yirmeyahu,
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You made a sweeping generalization, saying that Palestinians "seek nothing less than the destruction of Israel". What Palestinians seek is to be left alone to exercise the right to self-determination on their own land. While your generalization may hold true for some, most would love to live side by side with Israel in peace.
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note: i wrote
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with a good deal of the palestinians
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now, when speaking of "nothing less than the destruction of israel", guess what, the electoral winner hamas espouses this. and it took a lot of time and pressure before the old fatah party got to renounce that, as well.
i am sure that many palestinians wouldn't mind living side by side with israel in peace; however, their leaders often do not believe in this. palestinian education doesn't help in this regard either.
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Your logic in arguing that the Palestinians do not have a state, and therefore being free from the occupation cannot be their "only true goal" is fallacious. It's quite a bit like trying to say, "well, you're still hungry, so you couldn't possibly want to eat". It's nonsense.
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you misunderstand my logic. my logic is that palestinians, by their actions and words, have more than that one stated goal of being free from occupation and establishing a state. if that was their only goal, their actions to date would be considered irrational. however, if we factor in other objectives, their actions would be considered quite rational.
so now the question is, what exactly are the other objectives?
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neither is there any justification for Israeli terrorism, or for the illegal occupation.
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the problem with morally equivocating "israeli terrorism" and "palestinian terrorism" is that israel, by virtue of its greater resources and military tradition, tends to focus bringing terror to palestinian extremists. even the israeli ham-handed methods such as bulldozing homes is aimed not at the populace in general but in those select few.
palestinian terrorism, on the other hand, is not so pinpoint, and causing massive deaths that bring them international news coverage is the usual mode of conduct. now i disagree with the original post, that this is a result of "palestinian culture". i suspect if the tables were turned, israelis might very well act in the same way, given true-blue jewish terrorism prior to 1948 against the UK, for example.
in any case, these are two different methods. you would be fully correct in equivocating the two if israel began carpet bombing in the hopes of inflicting maximum damage, and began pronouncing its goal to be the destruction of the palestinian people.