Originally Posted by terrielinn
The question is how do you come to an agreement with someone that doesn't think you have the right to live??? I say this as a question for both sides of the terrorism debate

I don't think that's a true representation. The enemies of Israel don't want to kill its inhabitants but to get them to leave.

The modern unrest in that region started when Israel was arbitrarily created out of other people's land in 1948. No compensation was offered or even contemplated, and no acceptable arrangements were made for rehousing those people displaced. Israel has behaved ever since with total contempt for its non-Jewish citizens, who really epitomise the term "second class citizen". If they wanted to inflame sensitivities they could hardly do a better job. Who knows, perhaps they do.

If viable compensation had been paid, if Israel treated non-Jews better, if they were ever prepared to see the problem from the other side, maybe the situation wouldn't have deteriorated as much as it has done. Look at how Egypt peacefully resolved its major difficulties with Israel, after many years of fruitless war.

The way to deal with terrorism is to understand what motivates it and try to deal with the root cause. This has been well established over the years in many places, including British India, Northern Ireland & Kenya, to name just three. Using brute force against terrorism has never worked and I am confident will not work now. Sure, you may kill all the people locally who are lobbing missiles at you, but they will only be replaced by other sympathisers, probably by then even better funded. The violence steadily escalates. And since the USA is (rightfully) seen as the paymaster for Israel you can expect some of that escalating violence to come across the Atlantic. Wasn't 9/11 enough?