accomplishments of Arabs in arts, literature, science, philosophy, religion, music, entertainment, medicine, economics, technology.
7. HISTORY OF ISLAM
a. Arabs before Islam.
b. Birth of Islam.
c. So what is Islam? Comparison with Judaism, Christianity.
d. Development of Islam.
e. Islamisation of nations.
f. Medieval Islam.
g. Reaction in Islam (stagnation).
h. Modern World and Islam.
i. Wahabism and fundamentalism in Islam.
8. HISTORY OF PALESTINIANS (Palestinian Arabs)
a. So what do we mean by Palestinians?
b. Jews as Palestinians of the land (1885).
c. Arabs in Palestine/land of Israel.
d. Immigration #1 of Arabs in Palestine/land of Israel (1850).
e. Immigration #2 of Arabs in Palestine/land of Israel (1930).
f. Migration of Arabs in Middle East.
g. Reasons for immigration/Arab migration in Middle East.
h. Palestinians become Palestinians (birth of Palestinian nationalism) de-facto.
i. Development of Palestinian nationalism.
j. Palestinians today.
k. Accomplishments of Palestinians (Arabs) in arts, literature, science, philosophy, religion, music, entertainment, medicine, economics, technology.
9. HISTORY OF CONFLICT between British Mandate and Madrid/Oslo Peace Talks
a. Between British Mandate and creation of the State of Israel.
b. Deep analysis of the question of claim on the land. From the perspective of 1900s person and analysis of British and French claim on the land. British and French presence in the land of Israel/Palestine (Medieval times, Imperialist age).
c. Deep analysis of the question of claim on the land. Modern perspective/ idealistc humanistic perspective. (Comparison of what we know from previous chapters about Jews, Arabs, Palestinian Jews and Palestinian Arabs)
d. British partition of Palestine. Palestine looses its character.
e. Creation of Transjordan and the politics of Imperialist States (Great Britain).
f. British/French Secret Agreements and Imperialism.
g. Division and creation of modern Middle East.
h. The consequences (historical, militarily, political) of such divisions.
i. Balfour Declaration. Promise to Jews.
j. Promise to Arabs.
k. Jewish immigration
l. Rise of Arab nationalism in Palestine.
m. Arab Revolt #1 (1920s)
n. Jewish response/Formation of Self-Defense
o. Arab Revolt #2 (1930s) (against British)
p. Arab Revolt #2 (1930s) (pogroms against Jews)
q. Jewish militancy and response to Arab Revolt #2 by self-defense as well as pogroms of Arabs.
r. Jewish relationship with British (1930s) (friends and foes, specific examples).
s. “Eye for an eye” mentality in Palestine and what is true and what is not true about this notion?
t. Holocaust.
u. Jewish response to Holocaust.
v. Jewish resistance during Holocaust.
w. Jewish resistance during WWII in Europe.
x. Jewish Revolt. (1940s) (Against British).
y. Jewish support of the British in 1940s.
z. Arab support of the British in 1940s.
aa. Arab support of Nazi Germany in 1940s.
bb. Middle East in WWII (Big Picture).
cc. Palestinian Arabs and the genocide of Jews in Europe.
dd. Survivors of Holocaust and the destiny of Jews/DP (Displaced Persons)
ee. Sad facts of history/Palestine and crimes against humanity (Jewish and Arab crimes/Jewish and Arab terrorism/Jewish and Arab Guerrilla warfare – specific examples, similarities and differences of each act).
ff. Europe after war. State of Europe at the end of War.
gg. European Crimes against Jews after Holocaust and liberation of Europe from Nazis (facts, specific examples).
hh. Treatment of Jews in Middle East after the war by governments and local authorities.
ii. Treatment of Palestinian Arabs in Middle East after the war by government and local authorities.
jj. Treatment of Jews by British authorities in Middle East after the World War II.
kk. Treatment of Palestinian Arabs by British authorities in Middle East after the World War II.
ll. Big picture of Middle East after World War II.
mm. Palestine after the World War II.
nn. UN and partition of Palestine.
oo. Jewish Reaction to partition
pp. Arab reaction to partition
qq. Palestinian Arab reaction to partition/Palestinian Arabs influence on the conflict
rr. War for Independence (Creation of Jewish State).
ss. Important issues of the conflict during creation of State of Israel.
tt. Changing image of the conflict at the War for Independence.
uu. First years after the War for Independence.
vv. Refugees, Refugees, Refugees (Jewish/Arab).
ww. Relationship between Israel and the World/International community.
xx. State of Conflict between Israel and her enemies before 1956.
I. Stance of Arab governments.
II. Stance of Palestinian Arab population.
III. Stance of Israeli government.
IV. Stance of Israeli population.
V. Arab attacks and Israeli response.
yy. Israeli covert operations and Palestinian militant operations (examples).
zz. Analysis of Israeli Operations in terms of nature and style (terrorism/sabotage/militancy/guerrilla/spy/black op – differences and similarities). Choice of terminology.
aaa. Why is Terminology so important?
bbb. General consequences of Arab/Israeli operations.
ccc. Level of Government participation in such operations.
ddd. Level of local population participation in Arab/Israeli operations.
eee. Question of sponsorship of such operations/State sponsorship of terrorism in Middle East/Europe/USSR/USA and Government view of such operations/government response in Israel and Arab countries.
fff. SINAI CAMPAIGN.
I. Pre-conditions.
II. Last days before the War.
III. Start of the War.
IV. Victories and Defeats.
V. Direct Results.
VI. Indirect results (region/super-powers).
ggg. Situation at the beginning of 1960s.
hhh. SIX-DAY WAR.
I. Pre-conditions.
II. Last days before the War.
III. Start of the War.
IV. War on all fronts.
V. Victories and Defeats.
VI. Direct Results.
VII. Indirect results (region/super-powers).
iii. Issues created by Six-Day War.
jjj. War of Attrition.
kkk. Palestinian/Arab militancy in Israel and abroad.
lll. Jewish militancy in Israel and abroad.
mmm. YOM KIPPUR WAR.
I. Pre-conditions.
II. Last days before the War.
III. Start of War.
IV. War on all fronts.
V. Victories and Defeats.
VI. Direct Results.
VII. Indirect results (region/super-power).
nnn. Greater Israel/Israel expansionism.
ooo. Jews return to their homes and cities in the West Bank.
ppp. Jewish pioneers/settlers in the West Bank.
qqq. Jewish pioneers/settlers in Gaza.
rrr. Jewish pioneers/settlers in Sinai.
sss. Importance of West Bank and Sinai from militarily point of view.
ttt. Important differences of West Bank and Sinai from religious/spiritual perspective point of view.
uuu. Importance of Jewish return to the West Bank from humanistic/secular point of view.
vvv. Question of right of return of Palestinian Arabs in the State of Israel.
www. Question of right of return of Palestinian Arabs in the land of Israel (West Bank).
xxx. Situation in territories/living conditions (improvement and difficulties)/mood on Palestinian streets.
yyy. Evolution of Palestinian Terrorism in 1970s/Soviet hand.
zzz. Israel makes “peace” with some of its neighbors.
aaaa. Consequences of “peace” accords with Egypt,
bbbb. Israel and Syria.
cccc. Syrian occupation of Lebanon.
dddd. Israel and Lebanon.
eeee. Reasons for Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon.
ffff. Operation PEACE FOR GALILEE.
I. Pre-conditions.
II. Last days before the War.
III. Start of the War.
IV. Victories and Defeats.
V. Direct Results.
VI. Indirect results (region/super-powers).
gggg. Palestinian crimes against humanity. Lebanese Christian Arabs are massacred by Palestinians.
hhhh. Lebanese Christian Arabs crimes against humanity. Palestinians are massacred by Lebanese Christian Arabs.
iiii. The role of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Middle East.
jjjj. The role of Israelis in Lebanon’s occupation and massacres that happened in the territory under their military control.
kkkk. The role of PLO in Lebanon’s occupation and massacres that happened in the territory under their military control.
llll. The role of Syria in Lebanon’s occupation and massacres that happened in the territory under their military control.
mmmm. Palestinians in Lebanon. (General overview)
nnnn. Palestinian traditional street crimes/unlawfulness.
oooo. Lebanese government in relationship to Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon.
pppp. Lebanese population in relationship to Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon.
qqqq. “Peace” movement in Israel.
rrrr. Peace movement/anti-war movement/pure demagogues – difference.
ssss. Palestinian “Peace” movement in territories.
tttt. First Palestinian Intifada.
I. Pre-conditions.
II. Last days before the Intifada.
III. Start of Intifada #1 (1980s-90s).
IV. Victories and Defeats.
V. Direct Results.
VI. Indirect results (region/super-power).
10. ISRAEL’S AND PALESTINIAN INTERNATIONAL IMAGE DURING FIRST INTIFADA
a. Israel’s image in 70s.
b. Israel’s image in 80s.
c. Israel’s image because of Palestinian Intifada #1.
d. Palestinian image in 70s.
e. Palestinian image in 80s.
f. Palestinian image because of Palestinian Intifada #1.
g. Comparison and trend. Image and Reality.
11. MORE CLOSE AND DETAILED ANALYSIS OF FIRST INTIFADA.
a. Intifada #1 as a weapon
b. Intifada #1 as a tool and an instrument.
c. Intifada #1 as resistance.
d. Intifada #1 as violence and criminal/terrorist activity.
e. New forces emerge from the First Intifada.
f. Formation of HAMAS as serious threat to Arafat and PLO.
g. HAMAS as a threat to Israel and initial Israeli reaction to HAMAS.
h. Differences in Palestinian militancy (types/styles/goals of terrorisms).
12. MODERN ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT and ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT.
a. Situation in Israel and ‘territories’ de-facto.
b. What kind of peace different sides wanted? Israeli and Palestinian view on peace/International view.
c. Madrid and Oslo accords.
d. Reasons and hopes of people (Israelis/Palestinian) after signing “peace” accords.
e. Reasons and hopes of governments and leaders after signing “peace” accords.
f. Jewish state and right wing extremists.
g. Jewish state and left-wing extremists.
h. Arafat arrives to territories.
i. “Normalization” of relationship with Jordan.
j. Terrorist wave after the signing of accords. (1996s)
k. Israeli response to terrorism wave (1996s).
l. Israel and its Northern border.
m. State of Israeli and Syrian relationship in 1990s.
n. Israel’s withdrawal from South Lebanon.
o. Consequences of Israel withdrawal. (Positive/negative) Lessons learned by all sides.
p. Israeli public opinion of withdrawal from Lebanon.
q. Lebanese public opinion of withdrawal from Lebanon.
r. Palestinian Arabs public opinion of withdrawal from Lebanon.
s. Terrorism at the end of 20th century and breakdown of ‘peace’ talks.
13. BIAS, MEDIA and PROPAGANDA DURING 1990-2000
a. In Middle East.
b. Outside Middle East/International.
14. SECOND PALESTINIAN INTIFADA (Intifada Al-Aqsa)/OSLO WAR.
a. Camp David 2.
b. Stalemate.
c. Situation in Middle East (pre-conditions).
d. Beginning of Second Intifada.
e. Deep Analysis of the causes and reasons for the start of Second Palestinian Intifada “Al-Aqsa”/Serious analysis of the beginning of hostilities of Oslo War.
f. First month of Second Intifada.
g. Hard years of Second Intifada.
h. Operation Defensive Shield.
i. Reasons for Operation Defensive Shield.
j. Results of Operation Defensive Shield.
k. International/World response to the Operation Defensive Shield.
l. Analysis of International/World opinion of the Operation Defensive Shield.
m. IDF in territories in general.
n. IDF in territories in particular (positive examples).
o. IDF in territories in particular (negative examples).
p. Evaluation of actions of IDF. Conclusions.
q. Palestinian Authority forces in territories in general.
r. Palestinian Authority forces in territories in particular (examples).
s. Palestinian terrorists/militants in territories in general.
t. Palestinian terrorists/militants in territories in particular (examples).
u. Local population response to Second Intifada. (Jewish Israeli, Arab Israeli and Palestinian Arabs actions – specific examples).
v. Outside influence on conflicts (Egypt, Syria, Iran, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States, North Korea, China, India, EU, USA, Russia, UN)
o. Lives under Intifada.
