A Different View

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Do you think the Americans will fail to take action as a result of the National Intelligence Estimate?
Clearly the NIE reduced the enthusiasm even for tougher sanctions.

Is it possible that Israel has the ability to conduct a military raid on Iran alone?
I think the less we talk, the better off we are.

Do you think that the Syrian track should be pursued, that the peace process should be started up with President Assad?
I think that we have shown … a respect for Syria, its interests and its leaders. We expect them to do the same regarding Israel. If this basic kind of element will be there, I think a Syrian track is clearly conceivable and potentially positive.

I thought the U.S. has been opposed to Israel negotiating with Syria.
I think they realized in recent years that we understand the Syrian issue better.

Prime Minister Olmert and President Bush are now trying to do what you tried to do with Clinton during his last year in office. Do you think it's possible to achieve an agreement while President Bush is still in office?
When I dealt with it, there was Yasir Arafat, who we doubted whether he was willing but there was no doubt that he was able. Here we have two [Palestinian leaders]—Abu Mazen [President Mahmoud Abbas] and [Prime Minister Salam] Fayyad: they are both willing and ready, but there is a great question mark as to whether they are able [to deliver]. They control only half of their people.

So the Palestinian leadership must control both territories, not just the West Bank?
We are not going to give up our operational freedom for antiterror activity in the West Bank as long as there is a threat of terror.

Did you expect that once Israel had left Gaza [in 2005], there would be no violence from Gaza aimed at Israel?
Most Israelis expected that once Israel was out of Gaza, there would be no violence aimed at Israel and they would concentrate on building their own economy and their own lives. But Hamas took over and things became worse. There has been continued shelling of our cities, especially a city called Siderot. There is indiscriminate shelling of civilians. No sovereign government would accept this without responding.

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Posted By: Jion @ 02/15/2008 11:35:19 AM

A nuclear Iran may bring stability and peace to the world. Israel has rejected every peace initiative and even killed Isaac Robin in order to carry on the apartheid of the Palestinians. With American taxpayers money Israel is building settlements on illegal land and with the lives of American Marines Israel is fighting wars on several grounds. Israel has no rival and wants no peace. A powerful Iran would encourage Israel to settle for peace and America will no longer need to carry on wars for Israel. The people of Iran will kick Islam out of Iran once there is no threat from outside.
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Posted By: brotherlylove @ 02/02/2008 8:31:15 AM

Everywhere wherever there are muslims there is death, Iraq, Pakistan, India. One Pakistani was interviwed on the BBC and said " we muslims welcome death, there is nothing the west can to us because they cherish life"How can one live in the same world as these animals They even kill people of the same religion worshoping in mosques, kill their fellow Indians on trains, murder B Bhuto, fly aeroplanes full of innocent people into buildings, throw a paraplegic into the sea.

What is needed is one thing -love. And thou halt love thy neighbour as thyself, this applies to all mankind , orthwerwise mankind is doomed.
What is the root of all these problems religion, killing amd maiming people in the name of god, how can this be the act of religious people,?Can you imagine my hero Ghandi or mother Terssa or Nelson Mandella doing something like this?
Whenever there is a tragedy in the muslim world, who helps the poor people, the muslims, no America, Britain Isrel. the Arabs have entold wealth, what do most of them do with it, waste it on 600 wives, cadillacs, fighter jets, missiles, what about the ordinary poor people cold in the mountains in Pakistan without proper housing?

We are not all idiots, we have eyes and ears, why do put up with all the nonsense we are fed by the media and religious leaders?

West can
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Posted By: Sigurdur @ 01/31/2008 3:41:24 AM

Well we are talking about a state here, the state of Israel, not a band of Muslim brothers. States have to adhere to international law if they don??t want to be labeled rouge nations, like Israel is now labeled by Iceland. As our democratically elected president, Mr. Grimsson, said: when Israel refused to accept the democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people it decided to chart its own course. Israel would no longer adhere to democratic principles. It would no longer even try to look westernized, it would just look like the theocracy it is, giving inferior status to the natives, i.e. the Palestinians. Going so far as rounding them up in ghettoes and behind (Berlin) walls or in South African sort of enclaves (bhantus) all deemed reprehensible by the international community. President Grimsson says that in order to be a crime against humanity it is not necessary to kill women and children in gas chambers it is just the same crime against humanity to surround these women and children with American Abrams tanks and shoot them to pieces. Our President Grimsson is a former professor of political science in Iceland.
Professor Grimsson pointed out that in Iceland, Marxist parties, bent on overthrowing our capitalistic system, were allowed to participate in our elections. Democratic people are not allowed the luxury the Israelis demand for themselves, accepting only the democratic results that go their way. The Israelis are simply not mature enough for democracy. They should take lessons from our President Grimsson.