Israel refuses peace negotiations

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Originally Posted by anthonyvop

Apparently your Goverment thinks otherwise.

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Gov.../1076153918137

BTW Aren't Finnish Troops part of the UN "Peacekeeping Force" in Israel? Actually one of the casualties of the accidental Israeli shelling of the UN Bunker was a Finnish Soldier.

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They are in Lebanon, not Israel. Israel hasn't much respect for UN. In addition to the bombing, I saw on TV a video where an armoured car of the Finnish UN troops tried to stop a caterpillar of the Israeli military in Lebanon. The caterpillar just pushed the armoured car aside and the Israelis on it flipped the middle finger to the UN troops. Made me quite angry. The Israelis were probably lucky that the UN soldiers are prohibited from using their weapons except in extreme cases of self-defence.

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Originally Posted by Eki

They are in Lebanon, not Israel. Israel hasn't much respect for UN. In addition to the bombing, I saw on TV a video where an armoured car of the Finnish UN troops tried to stop a caterpillar of the Israeli military in Lebanon. The caterpillar just pushed the armoured car aside and the Israelis on it flipped the middle finger to the UN troops. Made me quite angry. The Israelis were probably lucky that the UN soldiers are prohibited from using their weapons except in extreme cases of self-defence.

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The Israelis don't respect the UN at all, neither do they respect any foreigners 'interfering' in their business like the Swedish girl portrayed in the blog above. Like the Arabs they only respect force. They'll respect the UN when UN troops are able to defend themselves but then they won't accept UN troops on their borders in the first place if they have that power.

Its a rare day indeed when any Israeli soldier for example is ever found guilty of killing/wounding foreigners like James Miller, Tom Hurndall and Rachel Corrie let alone Palestinians despite strong evidence of guilt. There's always a convenient excuse to be found and a rather lazy approach to prosecuting the cases. Things really haven't changed much since the USS Liberty got strafed and bombed repeatedly by the Israeli air force and navy in the 6 day war even after they had realised it was an American vessel. Obviously no Israeli was ever punished for that 'mistake'.

They also have a habit of targeting foreign press reporters especially when fighting flares up. I remember an article by the rather fearless Marie Colvin during the second intafada who stated in her reports that there was a definite culture of targeting the press within the Israeli forces to the point that journalists felt it was safer to remove 'press' stickers on their cars to prevent the Israelis from singling them out.

I'm sure that people will claim that the Israeli army is a disciplined fighting force and they are right, it is. This makes it all the more difficult to believe that the targeting of the press etc is not an ingrained part of army culture.

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Originally Posted by anthonyvop

accidental shelling

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LOL, since when was shelling anything accidental?

Still living in your state of denial?

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Originally Posted by fousto

Well perhaps you could give us a ratio of suicide bombers to population your country vs Israel and then you just may get a idea of why they could get provoked at Tope's statement.

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Ever heard of FARC or tamil Tigers' use of suicide bombers? Hamas are no way the biggest users of suicide bombers.

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Originally Posted by Eki

They are in Lebanon, not Israel. Israel hasn't much respect for UN. In addition to the bombing, I saw on TV a video where an armoured car of the Finnish UN troops tried to stop a caterpillar of the Israeli military in Lebanon. The caterpillar just pushed the armoured car aside and the Israelis on it flipped the middle finger to the UN troops. Made me quite angry. The Israelis were probably lucky that the UN soldiers are prohibited from using their weapons except in extreme cases of self-defence.

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Where can I see that video? Sounds like the kind of Vid that would brighten up my day!

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Originally Posted by anthonyvop

Where can I see that video? Sounds like the kind of Vid that would brighten up my day!

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I saw in on Finnish TV. I tried to search it on the internet but without success.

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Originally Posted by Eki

I saw in on Finnish TV. I tried to search it on the internet but without success.

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Next time you see it try and grab it and post it on youtube.
Call it the 127,897th time that the U.N. has proven itself a useless organization.

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Originally Posted by Eki

No, I mean what's wrong in resistance? There was resistance when the Nazis tried to expand their "Third Reich" to Poland. I don't see much difference in today's Israel and the past "Third Reich". They both want/wanted more "lebensraum" (room to live in) and have a "winner takes it all" attitude. Neither are/were ready to compromise and share.

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Eki, if Israel was actually like that, the Palestinians would be gone from the West Bank - either they would have left or been killed by the IDF. I can tell you that many among the more extreme portions of Israeli society want exactly that.

The problem here is not Israel's government, Eki. They want a peaceful solution because after nearly 60 years of war, one has to think that the Israelis have had enough of it and want to go on living their lives. But the Palestinians don't seem to want a peaceful solution, and both want to have their way. That isn't just an Israeli problem.

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Originally Posted by anthonyvop

Call it the 127,897th time that the U.N. has proven itself a useless organization.

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what's a useful organisation? or did you believe too much of Gingrich's contract with America? :laugh:

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Originally Posted by BrentJackson

They want a peaceful solution because after nearly 60 years of war, one has to think that the Israelis have had enough of it and want to go on living their lives.

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You'd think so wouldn't you.

However apart from the odd exception like Oslo where I think both sides tried to reach a real agreement (and did) or the Camp David talks at 2000 the Israelis have been very very good at outwardly looking as if they want peace whilst quietly agreeing to expand Jewish settlements in the Occupied Territories and confiscating Palestinian land and doing anything to prevent a real and lasting settlement that gives away too much.

Its very clever really, we see Israeli diplomats prepared to smile and shake hands for the cameras whilst the Palestinians see them offering to give with one hand while taking with the other and break off talks. I guess a lot of people get fooled by that as your statement suggests.

I'm not suggesting that the Palestinians are angels in this of course, they are more than guilty of torpedoing peace talks but the suggestion that the Israelis are the ones wanting peace and the Palestinians not is rather laughable.