I. Lives of Jews in territories.
II. Lives of Palestinians in territories.
III. Lives of Israeli citizens in general.
IV. Lives of Israeli Jews.
V. Lives of Israeli Arabs.
VI. Lives of Christian minority.
w. Intifada and Media War.
x. Bias, Bias and brainwashing propaganda of Oslo War.
15. CLOSE AND DETAILED ANALYSIS OF SECOND INTIFADA.
a. Its consequences.
b. Intifada #2 – Lessons for Israelis.
c. Intifada #2 – Lessons for Palestinians.
d. Conclusions derived from second Intifada.
16. Current State of Affairs.
a. What happens now?
b. Why does it happen? (Causes and leads [Local/International] to current situation)
c. Current Issues. New Issues.
d. Old Wounds. (Old unresolved Issues)
17. World and International community in relationship to MODERN conflict.
a. World Views as a whole.
b. European stance on the conflict.
I. Different views
II. Views by groups, countries, classes.
III. Dominating View.
c. American stance on the conflict.
I. Different views
II. Views by groups, classes.
III. Dominating View.
d. Russian stance on the conflict.
I. Different views
II. Views by groups, classes.
III. Dominating View.
e. Arab nations stance on the conflict.
I. Different views
II. Views by groups, classes.
III. Dominating View.
f. Muslim stance on the conflict.
I. Different views
II. Views by groups, classes.
III. Dominating View.
g. India stance on the conflict.
I. Different views
II. Views by groups, classes.
III. Dominating View.
h. African stance on the conflict.
I. Different views
II. Views by groups, classes.
III. Dominating View.
i. Asian stance on the conflict.
I. Different views
II. Views by groups, classes.
III. Dominating View.
j. Latin America stance on the conflict.
I. Different views
II. Views by groups, classes.
III. Dominating View.
k. Australia/Canada stance on the conflict.
I. Different views
II. Views by groups, classes.
III. Dominating View.
18. LOOK AT THE FUTURE
a. The look at the future of Israelis as a nation.
b. The look at the future of Israeli Jews.
c. The look at the future of Israeli Arabs.
d. The look at the future of Israeli Minorities (Christians).
e. The look at the future of Palestinian Arabs as a whole.
f. The look at the future of Palestinian Arab refugees in Diaspora.
g. The look at the future of Israeli Jewish refugees from Arab countries and Jews Diaspora.
h. The look at the future of Jews in territories (West Bank/Gaza).
i. The look at the future of Muslim Arabs (Palestinians) in territories (West Bank/Gaza).
j. The look at the future of Christian Arabs (Palestinians) in territories (West Bank/Gaza).
k. The look at the future of Jews and Jewish Diaspora.
19. (This might be interesting) So WHO IS RIGHT in the conflict? (Personal thoughts on the conflict/Personal life experience).
a. In my Humble Opinion (IMHO)/Who am I to judge? The look of bystander.
b. Why one side is more right than the other?…. or Well, why NOT one side could be more right than the other? J Why NOT? Question of possibility of one side be more right than the other (Historical examples).
c. Some Logic for Dummies. Careful assumptions. Questions of noise. Eliminating unnecessary data/use of data. Physics is the science of simplifying stuff in order to predict ones behavior/noise reduction.
d. Lets define what is a ‘good’ side and what is a ‘bad’ (‘less good’) side in ANY conflict. Why there are two sides and how are they different? Can both sides be ‘good’ or ‘bad’ at the same time? How do we grade the ‘goodness’ or ‘badness’ of the side?
e. How IMHO I view the conflict? Why do I think one side is more right than the other?
f. “Enemy of my friend is my enemy”.
g. Who supports whom? Difference between democratic society and totalitarian regimes. While in democratic society there is a whole spectrum of ideas and variety of opinions (so much that it is actually hard to recognize the ‘good’ side, people listen to different sources and get confused), in totalitarian society there is only one official view of solidarity and support. Guess which side is supported by totalitarian regimes. Israeli or Palestinian side? Think why it can be easier for a person under brutal dictatorship and totalitarian regime to recognize the side of goodness. “Friend of my enemy is my enemy as well…”
h. Moral character of people on both sides of the conflict/different sides of solidarity/blame game.
i. Careful! Simplification leads to mistakes. But simple logic is: “I don’t know X (side), but I know Y (side). If Y against X AND Y=good, then X=evil” (assuming of course that ‘good’ side and ‘evil’ side are always in geometrical opposition to each other) It’s primitive, but it’ll help you through the day of confusion.
j. What I know about “Y” side - Israel. Personal experience. Why I consider Israel “good” side?
k. Why I consider X (opposite) side evil?
l. Mathematical formulas and why they do NOT work in real life conflicts. Also question of inner instinct.
m. Question of oversimplification. Is my proof too simple?
n. Responsibility of making personal choice between the sides lies with the reader. Knowledge of fundamentals of the conflict is important to make a decision. Lets talk about why someone must make a decision and choose a side? Why can’t a person be neutral and abstain from getting involve in the conflict? Question of neutrality.
o. What is wrong with neutrality? Why is it dangerous?
p. Can the person be unbiased, balanced and objective in own views and still support only one of the sides?
q. Most frequently asked question: WHO IS RIGHT?
