If History can be a guide, as it unceasingly is, the liberators, or at least the perceived liberators, sometimes gets the boot from the people they are fighting for. To be specific, I am wondering when the Palestinian people are going to give the radical terrorists who keep them under oppression the boot. You read it correctly, the radical terrorists that not only bring mayhem to the Israeli people, but enforce a complete dictatorship over the Palestinian people and are responsible for the conditions in which they live.
If one looks to other struggles around the world, the ones who come in to help, the "freedom fighters" have often overstayed their welcome, or at least worn out the welcome mat. A poignant example is the fact that Israel agreed to let 13 wanted terrorists go free, but no country wanted to take them. Would you allow those guys on to your soil? What if they took their cause against you? Notorious as infighting in Islam is, the thirteen, wherever they end up, are bound to cause problems.
We see the tide turning against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC). Once a broad-based populist movement, if Marxist in foundation, which enjoyed support from across the Colombian spectrum, it has turned into a pariah for both the government and society. As the FARC looked for additional funding to fight the government, they started to court the drug lords for work, seemingly innocent at first- but sinister in the end. The grip of greed now rules the day, and the Colombian people now find them selves subject to random bombing at the hands of a major terrorist group.
Perhaps a better case, if not the classic example of overstaying one's welcome, is that of the Irish Republican Army. After decades of creating problems for the British government, they too have found themselves courting terrorist organizations around the world for support and training. After striving to fit into the ranks of the big boys, they found that the Republic of Ireland was not all that willing to have them come join the ranks of the brothers in Dublin. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, the IRA signed the Good Friday accords a few years back, although it was evident decades ago that if the British government ever agreed to let Northern Ireland go, the Republic of Ireland sure wasn't going to add bands of terrorists to the ranks of its citizenry.
After the bombing in Rishon Letzion, the time had clearly come for the Palestinians to shirk the leadership that has clearly left them in a lurch. It is at this point that Yassir Arafat's supposed irrelevance, which has quaffed in and out of our senses like a bad smell, is completely evident. The time has come for Mr. Arafat to be removed from the world stage - by his own people.
With the actions in the latest bombings, we can hope that Hamas may have begun to remove themselves as the darlings of the people. This will only work if two things, both necessary, happen unhindered. First, life must be made miserable for those who both support and sponsor Hamas and groups of similar ilk. Israel correctly brought the war to the camps, where terror brews. Second, the world must stand silent as Israel deals with a problem so foreign to most of the countries pointing the finger at its actions. Only when the Palestinians see that their cause is hindered, not improved, by terrorism will the situation improve.
We have seen other terrorist groups fall from the graces that gave them power in the first place, it is high time that we let the Palestinian terrorists hang themselves with a noose. One tied by the Palestinian people.
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Stephen A. McDonald writes frequently on Israel for BigTreeNews.com.
If one looks to other struggles around the world, the ones who come in to help, the "freedom fighters" have often overstayed their welcome, or at least worn out the welcome mat. A poignant example is the fact that Israel agreed to let 13 wanted terrorists go free, but no country wanted to take them. Would you allow those guys on to your soil? What if they took their cause against you? Notorious as infighting in Islam is, the thirteen, wherever they end up, are bound to cause problems.
We see the tide turning against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC). Once a broad-based populist movement, if Marxist in foundation, which enjoyed support from across the Colombian spectrum, it has turned into a pariah for both the government and society. As the FARC looked for additional funding to fight the government, they started to court the drug lords for work, seemingly innocent at first- but sinister in the end. The grip of greed now rules the day, and the Colombian people now find them selves subject to random bombing at the hands of a major terrorist group.
Perhaps a better case, if not the classic example of overstaying one's welcome, is that of the Irish Republican Army. After decades of creating problems for the British government, they too have found themselves courting terrorist organizations around the world for support and training. After striving to fit into the ranks of the big boys, they found that the Republic of Ireland was not all that willing to have them come join the ranks of the brothers in Dublin. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, the IRA signed the Good Friday accords a few years back, although it was evident decades ago that if the British government ever agreed to let Northern Ireland go, the Republic of Ireland sure wasn't going to add bands of terrorists to the ranks of its citizenry.
After the bombing in Rishon Letzion, the time had clearly come for the Palestinians to shirk the leadership that has clearly left them in a lurch. It is at this point that Yassir Arafat's supposed irrelevance, which has quaffed in and out of our senses like a bad smell, is completely evident. The time has come for Mr. Arafat to be removed from the world stage - by his own people.
With the actions in the latest bombings, we can hope that Hamas may have begun to remove themselves as the darlings of the people. This will only work if two things, both necessary, happen unhindered. First, life must be made miserable for those who both support and sponsor Hamas and groups of similar ilk. Israel correctly brought the war to the camps, where terror brews. Second, the world must stand silent as Israel deals with a problem so foreign to most of the countries pointing the finger at its actions. Only when the Palestinians see that their cause is hindered, not improved, by terrorism will the situation improve.
We have seen other terrorist groups fall from the graces that gave them power in the first place, it is high time that we let the Palestinian terrorists hang themselves with a noose. One tied by the Palestinian people.
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Stephen A. McDonald writes frequently on Israel for BigTreeNews.com.