If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel."

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If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence
If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel."

I think there is some truth to this. But as famous as this maxim may be, it has two serious shortcomings.

First, it rests on two premises that have not been proven. 1) That Arabs are only interested in violence and 2) That Israelis are only interested in defense. 

The full truth is some Arabs want peace, and some Israelis want war. I'll agree that MORE Arabs want war and MORE Israelis want peace, but why are you certain the peace loving Israelis would prevail over the war-mongering Israelis if the the Arabs were to put down their weapons? Perhaps the war-loving Israelis would find a way to continue the conflict, say, by discrediting Arab peace efforts or by goading Arabs into attacking. Its not impossible.

Second, there are some Israelis who want to take as much land from the Palestinians as possible. Don't even try to deny it. If the Arabs were to put down their weapons we wouldn't have a shooting war, that's true, but if the Israeli RW and religious parties persisted in their policies of land usurpations "peace" would continue to be elusive.

It comes down to this. I agree that if the Arabs stopped bombing etc, the IDF would stop their operations. No question about it. But would Israel stop usurping their land, and treating them like second class citizens and depriving them of rights and protections? Because absent that you may not have a war, but you don't have peace either.

Now I said the maxim has some truth to it so as tedious as this is, I wish to reiterate the obvious before I conclude: Most Israelis are non violent in nature. Almost all Israelis denounce terrorism and acts of violence against civilians in all forms. This is a crucial, glaringly obvious difference between Israelis and Arabs.
While Israelis may not be willing to withdraw from Arab lands, they aren't murderers. They aren't going to slaughter babies (unless a Hamas terrorist or missile launcher is nearby) and they aren't going to kidnap and shoot teenagers on purpose (unless the teenagers throw rocks at soldiers or otherwise clashes with Israeli authorities or happens to be in the proximity of others who are clashing) and they aren't going to pay pensions or give honors to people who kill civilians (unless the civilians were killed by IDF soldiers who were attempting to fulfill a mission) and they aren't going to trade for the release of people who kill civilians (unless those people are IDF soldiers).

The parentheticals are not my sly attempt to create equivalencies, by the way. In my opinion, slaughtering a baby while its sleeping in its crib is morally different (morally worse!) from killing a baby who happens to be in the proximity of a terrorist target. But from the perspective of the kid's mother its all the same...


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