r. Not simple question leads to not simple answer. Question should have been rephrased.
s. More accurately: Who is MORE RIGHT than WRONG? Or who is LESS WRONG than other?
t. Why is it important to support side of ‘MORE RIGHT/LESS WRONG”? Why can’t people support both sides? Multilateral answer. On surface, the question of balance and fairness? Why is it wrong to place an equal sign in this messy equation of Middle East? Back to the question of morality, human values and the spirit of civilization. Deep question of human moral values and beliefs. “Not with bare hands!” (Answer to Hitler, Goebbls, Mussolini, Lenin, Stalin, Saddam, Arafat, bin Laden) Leitmotiv and tools of abusers of humanity. The question of tools they using and to what strings of soul they appeal. Appeal to the basic animal instincts, usage of old anti-Semitic rhetoric (examples). Opposite to appeal to the high moral values and humanity. Why is this appeal so unpopular in modern world? Why is appeal to humanity heard less often than appeal to pogrom and destruction (examples, genocides in Rwanda, Cambodia, Sudan and call to the physical destruction and removal of thousand of homes on innocent civilians like Jews many of whom are elderly survivors of the Holocaust)? Question of cynism and moral system of core human values in the world. The state of moral values? The presence or absence of change? Change and stability in multidimensional world of human values. Different planes show different state of human moral – from stable to dramatic change.
u. Why you, personally, should support the State of Israel and her People?
20. ISLAMO-FASCISM as the plague/disease/virus/cancer of 21st century.
a. So what is Islamo-fascism?
b. Why Islamo? Why fascism? Evil’s stake on religion, Previous evil’s stake was on race/ethnicity/nationality.
c. Origins and roots. (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, racist Iran, Nationalism and Religious Extremism of Middle East)
d. Early years and encouragement of spread and growth by the World International community.
e. The ‘disease’ moves from incubation period to the open (extreme) form/1980s.
f. Attacks on Jews as ‘lacmuse‘/orange paper for test of chemical presence of extremism in society. (Jews as vulnerable and at the same time powerful minority).
g. The case for minority. Why Jews? Why now? Why always?
h. Israel as a Jew among the nations. Can attack on Israel be viewed as an attack on the fundamental principles of our civilization? In order to understand Islamo-fascists look for the goals. What is the goal of Islamo-fascism?
i. Today’s jihadists as Medieval Crusaders? West and East – flip-flopping of civilizations. Interesting similarities. Question of what is more closely resembles what? (Medieval Islam, modern Western Civilization, Medieval Europe, Modern Middle East) Question of why oh why do we always try to make a comparison with something ‘totally’ different? Answer to cynics who enjoy this type of questions. As in crime, history tends to repeat itself. Something like that or of similar nature was already probably happened before. It is easier to recognize a new disease by the old traits even if disease went through evolution. People are always the same and human psychology as well as human nature rarely changes. Question of human evolution. Question of time of brutal mega-murders and closeness of that brutal period to today’s world. Yesterday’s brutality is 0 meters from us, today.
j. Why did we win World War II? Why we might loose World War III? Question of allies. The need for leaders of World War II and their absence. Remarkable similarities of French position in both conflicts. Why “War against Islamo-fascism” not “War against Terror”? Question of what is terrorism- terrorism as a tool of Islamo-fascism. Terrorism as a loyal servant of evil Islamo-fascist ideology. Terrorism as a tactic, makes ‘War on Terror’ useless because the war against tactic cannot be won until there would be clear definition of who is the enemy. Terror is mere tactic. The war against terror (tactics) cannot be won before the war against Islamo-Fascism (Strategy and Ideology). Different fronts on the war on terror in reality are different fronts in the War against Islamo-fascism. (Examples, Chechnya, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kashmir, Pakistan, Turkey, Libya, Algeria, Tunis, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Israel… they are all fronts of that war).
k. Can we even possibly loose the War against Islamo-fascism? Yes. So what would happen after defeat?
l. Another question – can we ultimately defeat the evil of this world? Can we ultimately win the War? Is there such thing as total victory? Reappearance and comeback/rebirth of dark phoenix of evil and why this war is “so” eternal? War for thousand years? Dark Ages and genocides as the victories of ‘Evil’ side and V-Day (1945) and the crush and fall of Nazism and Communism as the victories for ‘good’ side. Point of view, an opinion if you will – constant struggle between good and evil in the world.
m. Many faces of Evilness and the tools it’s using. Mimicry and the camouflage of the Evil since the end of World War II. Evolution of the Evil. Its use of new tactics in order to survive in modern world. Old tricks and new style. Question of society anti-bodies against the virus of Evil. Use of terminology and again the importance of understanding why this ‘War of Words’ is so important and why does the ‘Evil’ side so often twist it?
n. So what is Evil? Is it a group? NO. Is it a race? NO. Is it a religion or religious group? NO. Is it a nationality? NO. It is invisible, deadly and uncatchable as lead fumes. Is it possible to detect? Yes, if we look very carefully. Traits of Evil: intolerance, xenophobia, extremism, fundamentalism. Important difference between fundamentalism and believe in fundamental human and moral values. The importance of tolerance and allocation of space for mistakes and imperfection make the belief in fundamental moral values NOT harmful, comparing to zealous rage of intolerance of fundamentalists. Fundamentalism and fundamental values – what’s the difference? Difference between fundamentalism and fundamental human values. (Clarify position) Draw a border between conservative tradition and right-wing intolerance and extremism.
