Feeding Crocs

Playing chicken games with the crocs [Excerpts]
 
In the James Bond movie "Live and Let Die," "007" encounters a nest of crocodiles bent on having him for a meal. Armed only with pieces of chicken, Bond tosses the fowl at the crocs to hold them off until he figures out an escape plan. The crocs quickly consume the chicken, but keep pressing toward their ultimate objective.
 
Which brings us to Israel's forced removal of residents from Gaza. Israel is "Bond." The pieces of chicken represent land. The Palestinian/Arab/Muslim side are crocodiles. Get it? Most Westerners do not. Israel tosses pieces of land at the Palestinian side, but once it is consumed, the Palestinians only want more until their real objective -- the consumption of Israel -- is reached and their hunger satiated.
 
Reading and listening to the reaction of Muslim clerics, Palestinian leaders and others throughout the region to Israel's unilateral act offers little comfort to anyone with faith in a two-state "solution" consisting of Israel and a Palestinian entity living side-by-side in peace and harmony. That does not deter apostles of this false political doctrine from continuing to promote their flawed plan.
 
An editorial in London's Daily Telegraph represents this thinking: "The onus is now on (Palestinian Authority leader) Mahmoud Abbas ... Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Fatah Martyrs' Brigades and others of their ilk must be persuaded or compelled to abandon their arms in favor of peaceful political engagement."
 
That is unlikely to happen. Among the chants heard as Israeli soldiers forced their fellow Jews from their Gaza homes was, "We will continue with the rest of Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, until we control all of Israel."
 
Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar, in an interview with the Arab newspaper Asharq Al Awsat, said, "We do not and will not recognize a state called Israel. . . . This land is the property of all Muslims in all parts of the world. . . . Let Israel die." That's not the rhetoric of someone who yearns to live side-by-side in peace and harmony with an Israeli state.
 
They are all crocodiles. Tossing pieces of "chicken" in their direction will never satisfy them. They want it all. They say so, and their actions prove they are serious (Thomas, http://www.JewishWorldReview.com, August 23, 2005).