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West Bank Demilitarised Zone

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by Grand Falcon Railroad (U3267675) on Monday, 15th June 2009

  
  
  Have DMZ's ever worked?
  
  Historically DMZ's have either been subverted by guerilla organisations such as the Vietnam DMZ being infilitrated via Ho Chi Minh "trail" or used for propaganda for "glorious entries" by questionable leaders e.g. Hitler arriving in the Rhineland.
  
  Militarily I'd say that so long as a country doesn't have an army or airforce (though the Republic of Ireland does itself justice via UN deployments) then it can't really be deemed to be truly independant (although I can see why Israel feels itself needing to be protected in this instance).
  
  Has the DMZ in Korea actually worked? Or has it played into hands of Kim Jong-Il who knows that he can say and do pretty much what he wants behind the big wall?
  
  Surely a DMZ in thw West Bank would force the future Palestinian state into bilateral defence treaties with goodknows who else? Imagin if Iran wrote in to 1 Fatah Buildings and said we'll be your guarantor against an Israeli blockade etc. Would it not be better to allow Palestine even a toke Army so it could look after itse;f in a tough, tough world? No matter how big it would be then the IDF would probably flatten it?
  
  I can see though than the IDF might feel a tad weary about losing the stratgic high ground along the eastern flanks of the Heights.

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by suvorovetz (U12273591) on Monday, 15th June 2009

  Surely a DMZ in thw West Bank would force the future Palestinian state into bilateral defence treaties with goodknows who else?Β  I believe there were offers for Jordanians to regain sovereignty over West Bank. After all, the majority of the population in Jordan is "Palestinian Arabs." But the Hashemites are not too crazy about dealing with all that - the so-called Black September is still fresh in their memories.

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• Message 3

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Andrew Host (U1683626) on Monday, 15th June 2009

  Hi all,
  
  Important we keep this historical, chaps. Esp in the light of recent visits from racist trolls.
  
  Cheers
  
  Andrew

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• Message 4

  , in reply to message 3.

  Posted by Grumpyfred (U2228930) on Monday, 15th June 2009

  Its alright attacking Man U though isn't it?

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• Message 5

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  Posted by Grand Falcon Railroad (U3267675) on Tuesday, 16th June 2009

  Hi Andrew - on a historical point then regarding the West Bank....
  
  The West Bank and Golan Heights traditionally offered the invader from the East a good sight (albeit on the frontal side of the hill) for its multi-launch rockets, artillry and anti-tank weapons (see Yom Kippur tank assaults into the teeth of AT-2 and 3 ATGW's) so Israel will from a historical military point of view be exceedingly weary of allowing this vast strategic redoubt be fully militarised.
  
  However the Rhineland could be seen as a materially strategic version of the Golan/West Bank - high in natural resources etc.
  
  The Rhineland as a DMZ worked after a fashion but it didn't take the NSDAP formations long to form "auxillary" police men etc. (also in Memel and Danzig) and then when the time was ripe a "saviour" turned up and claimed a major victory.
  
  We've seen lately from a military point of view Fatah have a job on their hands dealing ISlamic Johad, Hezbollah and other such "jihadists" groups so does a DMZ on the West Bank (and Gaza presumabily?) mean that Israel would effectivly have to invade a soverign nation to stop foreign polciy it disagrees with....and face it the might of France and Britain wouldn't invade Germany over Rhineland. Or you are giving a "friendly" Government next to chance of a "saviour" coming in and overthrowing it with their unscrupulous "soldiers"....unless the IDF and Jordan are going to give covert support to the "Palestinian State" - which would I guess be like Britain and France giving support to Weimar Germany to stop the NSDAP or KPD in Bavaria

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• Message 6

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  Posted by FormerlyOldHermit (U3291242) on Tuesday, 16th June 2009

  I believe one of the pre-requisites of this deal is that a Palestinian state would not be allowed to conduct any bi-lateral defence agreements with anybody other than Israel (and I doubt they'd even do that!)

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• Message 7

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  Posted by curiousdigger (U13776378) on Tuesday, 16th June 2009

  I'm struggling to think of another example of a DMZ, other than the Rhineland in 1919 , which I think everyone would agree didn't work as intended!
  
  I think the mere existence of a DMZ might have been seen by more aggressive nationalist types (as well as Hitler and his NSDAP followers!) as an invitation to flout the terms of Versailles by moving "police" into the area. The strong feeling of unfair punishment through the Versailles Treaty certainly played a part, but I could be being a bit simplistic there!
  
  

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• Message 8

  , in reply to message 7.

  Posted by Grand Falcon Railroad (U3267675) on Tuesday, 16th June 2009

  The weird thing is though by not allowing the West Bank region authoirty - assuming the Hamas section defies international law and remains a pariah state - is that supposing the Jordanian and Syrians one day decide they'd like another crack at Israel if the US dclines its support in light of "settler issues" then should Palestine actually say we're better off neutral in all of this (bearing in iind the IDF-AF could bomb the West Bank back to stone age) then they'd be reliant on IDF troops or UN peacekeepers maintaining their neutrality?
  
  In Sum Of All Fears Tom Clancy used Swiss soldiers as neutral peacekeepers - an option?

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• Message 9

  , in reply to message 8.

  Posted by Andrew Host (U1683626) on Tuesday, 16th June 2009

  Hi,
  
  This is too off-topic for these boards. We've had a lot of trolling on this subject recently and I'm not keen to repeat the experience. An historical discussion of DMZs would have been fine but this seems to mainly concern the present-day situation.
  
  Thread closed
  
  Andrew

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