o. Why to have all this talk about ultimate ‘Evil’ and the question of its existence. Back to the question of the system of moral coordinates. Look at system of human values and its spectrum. Extremes (opposite ends) of the spectrum. Question of ‘Pure’ (unearthly/unnatural) Goodness and ‘Pure’ (unearthly/unnatural) Evilness. Where people and humanity lies? Somewhere in between? The question of grayscale as opposite to the black/white scale. Imperfection of this world and its inhabitants. The ability of grayscale to allow different variations or mixtures of good and evil in real world. Absence of perfection and the presence of imperfection on the scale. Why do I think American and Israeli civilizations are the same and why do I think that they are better than Palestinian/Arab ones. Question of moral high ground and the importance of understanding the difference between moral high ground ‘superiority’. Dangerous term of ‘superiority’. Understanding the term and what it is implies as a generalization about the society as group of people united by common national/cultural/traditional/political/religious identity. Question of “moral” superiority: in character of an individual, in group of people, in society and country as a whole. Stressing out the importance of existing imperfection as in Israel/America system as in Palestinian/Arab society. Importance of recognizing that both sides have tremendous and terrible imperfections and many wrongs and wrongdoings, but one side is ultimately MORE wrong than the other. NOT on biological level, NOT on physical or genetic level, but on the behavioral level acquired by living, been nurtured, grown up and formed in the society of criminals and society of sane (“normal”) individuals. Example, suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism against innocent civilians (non-combatants). Example, opinion on the terrorist activity in the time of crisis for Jewish and Palestinian society. How did Jews viewed terrorism in the times of personal despair? How does Palestinian society view it now? Comparison of false excuses and justification about the lifestyle to the lifestyle of people who live in other Arab countries (worse conditions than Palestinians), in African and Latin American countries as well as in Europe. Also compare the desperation of Palestinian Arab population to the desperation of the Jews in the ghettos of WWII and their responses to those living conditions. How many Jews attacked innocent German children with knives yelling ‘G-d is Great!’ during the time of personal crisis for the Jewish nation and the years of active extermination of Jews by German, Hungarian and Polish murderers. Recognizing the falsehood of justification for the terrorist/bandit/criminal society that uses poverty and bad livelihood as an excuse for its crimes. Recognizing that the real reason behind terrorism is active and vicious spiral of xenophobia in Palestinian society – its worst form of hatred rather than fear toward the people of other religion and nationality – Jews.
p. Fundamental question of the choice of the system of morals by which person/groups of people live demand different views of the same events/conflict. Depending on the system through which we wish to look at the conflict, we might see different picture.
q. Recognizing that this is a war of Ideologies as well as the war of civilizations, where Jews and Palestinian Arabs are unfortunately on the different end of opposite spears (larger than they are themselves). The Land of Israel or Palestine is just a place where those civilizations collide. Because the ideologies so different from each other they cannot possible co-exist in the same area of influence.
r. Examples of previous stand off between different ideologies/moral systems: communism vs. capitalism (Cold War), totalitarian vs. democracy, Nazism vs. Humanism (World War II).
s. Collide of civilization and the question of previous history of co-existence. Periods of polarization/conflict and confrontation.
t. Recognizing the difference of American-Israeli and Islamo-fascists ideologies. The difference is in its values.
u. Question of destiny for our today’s modern Western civilization. Does civilization goes in spiral cycles upward toward enlightment or does it moves in the wave form with its own ups and downs. Question of Dark Ages. Possibility of new Dark Ages after this period of englightment. Duality of History’s nature. As in quantum mechanics, light can have both wave and impulse (particles) form, so perhaps History might have. Sinusoidal waves and spiral twists upward.
21. ROLE OF WORLD SUPER-POWERS AND THE FUTURE OF OUR PLANET.
a. Importance of super-powers in Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
b. Importance of super-powers in the War against Islamo-fascism.
c. Responsibilities that super-powers have for today’s World and Peace.
d. Kipling’s “Burden of White Man” or the delicate question of responsibilities that our Western Civilization has for future of our planet.
e. Kipling’s “Burden of a White Man” as actually a “Burden of Civilized Person”. Question of RACISM. The problem not in color of skin, but in the mind of a person and his/her character. Recognition of Kipling’s mistake and forming of correct postulate.
22. BEFORE FINDING A SOLUTION.
a. Before finding Solution lets find (define) the Problem.
b. Now, since we found the Problem. Lets make step-by-step points to solve the problem. What parts can be solvable and what won’t be accepted.
c. Red lines of the conflict: Refugees (Jewish/Palestinian Arabs), independent and sovereign states (Israel/Palestine), status of Holy city (Jerusalem’s future), the national identity of Israel (its ethnic face and its Jewish roots), demilitarization of Palestinian Arabs, security for Israel, peace and recognition by its neighbors as well as the rest of Arab and Muslim world.
d. Conclusions. It’s possible to solve the conflict only by defining important moments (outcome of all of this) prior to the negotiations of the way to implement it. We have to define our end goals.
e. Terrorism goes first. There is NO progress with terrorism on Israeli and Palestinian streets.
f. Violence and incitement must be stopped, through the controlled violence (war/military operations of IDF/Arab authorities making actions and real steps forward).
g. Defining the fundamental difference between terrorism and the violence of armed forces. In other words, there is NO tit-for-tat or cycle or spiral of violence. Defining “War against Islamo-fascism” and solving a solution with 2 PARTNERS. (Differences)
h. There is problem with terrorism and violent response of democratic state against it.
i. Recognizing the asymmetry of the conflict from all possible viewpoints… that both sides are NOT equal and never were equal between each other, there was always some asymmetry in the conflict: political, economical, legal, world sympathies, neighbors’ relations etc.
