Israeli troops pull out of Gaza

[Evanauto]

Three major Palestinian groups declared a temporary cease-fire Sunday after 33 months of violence, and Israel pulled out of part of the Gaza Strip — breakthroughs in the U.S.-backed bid for peace.

The militant Islamic Jihad and Hamas groups announced a joint three-month cease-fire, while Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction declared a six-month truce.

Israel expressed doubts about the promises and insisted the Palestinian Authority must disarm the militants. The Bush administration welcomed news of the cease-fire, but said it wants to see more progress in the so-called "road map" to peace.

"Anything that reduces violence is a step in the right direction," White House spokeswoman Ashley Snee said. "Under the road map, parties have an obligation to dismantle terrorist infrastructure. There is still more work to be done."

Best of luck to them, they'll need it

[Sophia-7]

As soon as the ceasefire is over there will be a massive bloodbath, courtesy of Hamas...

They (the fundementalists such as Hamas) teach their children that Jews are Apes and Pigs, that there was no Holocaust (it was fabricated to gain Israel) and God (Koranic text) demands conversion or death.

Fundementalist Muslims believe every Jew is a rich media-controlling and World dominating conspirator...

yeah like there is ever going to be peace...

[Empanado]

At 6/30/03 09:05 PM, Sophia_7 wrote: As soon as the ceasefire is over there will be a massive bloodbath, courtesy of Hamas...

They (the fundementalists such as Hamas) teach their children that Jews are Apes and Pigs, that there was no Holocaust (it was fabricated to gain Israel) and God (Koranic text) demands conversion or death.

Fundementalist Muslims believe every Jew is a rich media-controlling and World dominating conspirator...

yeah like there is ever going to be peace...

Aren't you forgetting something? Like the fact that Sharon has broken one truce after another? (i don't say 'Jews' 'cause so far the only jew bitches are sharon and his followers...so far)
Or like the fact that, originally after the WWII, Israel was suppossed to be a nation that CAME OUT from
SOME of the territory of the nation of PALESTINE? (yes, in fact it existed back then...but the media doesnt like to bring that back, do they?) It was suppossed to be a territory next to Palestine (altough former palestine territory also), but the jews (now i CAN say jews on average terms... not every jew of course but many of them) took out THE WHOLE COUNTRY OF PALESTINE, THEY INVADED IT, AND NO ONE DID ANYTHING ABOUT THAT.

i think that, the LESS that Israel can do now, is to agree the formation of a new Palestinian nation.

it is terrorism indeed, but in my opinion, it's the most justified terrorism at this moment of modern times.

And this conflict is not as religious as you may think, because, in fact, Muslim religion is compatible at a certain point with Jewish religion and Christian religion, but Jewish religion isnt compatible at all with Christian religion, because the same base of their culture is different. If it where totally based on religion, there would be stronger conflicts between Christians and Jews, don't you think? (ok, that's not much of a point)

[Sophia-7]

The Jews make up 0.23% of the World population.

When they lived in Islamic Arab States they were slaughtered.
When they lived in Christian Europe they were slaughtered.

The first written claim to the entire land of Israel was written by Jews in Hebrew and can be found among the dead sea scrolls.Why shouldn't we have our land ?

Many "Palestinians" immigrated from Arab lands in an imperialist movement of occupation in the early 1800's, to combat the popularist movement of Zionism among the Jews of Europe (most of whom perished in the Holocaust).

Israel is surrounded by enemy Arab States, who persecuted Jews within their territories on Religious grounds before the State of Israel was recognised by the U.N.

There are over 1.3 Billion Muslims in the World and there are 14 million Jews.

[Empanado]

yes, but muslims don't have the most powerful (only in militar terms of course) nation backing up them, and i've always asked, why do americans protect Israel? i've tought that, either it is to keep the jews on the u.s. happy (they are as much or even more than the jews on israel), or, to have an ally on that inestable zone. Altough none of them is a pretty good reason.
Besides that, Israel has A LOT greater militar power than close Arab nations, and if they don't, at least they have enough to daily exterminate one palestinian after another. I mean, come on, palestinians are fighting the israeli tanks with STONES, on average terms, because they don't have any more weapons. That explains the suicide attacks, instead of a more "decent" way of fighting. Of course, they end up killing innocent jews, and sometimes they don't even kill jews, but the point is that Israel is just doing with the palestinians what the Nazis did to the jews. But no one wants to realize that. You actually think that the israeli soldiers are nice people who saves the little children and care about not hurting any civilian or innocent? lemme give you a clue: they're not.
And, about the dead sea scrolls and that, you have a point there, but Muslims can't follow what's written on the scrolls if they don't believe in them, or can they? I mean, if there were a Muslim sacred text that said that all USA, or UK, or wherever you live (suppossing that it were a close territory to arab countries) belongs to the arabs, really, would you just step away from your country? It's a matter of belief, in fact.

