I dont think there is a difference between Hamas and IRA, i think religion is the main factor that drove both of these organizations to be radical. Now, why did they negotiate with the IRA, because they have a more favorable view of the IRA, the IRA wasnt trying to kill americans and american soul. Hamas, if given the opportunity would do just that, which doesnt sit well with the American people, so negotiation is completely out. How we deal with them is and will be a different story.
This is a mistake, I think. Not all radical Arabs have the same agenda. Palestinian radicals are entirely focused on Israel. There is no evidence that they want to fight the United States. They may not like us, but their war is with Israel. Al Qaida split with a lot of radical Arab groups when they decided to directly take on the US. The Egyptian Islamic Jihad split into two groups over it. One joined Al Qaida, but the main group decided that it wasn't their fight and stayed focused on Israel. Just like defeating Saddam and his henchmen, we musn't get distracted trying to fight every angry Arab in the world and stay focused on Al Qaida, the ones who are dedicated to fighting US. Israel can take care of itself with Hamas and Hezbollah, and being a US ally deserves our support and gets it. But we do not need to take them on as American enemies when they have not brought their fight to us. Neither side in the Palestinian/Israel conflict is going to go away. Each side wants to kill all the others and keep all of the land, but it juts ain't going to happen and it's high time Israel and Palestine realize this. This 50-year war is hurting us and everybody else in the middle east and it is our best interests that it goes away.
Are you saying, that given the opportunity these split groups who are mainly focused on Israel, wouldnt do harm to the US abroad or on our soil? I think you maybe missing the point I was making. I do get your point about the exclusivity of an agenda. However, radical Islam is routed in hate for America, no matter the forefront of the current war they choose to be in.
While neither are international terrorists, I disagree on the similarities. Hamas may feel Israel belongs to Arabs, but the fact is, the Israelis ain't going anywhere. That country is their's and they will kill to keep it. Britain can try to justify a claim to Ireland, but Cromwell has been dead for quite awhile, and the argument just did not hold up to international scrutiny. Now that's true. This is true also. The Soviets were not religious fanatics, just xenophobes with a huge inferiority complex. Negotiating with Muslims works to a limited degree, but radicals that fight from a foundation of religion are hard to reason with. Trying to distill the Northern Ireland "troubles" to merely being conflicts between Catholics and Protestants, and therefor purely religious in nature, looks good in headlines, but is a terrible misrepresentation. Yes the hatred exists along "religious lines" but they are not killing each other over who is the head of the church. It is all about social and economic discrepancies between the majority(Catholic) and the minority(Protestant). Quite simply, the Catholics were persecuted for hundreds of years in favor of Protestant settlers. The people of Northern Ireland want Britain gone, not the Protestants. Britain failed both sides. Hamas wants Israel gone, but only then can Sunnis and Shiites get down to the real business of killing one another. Not sure I see a negotiable reality with these people. And coming from Carter? You have got to be kidding me. He should be making Bartles & James commercials in Japan.
It would be great if it was just limited to us, but radical Islam is rooted in hatred. When all the infidels are slain, they will merely turn on each other. There is no paradise on earth for Muslims. It has as much to do with their culture as religion, and it seems unlikely to change. Traditional Islam does not tend to preach enlightenment.
They haven't so far, nor have they made such a threat. Hezbollah fought us in Lebanon only when we invaded their turf, but they never went after us directly. Same thing with the Iraqi resistance. Al Qaida in Iraq went there to kill Americans. But the Sunni and Shiite militias are fighting invaders on their turf. They have not come after us where we live and when we are gone, they will go back to killing each other. The sooner the better if you ask me. I have no love for the raghead bastards and we don't need to go around picking fights with every angry Arab. They may hate us, but only Al Qaida has declared war on us.
Britain does not lay claim to Ireland, only to Northern Ireland where they are protecting the interests of British Crown citizens, just as they did in the Falklands. Not really. It's a fine line, but it ain't invisible. Well, you can just as easily say that Israeli/Palestinian hatred exists along "religious lines" but they are not killing each other over religion, but about social and economic discrepancies between the majority(Palestinian) and minority (Israeli). They don't hate Jews, just Jews holding their land. :rolleye33: There are a lot of protestants in Northern Ireland that will disagree with you. They do not want to become part of Ireland. You're catholic aren't you, O'Dude? :grin:
And vice versa, of course! They hate jews for a reason and its not because they are jewish, it's because they are zionist. Before Israel was created in 1948, Jews and Arabs were not implacable enemies in the holy land. The local Jews and Christians were tolerated and the Christians still are--there are many Palestinian Christians. It's the arrival of all the European and Russian Jews after the Holocaust that took the land and booted them out that caused the hate.
You know I always wanted to know what was the root of the hate, that really explains it. Now my next question is that Isreal claims that there never was a country or state called Palestin, is this true?