23. LAST IN-DEPTH LOOK AT TERRORISM AND ABUSES.
a. Terrorism. What is terrorism? Last thoughts on definitions.
b. Causes of Terrorism – fake explanations and the real ones.
c. Terrorism as means (tactics) of delivering and accomplishing goals (strategy) – Xenophobia, Racism, Intolerance, Hatred.
d. Acts of terrorism and why they can be called as such.
e. Acts of terrorism in the process – the mechanic of ticking bombs.
f. The result of terrorism on the ground (immediate direct results).
g. Long-term results of terrorism as the strategic goals of terrorism and terrorists.
h. Why someone’s freedom fighter is NOT someone else terrorists. Also, why terrorists is NOT someone’s freedom fighter.
i. Terror act as carefully prepared and calculated attacks – NOT a spontaneous acts of desperation.
j. Why terrorism as racism or genocide never should be excused?
k. Why we should not negotiate with terrorism?
l. How can we fight terrorism?
m. ABUSES. Army abuses and abuses by militants as well as civilian participation.
n. The response to the accusation and the means to answer those accusations.
o. Geneva Convention. Introduction (A Little bit of History).
p. Why is Geneva Convention is no longer useful to the humanity in the form it is written?
q. What the world should do with Geneva Convention? (Name specific options)
r. Why is disbanding Geneva Convention is wrong and harmful for our civilization?
s. If cancellation of Geneva Convention is NOT an option that what is it?
t. The modernization of Geneva Convention and restructure of its nature.
u. The importance of changes and their impact on the legal level.
v. Would Amendments weaken the Convention or would they actually strengthen it?
w. Case for the change of Geneva Convention and addition/re-writing some of the articles to accommodate asymmetrical warfare with terror/non-conventional forces.
x. What should be the response of the army in case of abuses?
y. What should be the response of the public in case of abuses?
z. Why do abuses make a threat to our society as we know it? (Question of moral equivalency with terrorism, why it does not apply and question of moral high ground. [Closed system of perception of human nature and human values]).
aa. Last thoughts about terrorism and army crimes and abuses.
24. HOW COULD WE SOLVE THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT (In the presence of partner for peace as well as in the absence of such)?
a. No easy answer. Honestly, don’t know and, please, don’t trust anyone who says he/she knows the ‘real deal’ solution.
b. Lets define possibilities and necessary ingredients as well as pre-conditions.
c. Peace requires both sides (forcefully or not) to recognize each other.
d. Peace requires a long time and serious effort.
e. Peace requires partners and partnership.
f. Peace requires compromise and tolerance.
g. Make emphasize on painful compromises as a stimulus and the only way to move forward.
h. Peace requires love and respect for fellow human beings from BOTH sides.
i. Peace requires different mentality than currently exist in the Middle East.
j. When we talk about PEACE we talk about change in Middle East mentality – the mentality of a whole region.
k. So what could world do about the conflict?
l. Lets give a place for a fantasy and try to analyze rare and unrealistic scenarios of actual true peace in the Middle East.
m. Idealistic view. What would be the idealistic view of solving the problem? (If the OTHER side did not exist… what if)
n. Cynical and materialistic view.
o. Real politik view/Reality.
p. It is unrealistically to find the solution in near future because of apparent indifference of the world to the suffering of others and unwillingness of the world to sacrifice personal comfort and happiness for the sake of other fellow human beings.
q. The last five decades proved that World as a whole (Arab nations particularly) has a lot of words, but does NOT really care about Land of Israel/Palestine and its inhabitants.
r. The money, time and effort that the World spends every year in order to destroy the State of Israel could turn the West Bank and Gaza into exotic paradise as well as transform and improve the whole region. But lets not mention what would happen with weapons sales, narco-bussiness and warlords status if peace would prevail.
s. There is again question of real willingness for peace. Does it exist on both sides?
t. How long do we have to wait for the generation of genuine peacemakers?
u. My own two different roadmaps – two different solutions (based on 2003-4 situation).
I. PLAN A: Semi-Realistic (in terms of actual implementation by super-powers), quick, just and not so effort consuming (5-10 years), but NOT fundamentally right and only partly successful.
Three State Solution: Israel (Jews), Jordan (Palestinian Arabs), Palestina-Judea Federation (Mixed areas of Jewish and Arab inhabitance under the strict control of American/Israeli and UN/French troops). Different Laws and Customs for different Areas of Living. Jewish Laws for the Jewish areas and Palestinian Arab Laws for Palestinian Areas.
II. PLAN B: Very unrealistic (in terms of actual implementation by super-powers), long (20-30 years) and very scary (ARMAGEDON) and heavy burden on the world, but really Just and Morally right solution.
Total World War on Islamo-fascism with subsequent de-Palestinization of Palestinian Arabs (as in de-Nazification of Germans), de-fundamentalization and de-militancy of Saudi Arabia and Arab Peninsula (as in the end of militancy and imperialism of Empire of Japan), complete surrender and capitulation of Muslim (Islamo-fascist) countries in such a war, surrender/liberation of Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Gulf States from Islamo-fascism, liberation of Europe (France in particular) from Islamo-fascist occupation and hegemony, liberation of Asian states by China (Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines would become liberated).
Why China and the deal with the devil. Question of Allies and back to the role of world powers and their leaders.
Complete change and reform in Muslim society, Arab laws, and customs. Tolerance toward women and people of other race/religion. Tolerance to fashion and music of other cultures. Tolerance to people of other opinions. The restoration of right of Jews and Christian to practice their religion in Arab countries and areas currently occupied by Islamo-fascist regimes.
Total war in Media and Information. Complete prohibition of Islamo-fascist literature as well as Islamo-fascist propaganda and symbols. De-islamo-nazification of countries and return to the True NON-Perversicve Islam – the religion of tolerance and peace.
Super Powers (Great Britain, USA, Russia, China, India) devide the world between themselves on the rights of winners. France finally free from Muslim (Islamo-fascist) occupation and can control its own destiny regardless of Muslim dictate. France joining the victorious Allies in defeat of Islamo-fascism. The importance of Europe’s liberation and their cooperation with Britain, Russia and American forces.
Jews who were hidden by their friends-neighbors in Riyadh finally see the light of Day. The diary of the Jewish girl who lived in Damascus under Islamo-fascist occupation gets published. Also there is an establishment of the Museum of Tolerance (Ramallah, West Bank) and gallery of Jewish refugees of Arab-Israeli wars and victims of genocidal terror that Palestinians carried out against civilian population of Israel. Thus the new young generation of Palestinian Arabs would learn first hands about the crimes of their grandparents.
