[nicky g]

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They've got it enough to something else besides murder each other and launch rockets into Israel and to smuggle arms under the Egyptian border. How about taking some sort of advantage of Israel's abandonment of Gaza to do something positive?

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Yeah how dare they try to get arms? Their occupier is only one of the biggest arms importers in the world.

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hose tomatoes rot at the border because the Israelis have to protect themselves. I've read about the time consuming means by which the Israelis allow those tomatoes to cross. They do it to protect themselves. Why they don't just tell the Palestinians to go to Hades with their tomatoes is beyond me. Why do the brutal oppressors import their 'subject' people's tomatoes anyway?

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FIne by me if Israel doesn't want to buy Palestinian crops. But it doesn;t allow Palestinians to export directly to other states and controls all the borders. Everything has to go via Israel. What positive do you see coming out of such a place? Right wingers are all for the amazing benefits of trade but never seem to see that nothing good can happen for the Palestinians under the complete blocking of all their trade and even internal trade amongst themselves. I ask you again - what exactly do you want them to "do" with Gaza when it is under complete economic blockade, has no port or airport, and the PA isn't even allowed access to its own taxes? WHen noone can be paid and no foreign bank is willing to transfer money into the territories for fear of US lawsuits? And when that has been the case for almost the entire period since the settlers left?

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And how many times do I have to hear about olive groves? Always with the olive groves. The Palestinians are always mentioning olive groves as if they are the Garden of Eden. Are they planting new olive groves in Gaza or are they busy trying to assassinate each other?

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Wow. So destroying some economically insignificant greenhouses abandonned by their colonial overlords is outrageous. But how dare they complain when their olive groves, one of the mainstays of their economy, are destroyed? That;s really something. Yes they do try to replant olive grows where they can but they take a very long time to regrow, which is one of the reasons the destruction of them is so damaging.

As for the "all they can do is assassinate each other" jibe, what do you expect when Israel and the West are starving Palestinians into overthrowing the democratically elected government? Such conditions are obviously ripe for conflict.

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Yes, I have little regard for Arab culture and they have given me reason for my opinion.

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I'm sure you know a lot about it.

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Just what I've seen with my own eyes for my entire life.

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So you have extensive experience of the Arab world I take it? Enough to sweepingly denounce the supposedly unified "culture" of all Arabic speaking peoples in a few sentences?

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I wish the Arab League would negotiate directly with Israel and come to some reasonable agreement

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The Arab League has offered Israel a peace plan to negotiate on based on teh two state solution pushed by the entire world. Only last month it called for a regional conference on the topic. It is Israel that is unwilling to negotiate.

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and then force the Palestinians to abide by it.

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That's right. Screw democracy and self=determination. Let's carry on forcing things on the Palestinians like we've been doing for 100 years. It's worked so well so far.