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Abcdxxxx Abcdxxxx is offline
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Old Jan 18th, 2007, 02:11 AM       
I don't know if you're fucking around or what....

If the question is wether Arafat was interested in Israel pre-Intifada, then you can't get a more credible source then the PLO charter, and Arafat's own coming out party at the UN. If anything, the Intifada marked the first time Arafat started to disguise his intentions, and formed spin off divisions of the PLO to play good cop bad cop. It also marks the first time Palestinians played to the media in an organized fashion, and his "driving Jews into the ocean" rhetoric was traded in for talk of Peace and a two state solution.

The settlements were built under Jordanian, and Egyptian rule, so that all pre-dates Israel. Prior to 1987 the conquered territories were full of turmoil - Americans, and Israelis wouldn't go into many villages out of fear of starting an international incident. There wasn't much there for one thing, and attacks on Israeli civilians, along with other more political terror activities were fairly common. Not as frequent as today, but they still happened. Remember, "Palestinians" had already turned neighboring nations into warzones, and took credit for terror attacks all across the globe. Bus bombings, airplane hijackings, assissinations, truck bombings.... what am I leaving out?.....all that stuff pre-dates the Intifada. The big difference is the world view was that this was a small group of wingbuts who didn't represent the Arabs, and who were actually disliked as a result. If the intifada acomplished anything, it was to sell the myth. Jean Luc Godard tried to make a film on the Palestinians in the 70's so there was fringe interest....but you didn't see theater companies in the US doing award winning productions which were sympathetic to the PLO and the Palestinian "plight" till around 87. It's also the first time these people wanted to start calling themselves Palestinians, and the territories were flooded with Saudis, Jordanians, Iraqis, Kuwaitis, Egyptians...etc.

See, Arafat was irrelevant by the time Oslo came around, in terms of who and what the Israelis should have been dealing with - but on a street level, the PLO had redefined their stronghold on these communities. Arafat declared the West Bank "Palestine", and the PLO started killing off Arabs who didn't cooperate.

Quote:
Is there any difference at all between the demands of the Palestinians that live in the occupied territories and anybody else that opposes Zionism?
Wouldn't that depend? There are Palestinians who oppose Israel because they want their olive tree back....and there are some who hate Jews. The opponents of Zionism are making a larger statement, and that is one against a Jewish state anywhere for any reason. Wether they know it or not, that is what it means to oppose Zionism. There are Palestinians who would be fine with a two state solution, I'm told....in that case, the anti-zionist would hold far more extreme seperatist goals. Unfortunately, while you're asking me to make a distinction between an anti-Zionist, and a run of the mill peace seeking Palestinian, I don't think Palestinians make the same distinction themselves.
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