This war would take millions of innocent lives, but it would be worse fight for. The world would fight for the just cause. Finally, there would be a victory of Allies (Great Britain, Russia, Americans, Jews, Chinese and India) in World War III against Muslim tyranny and totalitarian regimes of intolerance. The Rise of British, American, Russian and Israeli flags over ruined Grand Mosque pf Mecca (Reichstag) at the heart of Islamo-fascist hordes.
In short - ARMAGEDON with HAPPY ending.
Of course, this is very scary, frightening, terrible and unrealistic portrayal of the situation that would happen as a result of World War III.
Lets hope that the world would not need another great war of liberation.
Both plans would NEVER be adapted by World Community and would require personal leadership and great courage as well as vision for American and British Allies. There is a serious skepticism about implementation of this plan - see the reasons in above chapters.
25. CONCLUSION
a. Final words about the conflict itself.
b. Why the forces of Goodness would prevail sooner or later and the question of human nature.
c. Personal appeal to support the State of Israel and her People.
I hope that we can base our discussion of the conflict on the outline that I provided, thus leaving NO space for bias and propaganda.
Naturally, I hope to have a dialoge with my fellow forum readers, not a flame war.
2. DEFINITIONS of TERMS and CONCEPT APPROACH.
I. NECESSARY DEFINITIONS (What is _? For our
discussion lets define terminology). Write about the
IMPORTANCE OF DEFINITION and RIGHT TERMINOLOGY for our
study.
a. Happiness.
Happiness is very philosophical and personal issue.
For our discussion, I decided to give primitive
definition of what can be considered happiness if
there would be a need to use such word in our
discussion.
Definition (for our discussion):
Happiness – a state of human being, when such being
feels security, comfort and satisfaction in his/her
own life.
Happiness (alternative definition) – absence of
tragedy/absence of unhappiness.
b. Peace.
Definition (for our discussion):
Peace – state of human society when society and
people in it as a whole can live in happiness without
a fear of war.
For our discussion, I assume that the ultimate
goal of resolving the conflict is to achieve peace and
happiness for people who live in the region.
c. Absence of Peace.
Definition (for our discussion):
Absence of Peace does not necessary mean war; it
is just actual absence of such condition (as peace) in
the fabric of society. Traditionally, for our
discussion, we would consider “absence of peace” as
presence of violence/insecurity in people’s lives.
d. War.
Definition (for our discussion):
Extreme case of “Absence of Peace” or special
state of relationship between groups of nations or
groups of people, when sides resolve conflict through
the extreme violent confrontation without presence of
police force between sides that could control the
level of violence.
Generally, when we talk about wars we talk about
HIC (High Intensity Conflicts) and extreme violence.
War is the state of society that rules by laws that
are different from the one present in peacetime.
War can be called armed conflict between
countries or groups that involves killings and
destruction.
e. Spiral (cycle) of violence/tit-for-tat - why it
does not apply for this conflict.
Definition (for our discussion):
Spiral (cycle of violence)/tit-for-tat -
repeated circle of violence in which attacks do not
serve any other purpose than mere revenge for the
previous action of a cycle. Thus, making those acts
useless for both sides of the conflict.
Note: Spiral of violence is fundamentally
different from the acts of controlled violence
performed by armed forces or police in order to
prevent the future possible attacks as well as to stop
them all together.
Controlled violence performed by armies during
the times of war as well as actions of police force
and acts of self-defense do NOT necessary stop all the
perpetrators of attack immediately, but it still does
not allow anyone to put an equal sign between the
actions of firefighters (army) and gang-formations
(fire).
The actions of those two groups are completely
different in nature as well as in style and methods.
There is fundamental difference between their goals.
f. Terrorism/Acts of Terror.
Definition (for our discussion):
Terrorism is a deliberate (intentional) act of
violence where civilian non-combatants are the main
targets of attack.
Note: Terrorism is a peacetime equivalent of “war
crime”.
War crime can be a deliberate (intentional) act of
violence where civilian non-combatants are the main
targets of attack during the times of war.
Specific examples of terrorism:
A bomb that is placed in civilian market with intent
to harm/murder innocent bystanders (civilians) who
belong to some particular religious/ethnic group or
been chosen by terrorist(s) indiscriminately from
random visitors of this market is terrorism.
The same bomb placed five blocks from this market at
the entrance to the military base and whose explosion
resulted in the murder of innocent passer-by would be
an act of guerrilla warfare with poorly plan of attack
that produced mass collateral damage.
Nuances/Important differences of “terrorism” from
other terms:
Example #1: A bomb that is placed on the road with
intent to harm/murder soldiers of enemy force cannot
be counted as terrorist attack because it is a
guerilla type of attack even if civilian
non-combatants died as a result of pre-mature
explosion.
The perpetrators of an attack did not target civilian
non-combatants on purpose thus their deaths resulted
as unintentional collateral damage.
Example #2: Nuclear strike/precision strike on a
military installation that resulted in the death of
civilian non-combatants that were in direct proximity
of the strike is not an act of terrorism, since it is
carried out as an act of war and does not
intentionally target civilian non-combatants of that
particular area/it was not intended for the murder of
civilians.
That is why it is important to keep the military
installations like barracks, bases, power plants,
artillery pieces and cars from civilian locations.
Both sides must avoid placing their forces in civilian
neighborhoods, as they must understand that such
positions are potential targets of attack from
opposing force. Therefore, the forces that place their
military installations like cars and headquarters in
areas that are densely populated by civilians carry
the responsibilities that arise from their death by
opposing force as collateral damage of war.
Example #3: Any civilian death that resulted from
unintentional/accidental targeting of civilians can be
declared as unfortunate collateral damage.
