From: bv652@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ilan Uri Woll)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast
Subject: Re: Deportation of Palestinians
Date: 2 Jan 1993 06:11:21 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: bv652@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ilan Uri Woll)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous article, jeremy@castle.ed.ac.uk (Jeremy Henderson) says:

>The affair of the illegal and immoral deportation of Palestinians has
>brought some interesting things into focus on this newsgroup. First of 
>all we can dispose of the myth that Rabin is a peacemaker, since he has
>single-handedly destroyed the

This poses an interesting question.  We know that Hamas (at least some
of the members) were opposed to the peace process.  We also know that
Many of those deported had performed acts that served to undermine the 
peace process.  Now, if these individuals committed acts that are both
undermining the peace talks and a threat to the security of Israel, is
it wrong for Israel to deport them, I would say no.
>Shamir could have dreamed of. Secondly, we can also dispose of the myth that
>the Israeli parliament contains a wide spectrum of viewpoints with regard
>to the (surely central) issue of the Palestinian question, since the
>so-called leftist Meretz party steped neatly into line and goose-stepped
>into ignominy behind Rabin.

I won't even attempt to get upset over the implications of the term goose-
stepped, instead I will point out that if these deportees committed 
criminal acts, then Israel was justified, and any right-thinking party
would support the act.

>Thirdly, we can also consign to oblivion the
>notion that the majority of the Israeli public really want a just peace
>based on honest dealing with the Palestinians, since according to opinion
>polls 91% of them are in accored with the deportations.

I pose to you a parallel situation, in the U.S. if a non- U.S. citizen 
commits murder, then they are also subject to deportation before a trial.
As to the 91%.  I would first ask you to site the poll (as I've never 
seen anything like that and am curious) and also remind you that as a
people constantly under the threat of attack, many Israelis are forced
into a defensive "us v. them" mentality.  It's very easy to judge this
from the mentality of a nation unthreatened by foreign invasion which 
can afford a morally absolute posture,  Israel realistically cannot.

>On top of that,
>we can see that the Israeli supreme court is not an independent judiciary
>body, it is a political poodle of the government, since otherwise it would
>not have been possible for it to decide that the deportees are now a
>Lebanese problem since they are on Lebanese soil (Great idea for reducing
>overcrowding in US prisons - parachute the criminal into Israel, then it's
>their problem!!).

Remember the occupied territories are under Israeli military rule, as it
was taken in a war.  Thus, the Supreme Court can only rule whether the 
military acted in an "arbitrary and capricious" manner (using U.S.legal
terms).  I am unsure as to whether these Hamas members held Lebanese
citizenship (maybe someone out there knows?), but regardless, Israel has
the legal right to deport non-citizens.

>As for the debate on this newsgroup, that too reveals some sorry sights.
>I can believe that the apologists for Israel might in good faith debate the
>finer points of the translation of the LEHI letter to the Nazis, they might
>discuss the number of Palestinians in Palestine in 1948 before they were
>"ethnically cleansed"

I'm unfamiliar with the LEHI letter and thus won't comment.  But the term
"ethnic cleansing" in relation to the Palestinians is assinine.  If this 
were true, the current problems in Israel would not be occurring, as the 
Palestinians would all be dead.  Please make sure you use these references
correctly in the future.

>they might even, in good faith, believe the various
>silly myths about "blooming deserts", and other codswallop, but now the facts
>are plain to see, and yet they STILL pop up defending the indefensible. I
>am sure that Makowsky, Tractinsky and the whole sick crew would defend the
>devil himself if he wrapped himself in the Israeli flag. So it is with some
>regret that I am adding the names of these gents to my killfile. I usually
>try to avoid adding people, rather than topics, since there's always the
>small chance that you will pickup some useful information from the 
>unlikeliest source, but in this case it's clear that they cannot even be relied
>upon to give the correct time of day. Adios, amigos.

I don't know these people and thus, won't comment.  I personally am not
an Israeli apologist.  I recognize that all countries do stupid things in
the name of national security.  However, I do not believe that Israel is this 
"Great Satan" threatening to destroy the Arabs, but a small nation doing what
it must to survive.

Ilan U. Woll

"Do you want fries with that" Gino Torreta's future career quote.
-- 
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