[Sophia-7]

Israel has the first written claims over the land of Israel.There does not exist an older document pertaining to this land.If we ignore this as an International community, then every minority group in the World would have no rights over their native lands.

Israel sits within a sea of enemy states, if they did not have weapons and deterents they would be annihilated...

Israel has siezed ships laden with weapons en route for Palestine, this is why there are left with stones, guns and bombs that they use on civilians and not on soldiers...

There was an Islamic branch of the German SS before there was ever a state of Israel.There was HATE of the Jews before Israel.In Iraq in the 18oo's there were over 6ooo Jews and 5 survived the anti-semitic persecutions then i.e. Genocide...

Please don't hate on a vunerable minority group and fall for all the cliches.

[Empanado]

Ok, all this you say about what happenned before has its importance, but don't forget that the present will always have more importance than the past. The point is, that NOW the minority it's not Israel anymore, it's palestine, like it or not. And what you say about native populations and their lands has no big importance after all, because, tell me, do native americans OWN their land, that belongs historically to them? And african natives? And south-american natives? Easter Island? Australia? etc. etc. etc. Tell me. exactly, what's the difference between Israel and all those countries. The point is, THEIRE INVADING PALESTINE. But, more important than that, is that as i see, we will never get a point here because i'm half-arabian and i have the feeling you're jewish (tell me if i'm wrong). It's useless, the only way of solving political problems would be to get two guys from switzerland, that is always neutral, and see what they think. I could be here remarking the same point once and once again (and surely you too) but that's not my idea of debate. (check out the opinions we've posted. They're all the same.)

[Commander-K25]

Considering there was no independent nation of Palestine before Israel came about, their claim is a little "out of thin air". The disputed territories were formerely controlled by Jordan and Egypt.

[JMHX]

Wow, a cease-fire. This is going to last for about a month, then the bloodlust is going to come back and the road map will not only be ripped apart more, but also incinerated in the suicide blasts.

[Ravens-Grin]

When they[Jews] lived in Islamic Arab States they were slaughtered.
When they lived[Jews] in Christian Europe they were slaughtered.

I believe you are biased and uneducated. When the Islamic Arab States did rule over people of different religions, they did not slaughter them. They instead taxed them more than the people of Islam, and that's it. Or could you give me a more specific event that occurred in which the Arabs persecuted Jews? The worst persectuers of Jews was Christians(Hitler anyone?).

Don't forget the slaughter of Arabs (Well the particular group that lived there we call them Palestinians today) in Jerusalem during the Crusades, or did you forget about them?

I do hope this cease-fire goes on permamently and that neither Sharon or Habbas will mess another opportunity up for peace. I hope that the Israelis and Palestinians will forgive many of the wrong-doings each other has done to them.

[Sophia-7]

At 7/1/03 11:24 PM, Ravens_Grin wrote:

When the Islamic Arab States did rule over people of different religions, they did not slaughter them. They instead taxed them more than the people of Islam, and that's it. Or could you give me a more specific event that occurred in which the Arabs persecuted Jews?

During the time of Muhammad the Meccan army exterminated the Jewish tribe of Quraiza.As a result of the Prophet Muhammad's resentment towards the Jews.Jews were relegated to Arab-style Jewish ghettos, this was recorded by travelers over the centuries, as well as by Jewish chroniclers.

In Syria, the infamous blood libel of 1840 brought about the death, torture, and pillage of countless Jews falsely accused of murdering a priest and his servant to collect the blood for Passover matzoth.

During the time of the Great Persian empire, King Haman in 426 bce ordered the mass murder of all the Jews within the Persian empire.They escaped but this is an example for an intent to commit genocide.

Hope that is enough for now, there are many other examples in History, the fact that there was an Islamic division of the SS is a more recent example also.

[JMHX]

As I read more and more, it seems that this Phase 1 of the Peace Roadmap is going to work. It's Phase 2 - Creation of a Palestinian State that is going to make it all collapse in on itself. We just can't leave well enough alone sometimes.