Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Operation Cast Lead Myth-buster (continued)

Claim #5: Israel must release control / return all areas it conquered to their respectful owner(s)

Hmmmm... Lets see:

The Gaza Strip has been conquered from Egypt during the 1967 war; that war, like all Israeli-Arab wars, has not been initiated by Israel (the 1967 war has been initiated by Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon).

Egypt and Israel signed a peace agreement in 1978, and all territorial disputes have been resolved and signed-upon.

The West Bank has been conquered from Jordan during that same war. Jordan and Israel signed a peace agreement in 1994; all territorial disputes between the two countries have been resolved and signed-upon, as well.

So... who should Israel return these areas to?

Plus, if we're at it, then perhaps we should promote the idea of all Canadians and Americans moving back to their countries of origin and hand North America back to the Native Americans.

Claim #6: Israel's goal is to take over as much territory as it can

By the same logic presented for claim #1 in one of the previous posts, again, if this is the case, then Israel is doing a terrible job at it. Lets just assume for a second that the rumours about Israel's nuclear weaponry are correct; and that the United States will back Israel in all of its military endeavours; how come, then, that Israel hasn't taken over the world yet?

Israel's area is 22,072 square kilometers, with a population of over 7.2 million. To put it in perspective:

  • Canada's area is approximately 10,000,000 square kilometers, more than 450 times the size of Israel;
  • Lake Erie, bordered by Ontario, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New-York, is larger in area than the state of Israel (25,000 square kilometers);
  • The total land mass of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Saudi Arabia - all are countries from which the Palestinian people arrived in the first place - is just under 3,800,000 square kilometers - more than 170 times the size of Israel.

Again, this is claim that doesn't align well with reality.

Claim #7: The current war in Gaza is the indirect result of a territorial dispute that can be resolved by Israel returning territory to Egypt / Gaza / Hamas etc

In the year 2000, Ehud Barak - then prime minister, now minister of defence - has offered Yasser Arafat, then the chairman of the Palestinian Authority - more than 97% of the territory that was conquered in 1967. Instead of accepting this and signing a peace agreement, Yasser Arafat chose to initiate yet another uprising, which has been going on to these days.

Territorial dispute? I'm sorry, not buying it. Cultural difference - sounds more like it.




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