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Palestinians test tactic of unarmed mass marches

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Masses of marchers, galvanized by the Arab Spring and brought together by Facebook, descending on borders and military posts—and daring Israeli soldiers to shoot.

Dangerous, but they're at least heading in the right direction with peaceful protest. The question is how peaceful it will be in the end. First of all, they can't enter into Israel. Secondly, the militants have a history of using anything and everything from donkeys to disfigured women going to Israel for treatment as suicide bombers. The Palestinians will have to build a track record of truly peaceful protests before they can be taken as such. Then international pressure can be applied to Israel.

In the end, though, it only takes one militant to ruin the entire movement for everyone and erase the pressure that can be put on Israel.

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Sure took them long enough to figure this out.

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“The Palestinians’ transition from terrorism and suicide bombings to deliberately unarmed mass demonstrations

so the Palestinians stopped supporting terrorism? I doubt it.

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and daring Israeli soldiers to shoot.

If they went to provoke violence, then it was NOT peaceful.

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Since peaceful marches did not work for Ghandi to get India independence, I don't expect them to work for the Palestinians either.

If they went to provoke violence, then it was NOT peaceful.

Oh please. You think MLK was plumb surprised the State Troopers attacked his marches with billyclubs and tear gas from up on horseback? Just marching against the orders of authorities was provocation and MLK knew that. MLK also did sit ins to provoke arrest. A huge part of the point was provocation, and when they succeeded in getting violence, they got recognition.

The point is that the Palestinians are trying for non-violent marches, at least from their own end. But they still have to engage the enemy somehow.

As much as Israel's backers would just love it if the Palestinians held picnic style protests in lonely parks with nothing for the press to report, its not going to happen because they are not so stupid. People expect such a protest though...

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lucky - this article is about Palestinian terrorists and the movement to provoke mideast violence.

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You're twisting things around, Lucky. MLK did march in order to provoke a response. And that response was seen in TV all over the world. And it worked. Why? Because it was based on non-violent resistance and he established a track record of non-violent resistance. His group didn't have a track record of firing rockets at police stations. So pretending that a mass group of black people walking down the street is the same as Palestinians breaking through barriers and entering into Israel isn't a rational comparison.

MLK's entire premise was based on shame. He wanted to give racism a real face and put it in front of the United States. He knew that shame would force people to act and create change. And the only way shame could be created was by refusing to use violence. It's a requirement, not an option. Shame will never come into play as long as the Palestinian leadership and militants continue to use terrorism as an option. People aren't going to rush to the aid of groups that use children as human shields and houses as rocket launchers. If the Palestinians can succeed in renouncing violence and disarming, then Israel will be forced by the international community to open up Gaza. As long as the Palestinians use violence there's only so much pressure the world is willing to put on Israel.

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Agreed, it took them decades to finally get around to this? Add more PEACE to your protests and more people will listen. Always catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

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The Palestinians only want a state to house and base terrorist activities from. They were given the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and they turned them in to third world terrorist bases.

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In the TV news, I observed that many of the "unarmed" protesters were flinging what appeared to be rather large rocks, which provoked a barrage of rubber bullets by the Israeli soldiers. Conclusion: there's hardly any difference between this and the previous intifada uprisings.

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