Ratko Mladic extradition

[Errata]

Another moving post Errata.

I entirely agree with the paragraph I have extracted.

BUT - if you take your Henry VII analogy - he had to exterminate every other claimant to his throne, and in the end his dynasty last only a little over 100 years and three generations. Israel will never know security until it begins to learn to deal with its neighbours.

Ironically, the Muslim reviolution in Egypt and Syria increases the problems for israel - they have learned to deal with the "tyrants", democtaric states or fundamentalist ones will make uneasy neighbours!

Thanks again
Phil

I like the Henry VII analogy only in as far as was smart enough to figure out that if he claimed the throne due to his Lancastrian blood, there were like, a solid dozen people before him.

The real irony is, that Israel often has excellent relations with it's neighbors, they just can't tell anyone about it. The alliance with Pakistan shown in Charlie Wilson's War was neither the first nor the last time that happened. But nobody is willing to LOOK like they can get along.

People got up in arms about Obama supporting a return to the pre 1967 borders being put on the table. And sure Israelis make it abundantly clear they don't think that's a good idea, but only non-israelis think that this is a stupid thing to say, and how dare he suggest that be put on the table etc.
Because Israeli's know full well that it's BEEN on the table, probably since '72. It has always been discussed as being a possibility, but the requirements for that are understandable pretty high. And while the PLO might have actually gotten it done, Hamas never will. Although ironically pre 1967 still puts the Sinai Peninsula in Israeli hands, and you can't think Egypt is gonna go for that.

There are quite a few israelis who really welcome the democratic changes happening around them, even though they know the next 10 years is pretty much going to suck. One of the things that they count on is that no one is going to vote for fewer rights. With more personal liberty and more people in charge of their own destiny, they think that more Arabs will recognize that Israelis have the same right. They aren't going to side with them against Palestinians anytime soon, but hopefully they will take a neutral stance and actually stop funneling weapons in.

Israel behaves badly and gets bad advice. Of course, they are in a uniquely terrible geographic situation, so to a certain extent they can be excused for being a little jumpy. But just a little. Palestinians on the other hand are behaving badly and have bad friends. Israel can stop taking bad advice. But I don't know how successful Palestinians can be about ditching their bad friends. Not so unlike owing a favor to the Mafia. Another problem is that the Palestinians bad friends are dictating the terms of peace. Egypt, Hamas, Saudi Arabia, Al Qaida, have all drawn lines in the sand as to what Palestine should accept from Israel. Al Qaida's line is, unsurprisingly, the destruction of every Jew in Israel. Can you imagine what Al Qaida will do if Palestine accepts less than that? At this point Palestinians would be stupid to accept anything at all. They now have to wait for someone to come along who can control their bad friends before they can accept any offer, and that someone ain't Israel, and it ain't us either.

I would like to say for the record that Israel has never confirmed or denied the presence of Nuclear weapons in Israel. Rightly so. Nobody wants Lebanon to have nukes, and if Israel had then Lebanon would have to have them. As far as anyone knows they have never tested a nuclear device, and you can't really hide that kind of thing. There has been one nuclear explosion no one can explain, but they are pretty sure it was South Africa. Realistically, I think that given a great deal of the nuclear scientists here were Jewish, and several Jews were suspected of giving that information to the Soviets, you would think that more people would give the bomb to Israel than to Soviet Russia. Plus there were a lot of emigrations to Israel in the 50s... besides.. the country that gave the world the UZI is not gonna sit on A bomb technology and do nothing. But if they've tested it, no one knows how or where.