Rocker said:
Really? The Israelis have taken Olympic athletes hostage and shot them? They've hijacked planes? They've been strapping children down with explosives and sending them on busses and into eateries to target civlians? They've hijacked a cruise ships and thrown a disabled American overboard? Sorry, just don't agree with you. I, too, think, if left alone - the Israelis would welcome peace.
Your catalog of atrocity is incomplete. You omitted Deir Yassin, the assassinations of Lord Moyne and Folke Bernadotte, the bombing of the King David Hotel, the kidnapping and murder of British soldiers, and any number of other "terrorist" acts committed by Zionist "terrorists" before the establishment of the state of Israel on May 14, 1948. Since that date, Israel has been privileged to commit its atrocities the proper, civilized way: by uniformed soldiers implementing the policies of the elected government of an ostensibly democratic state. Or better yet, through the use of proxies (see: Sabra and Shatila, Massacre of). This, apparently, makes all the difference in the court of public opinion; I doubt that it makes much difference to the dead.
Of course, Israel "would welcome peace" - on its terms. Until such happy time, Israel is perfectly content to remain in a state of perpetual war with any and all real or perceived enemies. Jabotinsky made the case clearly in "The Iron Wall" and it remains the policy of Zionism to this day: "the only way to obtain such an agreement [peace with the indigenous Arab population], is the iron wall, which is to say a strong power in Palestine that is not amenable to any Arab pressure. In other words, the only way to reach such agreement in the future, is to abandon all idea of seeking an agreement today." The only power that could change this calculus of misery is the United States; but for reasons of its own, it chooses not to (See: Iraq, Invasion of). So, we are now witness to another "escalation" of the endless conflict; one that will continue for weeks, months, perhaps years, and will eventually sputter to an inconclusive end; after which the combatants will retrench and regroup until another seemingly trivial "provocation" launches the cycle anew. A medieval Anglo-Saxon Bard said it best:
Good against evil; youth against age
Life against death; light against darkness
Army against army; foe against foe
Hostile with hostile shall always fight
Contending for land and avenging wrongs
A wise man must ponder this world's strife.