Regional Arms Control: Regional Stability Unbalanced by New Deal: Mr. Hulays, I apologize for not dealing with all of the points y

» Lawhawk - Mr. Hulays, I apologize for not dealing with all of the points y

Mr. Hulays, I apologize for not dealing with all of the points you raise. In the future, please keep your remarks short and to the point in order to get short replies back. As I have mentioned in an earlier posting, I will attempt to deal with all the issues raised in a timely manner.

Readers should keep in mind that the editorials are my opinion of the situation and I try to supply as much information to support my beliefs, as Mr. Hulays is doing.

The Palestinian issue is something that the nations of the world have been dealing with constantly since 1948. Israel's current Prime Minister wrote in his biography that he felt that the Palestinians already have a country to call their own - Jordan. Technically, he is correct since the modern day Jordan was born of the British Mandate Palestine that was carved up by Britain prior to 1947 into Transjordan and Palestine. I however do not agree with this view.

As an aside, it was clearly evident during the Gulf War that any ballistic missile, no

matter how inaccurate can be utilized as a terror weapon. I do not agree with the Israeli decision to maintain a nuclear stockpile nor do I agree with any other country in the region getting weapons of mass destruction.

Israel has committed numerous violations of human rights and should be held accountable, just as any other country should. Israel should be held to the same standard as all those other countries, from China to South Africa to Iran and Iraq.

My view of the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflict was that it was shaped by the Cold War conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States, not solely by actual participants of the the Arab-Israeli conflict. Both the US and Soviet Union took advantage of the situation in order to dominate the region and its resources. The US chose to side with Israel since they viewed it as the most stable regime, but they dealt with others from time to time to maximize their influence. The conflict could possibly have been resolved many years back had the US and Soviets chosen to bring peace to the region. Instead the region took advantage of the situation, with Israel taking serious advantage of its contacts with the US.

I will talk further of this issue in later essays.

Michael Siegel
Mid-East Politics

-- posted by Lawhawk