as the world turns????

[Jon Ford]

Mike, I want to thank you for your analysis of Sharon, who is a complex 
figure deserving of a fuller understanding. Israel strikes me as a place 
very difficult to govern-- anything a leader does, he will anger some people 
and make new enemies. I say get the settlers aout of the West Bank quickly 
and try to keep them from taking full control of the Israeli government, as 
I'm sure they would like to do. Then there would really be a blood-bath!

Jon


>From: "Michael Eisenstadt" <michaele@hotpop.com>
>Reply-To: austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net
>To: <austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net>
>Subject: Re: as the world turns????
>Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 11:33:20 -0500
>
>Which paragraphs didnt you understand?
>
>Mike
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Wayne Johnson" <cadaobh@shentel.net>
>To: <austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net>
>Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 11:05 AM
>Subject: Re: as the world turns????
>
>
> > My apologies for being so dim this morning, but what part of this 
argument
> > is supposed to about "demonization" and what part is 
supposed to be about
> > "simplistic thinking"?   Am I supposed to conclude that 
the author is
> > pro-Sharon and anti-Sharon?  I fear I have missed the point 
somehow.
> >
> > Please clarify.
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > wayne J
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Madelon Umlauf" <madelon@austincc.edu>
> > To: <austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net>; 
<Guylite@aol.com>;
> > <byronmarshall2001@yahoo.com>
> > Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 10:52 AM
> > Subject: as the world turns
> >
> >
> > > it is so easy for simplistic thinking to demonize
> > > Ariel Sharon at the moment.
> > >
> > > this is the man who deceived Menachem Begin
> > > that he wouldnt take the Israeli army past the
> > > Litani area. But he pressed on to Beirut. his
> > > real intention was to create a puppet regime
> > > in neighboring Lebanon based on the Maronites
> > > (Lebanese Christians) and drive out the PLO
> > > which was on the point of taking over Lebanon.
> > >
> > > Of course the Maronites changed sides
> > > immediately (hey, its the Near East) to the
> > > Syrians and got the Syrians to save them
> > > from the refugee Palestinians. This the
> > > Syrians were happy to do because it made
> > > them the masters of Lebanon (which they
> > > still are). And Sharon did succeed in
> > > getting the PLO troops evacuated to Tunisia.
> > > This was in 1982.
> > >
> > > Sharon famously was involved in the Sabra
> > > & Shatila masacres when Maronites went into
> > > the Palestinian refugee camps and slaughtered
> > > at least 2000 men women & children. talk
> > > about a blood bath! at the very least Israeli troops
> > > stood by while this was happening.
> > >
> > > Sharon is also the gentleman who,
> > > disobeying orders from Moshe Dayan
> > > the one-eyed gent then Defense Minister
> > > who was having a nervous breakdown,
> > > took his tank battalions over into Egypt
> > > and did a classic envelopment of the
> > > Egyptian 3rd Army, saving the country's
> > > bacon so to speak. this was in 1973.
> > >
> > > and back before 1967 was the commander
> > > of Israeli Special Forces which did punitive
> > > raids against Palestinian irregulars in the
> > > West Bank then ruled by Jordan.
> > >
> > > now he has forced through the Knesset
> > > the decision to evacuate Israeli settlements
> > > from the Gaza Strip, 7000 men, women in
> > > kerchiefs and children. These folks get
> > > a $250,000 buyout per family from the govt
> > > which seems quite generous
> > >
> > > Sharon is a cold SOB. He obviously
> > > ordered the IDF to shed some serious
> > > blood in their most recent incursion into
> > > the Gaza slums. This helped the evacuation
> > > proposal to pass in the Knesset. Only
> > > Sharon could have done it. Like only
> > > Nixon could have recognized Red China.
> > >
> > > Netanyahu & other Likudites are calling for
> > > a referendum. Why when 65% of the country
> > > would vote yes. Because the settlers and the
> > > religious are a very corrupt electorate. They
> > > regularly vote the cemeteries in their precincts
> > > and their activists vote over and over again
> > > in this or that precinct. Political parties such
> > > as Labor and others send in poll watchers
> > > but it is virtually impossible to tell one young
> > > bearded black suit from another especially
> > > where the poll workers are complicit.
> > >
> > > so it seems that in the real world rulers act
> > > incrementally, ad hoc rather than according
> > > to some long-range plan.
> > >
> > > so what are we to think of Sharon now?
> > >
> > > by the way the ads on the Internet editions
> > > of Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post are
> > > thick with Vote Kerry/Edwards banners.
> > > What does that tell you about your simplistic
> > > views of Israel?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>
>

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