Example #4: The attack on such military installation
as building of Pentagon can be considered an act of
war or guerrilla type of attack, but the attack on
such civilian installation such as World Trade Center
(NY) can be considered a terrorist attack during
peacetime or “war crime” during times of war.
Example #5: The destruction of Kabul’s home for
elderly and disabled citizens of Afghanistan can be
considered an unfortunate collateral damage since it
was targeted mistakenly (not on purpose/cruise missile
malfunction) and by accident in the fog of war.
Example #6: Bombing of U.S. Marines barrack in Beirut
can be considered act of guerrilla warfare during the
times of war or unprovoked surprise attack that starts
the war between the sides that participated in the
attack because the intended target was a military
personal of opposing force that was on active duty
deployed for combat in the foreign nation.
However, targeting of the same U.S. Marines by armed
opponents in the sanctity of their civilian homes in
America would an act of terrorism since they are
off-duty and not in active army and therefore they
become civilian non-combatants.
Even more to say, targeting of Palestinian militants
in the sanctity of their homes can be considered
lawful acts of war and NOT acts of terrorism since
Palestinian militants converted their home civilian
facilities into actual active military headquarters of
terrorists organizations, thus making them a military
installation (barracks/bases) in the densely populated
areas of residence. Therefore, home/military
installations can be targeted as any other military
installation including car, boat or any other type of
a vehicle that militants/terrorists use as a military
equipment or weapon.
Moreover, terrorists refusal to recognize Geneva
Convention and their repeated offences against Codes
and Laws of War make them official ‘”unlawful/illegal
combatants”. This status assigned to them even by
military during thr battle and in official military
correspondents. Thus, we can argue that Geneva
Convention designed for armed soldiers of conventional
army does not apply to those paramilitary formations
that do not recognize its authority and actively
participate in as many “war crimes” and “terrorism” as
possible.
Technically, since Geneva Convention does not say
anything about unlawful combatants and deals only with
lawful combatants (soldiers wearing uniform) and
civilian non-combatants, we can assume that we do not
have to apply it in the treatment of those individual
who refuse its protection in the first place and who
do not recognizing its authority. For more
information, see Chapter about TERRORISM and ARMY
ABUSES.
Last Important Note about terrorism:
ONCE A TERRORIST – ALWAYS A TERRORIST.
Someone’s terrorist is everyone’s terrorist – NOT a
freedom fighter.
This means that even if person participates in other
types of warfare, they can be and must be labeled
terrorists if they actively participate in creation,
ordering or carrying out terror attacks.
For example, if person loves his family and community
during day, but murders and tortures children by
night, such person can be considered an “evil” being
even though he/she can accomplish lots of good things
in life.
If person acts as a true gentleman with his lady, but
rapes other women, such person cannot be labeled as
decent and can justly be labeled as a pig (no offense
to innocent animals).
In the same manner, if person commits acts of
non-violent resistance during some part of a day and
then another part of a day actively participates in
creation or carrying out terror attacks, such person
cannot be called “freedom fighter”, “struggler”,
“militant” etc. He/she is a terrorist.
ONCE A TERRORIST, ALWAYS [stay] A TERRORIST.
No excuses. No double standard.
g. [b]Guerrilla attacks/Acts of War.
Definition (for our discussion):
Guerrilla attacks – type of warfare where one
side (usually paramilitary) uses non-conventional
(asymmetrical) style of warfare against opposing force
(usually a conventional army) in order to win the
battle and/or achieve its goals.
Examples of guerrilla attacks:
Example: Armed resistance of paramilitary force
from local population (militants/partisans) that uses
attacks against a conventional army of enemy in order
to liberate particular territory from enemy control
(end of occupation).
Note: Those guerrillas who actively participate
in terror attacks and use terrorism as tactical as
well as strategic tool for their goal cannot be called
“liberators”, because in order to be labeled partisan,
person must abstain from the actions described under
the definition of “terrorism”. * - Look terrorism.
Guerrilla - irregular militant, usually
politically motivated: a member of an irregular
paramilitary unit, usually with some political
objective such as the overthrow of a government.
Guerrillas usually operate in small groups to harass
and carry out sabotage. (guerrilla warfare).
h. Collateral damage.
Definition (for our discussion):
Collateral damage - unintended damage to
civilian life or property during a military operation.
i. Codes of War.
Definition (for our discussion):
Codes of War – some written and non-written, but
traditionally recognized laws that govern the process
of war and the way it should be carried out.
For example, such thing as declaration of war,
traditional agreement not to harm civilian
non-combatants that might be in the location of active
conflict or at least minimize damage wherever
situation permits to do so without putting lives of
soldiers in unnecessary danger. Effort of both sides
to minimize the collateral damage that cannot be
avoided during armed conflict can be called one of the
traditions of conventional warfare.
Example: When during Battle for Berlin, Russian
soldier risked his live in order to get the little
German girl from the line of fire, he committed a
courageous act of heroism, but in theory noone require
this action from him because of serious risk that
involved his personal safety of going at the line of
fire and taking her from the ruins of Berlin strasse.
Because of his courage and good heart and in
recognition of carrying out even more duties than the
one described under the Codes of War (that technically
would permit him to witness the death of the girl by
some ricochet), German people placed a memorial
monument in his owner in Berlin.
j. Bias.
Definition (for our discussion):
Bias – unjustified and unsupported assumption
about something that appears in persons thinking
process as well as in his/her views and writings that
develop independently without actual knowledge about
matter or subject.
Bias – an unfair preference or dislike of
something.
Examples:
Bias toward particular group when we talk about
rightful ownership of West Bank of Jordan River. An
assumption that this particular territory belongs to
one group more than it does to the other is biased
assumption. Bias can be an unfair preference or
dislike of particular ethnic group based on the
refusal to accept a connection of any particular group
to the land of its ancestry or historical homeland.
k. Independence.
l. Anti-Semitism.
m. Occupation.
n. Liberation.
o. Disputed territory.
..........
to be continued...