(Times of Israel) Fred Maroun - There are hundreds of groups worldwide that are actively seeking independence. They include Armenians in Azerbaijan; the Jumma people and the Bengali Hindus in Bangladesh; a dozen different groups in Burma; Mongolians, Tibetans, and Uyghurs in China; Abkhazians, Ossetians, and Armenians in Georgia; seven groups in India; and many others. If any of these groups was offered a state, as Palestinians were offered several times already, it is highly unlikely that they would have turned it down, yet terrorism is very rare among those groups. Palestinian terrorism continues, in fact, because Palestinians are not desperate and can afford, due to international aid, to hold off on accepting any solution until they can get what they have always openly demanded - the destruction of the Jewish state. Arabs had a choice from the start, and they still do: accept the Jewish state and benefit from Israel's contributions, or fight the Jews tooth and nail. It is unfortunate for Arabs that they chose the latter. The Arab world is very slowly moving towards acceptance of Israel, but the support that the Arab world still provides to Palestinian extremists is an important obstacle to resolution of the conflict. The writer is a Canadian of Arab origin.
2018-04-27 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive