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Read other letters about this article
Take any subject mentioning Jews or Israel, and I know exactly how you'll spin it, what you'll leave out, and how you'll twist your Jew Hating into a narrative.
The Lebanon war was a military victory but a political disaster for Israel. The PLO was driven out but not defeated.
It wasn't a political disaster for Israel.
As you know, but left out. The PLO tried to overthrow the government in Jordan and was expelled and move to Lebanon, which the PLO then used as a base to shell Israeli cities, and destabilized the Lebanonese government.
Under this context Israel invaded, and tried to destroy the PLO. Arafat was actually in an Israeli sniper's site, but the order to kill was not given.
The PLO leadership was then exiled to Tunisia.
As Gary also knows, at the time the PLO called for the destruction of Israel in the same manner that Hamas does today.
After suffering a severe military defeat, the PLO finally understood they could not defeat Israel on the field of battle, this allowed them to enter into negotiations at Oslo and drop the clause in their charter calling for Israel's destruction.
The PA and hence Palestinian self-rule is a direct result of Oslo, and Oslo would have never happened without the Lebanon War in 1982.
Demographically, Israel cannot hold onto the West Bank and Gaza, it has eventually work out a deal with someone to take control of those areas, but Israel will not deal with any entity calling for Israel's destruction.
Today, Hamas is in the position of the PLO two decades ago. Wanting self-rule, but taking calling for Israel's destruction. The two are mutually exclusive.
Outside the political violence, Hamas has done a decent job in governing Gaza. There is relative order, even today under war conditions. Police in many cities still direct traffic, there is little of the chaos that could result. Looting has been almost non-existent.
Bribery has been almost eliminated, and as a whole, Hamas' political leadership in Gaza was better than the PAs.
Israel will be very lucky if this Gaza conflict ends up like the Lebanon conflict in 1982, because if Hamas drops its call for Israel's destruction, Hamas appears to be more competent at actual governing than the PLO has.
Now, Gary is more than familiar with all this history, yet he leaves it out. Why? In order to spin his tale into as negative as possible against Israel.
