David,These great and important points in which you cover the situation from A to Z, need to be expressed in every way possible, to as wide an audience as possible!
Solid analysis there. David. I have cause to conclude that the comparison you make between Gaza and Afghanistan suggests a predicament even more daunting to overcome than you propose.
The main thing is that the Taliban were so loathed by the Afghan people - an armed resistance to Talib rule was never close to being squelched - that unchallenged Taliban rule never extended much further than the Pashtun belt (the Pashtuns comprise roughly a third of the population). Only Pakistan and (briefly) the UAE and the Saudis ever recognized the Taliban as Afghanistan's government. Without Pakistan's active connivance, the post-2001 Talib terrorism would not have been sustained. By 2001, the majority of the Afghan people and its UN-recognized government had been begging for an "intervention" for years. The Afghan government recognized by the UN was Berhanuddin Rabbani's "Northern Alliance," which was determined to drive out the Talibs and establish a mildly-Islamic democracy. Until the Trump-Biden consensus, it was working, against all odds.
The 2001 US intervention quickly evolved into a NATO operation, endorsed by annual UN resolutions. At one point more than 50 countries had soldiers in Afghanistan. Throught the 20 years of NATO's involvement, not once did anything less than an overwhelming majority of Afghans support the military intervention.
The contrasts between Afghanistan are stark and innumerable; the greatest similarity is a shared theocratic basis of both Hamas and Talibanism. The biggest difference is that in Gaza's case, Israel is held responsible for all its dysfunctions and the "international community" expects Israel to make everything better, while a hydra-headed Palestinian fascism holds its knife to Israelis' throats.
Afghanistan's reconstruction was a complex, multilateral effort, the most ambitious undertaking in NATO's history.
Israel is, when all is said and done, alone. There may be no 'day after' in Gaza or the West Bank, in the same way that antisemitism is ineradicable.
Sorry for being dreary. Long story short: I guess I'm saying you are more right than you probably would want to be.
Thank you Terry for sharing your insights about Afghanistan. And thanks for your interest and subscription! You make good points and I agree that the picture is probably bleaker than I made it out to be, sadly. I will check out your book on Afghanistan.
I keep wondering how Israel would be perceived on the world stage, if Netanyahu does not form the next government - would Israel have more world support? But even then, given your well researched and thought out article. where would good Palestinian leadership come from? This is very bleak. (The Palestinians have internalized being "refugees" for far too long - reinforced by their own leadership and the surrounding nations - a different world indeed if all those decades of aid had supported a good quality of life for them, as free people in Gaza.)
David,These great and important points in which you cover the situation from A to Z, need to be expressed in every way possible, to as wide an audience as possible!
Solid analysis there. David. I have cause to conclude that the comparison you make between Gaza and Afghanistan suggests a predicament even more daunting to overcome than you propose.
https://www.amazon.com/Come-Shadows-Lonely-Struggle-Afghanistan/dp/1553657829
The main thing is that the Taliban were so loathed by the Afghan people - an armed resistance to Talib rule was never close to being squelched - that unchallenged Taliban rule never extended much further than the Pashtun belt (the Pashtuns comprise roughly a third of the population). Only Pakistan and (briefly) the UAE and the Saudis ever recognized the Taliban as Afghanistan's government. Without Pakistan's active connivance, the post-2001 Talib terrorism would not have been sustained. By 2001, the majority of the Afghan people and its UN-recognized government had been begging for an "intervention" for years. The Afghan government recognized by the UN was Berhanuddin Rabbani's "Northern Alliance," which was determined to drive out the Talibs and establish a mildly-Islamic democracy. Until the Trump-Biden consensus, it was working, against all odds.
The 2001 US intervention quickly evolved into a NATO operation, endorsed by annual UN resolutions. At one point more than 50 countries had soldiers in Afghanistan. Throught the 20 years of NATO's involvement, not once did anything less than an overwhelming majority of Afghans support the military intervention.
The contrasts between Afghanistan are stark and innumerable; the greatest similarity is a shared theocratic basis of both Hamas and Talibanism. The biggest difference is that in Gaza's case, Israel is held responsible for all its dysfunctions and the "international community" expects Israel to make everything better, while a hydra-headed Palestinian fascism holds its knife to Israelis' throats.
Afghanistan's reconstruction was a complex, multilateral effort, the most ambitious undertaking in NATO's history.
Israel is, when all is said and done, alone. There may be no 'day after' in Gaza or the West Bank, in the same way that antisemitism is ineradicable.
Sorry for being dreary. Long story short: I guess I'm saying you are more right than you probably would want to be.
TG
Thank you Terry for sharing your insights about Afghanistan. And thanks for your interest and subscription! You make good points and I agree that the picture is probably bleaker than I made it out to be, sadly. I will check out your book on Afghanistan.
I keep wondering how Israel would be perceived on the world stage, if Netanyahu does not form the next government - would Israel have more world support? But even then, given your well researched and thought out article. where would good Palestinian leadership come from? This is very bleak. (The Palestinians have internalized being "refugees" for far too long - reinforced by their own leadership and the surrounding nations - a different world indeed if all those decades of aid had supported a good quality of life for them, as free people in Gaza.)