Israel/Palestine
In reply to the discussion: New Israeli search method at West Bank checkpoint worries Palestinians [View all]Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)I asked you to explain why a whole series of negative events, including the rise of Hamas, occurred as a result of the occupation, when, by the logic of the argument in your previous post, not only should Hamas NOT have emerged, but all forms of resistance should have declined.
And yes, the PLO was "defanged"-which ended up being a horrible tragedy, since the PLO leadership were people Israel could have negotiated with, had they treated the PLO leadership as equals deserving of equal respect in the peace process, instead of simply trying to weaken them, an objective that ended up having no positive consequences whatsoever. A Palestine dominated by the PLO would have had no chance at all of going "Islamist", and would have had a much greater chance of being a secular democracy.
And, had the PLO not been weakened by Israel, Hamas and Hizbollah would never have grown in strength no matter what. It should bother you that the weakening of the PLO DID, in fact, have the effect of strengthening groups that the Israeli government always knew would be much, much worse.
It should bother you, that is, if you actually wanted peace-since you knew that peace was always going to have to mean accepting an independent Palestinian state comprising the West Bank and Gaza.