Carry a Big Stick. Use It.
When all else fails, what to do? Whatever you can. The end game is survival. Everything else the ingenuity of the human mind, the creativity of feverishly-desperate politicians can devise has been attempted. And failed. The world has not been shy, never has been, to demand palatable actions to demonstrate the fairness of the solution at hand.Be a good boy, and don't fight with the neighbours. They're throwing garbage on the lawn? What's that? broken bottles, and you stepped on one, and suffered septiceamia? They tried to set your house on fire? They're ruining your reputation, telling outright lies about you? They've hired a hit man to kill you? Be patient. Talk it over with them. Tell them you're sorry for whatever you've done to them. You must have done something.
How to deal with people who willingly sacrifice their own people's safety, living conditions, health, and life itself to a cause they see as so intrinsic to their existence that there is no solution but total abdication of one's own safety, health and life. If you're not now prepared to completely relinquish all you hold dear, nationhood, public safety, the ability to live and to prosper, there will be no amenable agreement between you and the dissenting, implacable other.
They want, they say, only that which is owed them. Their land, their territory, their complete and utter right to complete ownership of that which you hold dear. Can we settle this amicably, civilly, talk things over, reach mutual agreements, even if we have to sacrifice some things here and there. We can live with some sacrifice if it means the goal of sharing can be achieved, if it means peace, if it means survival.
To the world one side presents the aggrieved mien of victimhood. That side finally agrees also to bargain in good faith for the ultimate purpose of conclusion. The world, after all, insisted on the creation of a Palestinian Authority as a first step to resolving the seemingly intractable situation. After that, the world assured Israel, things will fall into place. It will be a meeting of the mind, an agreement between equals. You, Israel, will create a situation of amicable trust, permitting, aiding and assisting the creation of the Palestinian Authority. And they, in trust and gratitude will recognize you as a partner in good faith.
It never happened. Perhaps it was never to be. One side opening the door to exchange, to the possibility of solving what appears to be an unsolvable dilemma. The other side agreeing, they always agree, they always profer the crocodile smile of agreement, and when the appeaser finally feels something concrete will come of "talks", "exchanges", "expressions of good will", the crocodile snaps.
What is it about Palestinians? Why do they so utterly cleave to bitterness, distrust, jealousy, hatred? A hatred so bred in the bones, seared into the soul, so virulent, so pathological, reason cannot penetrate its dark miasma. That same nauseous hatred that compels them to sacrifice peace, sacrifice livelihoods, sacrifice their children in a "holy" war of attrition they are determined to win. Win death? Win a scorched earth? Win the right to evermore beat their breasts in grief over all they have lost, while steadfastly eschewing the opportunity to gain legitimate nationhood, security, prosperity?
Moussa Abu Marzouk, aide to Khaled Mashaal, head of the military wing of Hamas declares: "The resistance fighters have displayed moral and operational superiority over the Israeli army. They carried out an act that...the Palestinian people greatly appreciate." Will ordinary Palestinians who wish nothing more than to be allowed to live their lives in peace and security ever display the uncommon courage to deny this? Perhaps they should, but that too would be at a great sacrifice; their lives, for they too suffer the revenge of dissent, named collaborators with the enemy.
The kidnapped soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, Mashaal insists is being well treated by his captors. "For sure, he's in the hands that will protect him and treat him well. Our morals and our religion dictate that we do this to every prisoner" he asserts for publication and wide distribution to the western press. Who could possibly doubt the validity of this assertion, the man speaks with authority, does he not? How then can the confused onlooker square that with the kidnapping and murder of an 18-year-old Israeli settler, Eliahu Asheri who was abducted almost concurrently, and whose tender ministrations by his abductors have left him dead. So much for morals and religious dictates.
Yet among Palestinians in general, the man on the street, there is approval for these actions. They cannot equate what is happening to diminish the quality of an already marginalized existence as a result of former PA activities, with the stepped-up assaults against Israeli settlements and civilians forcing the IDA to hit back, with the true genesis of their misery. "Give me a good life and I will not support actions like this" said Mustafa Raghib, director of Gaza's largest flour mill. And who exactly does he anticipate will give him the good life he yearns for?
When will Palestinians revolt against the horribly incendiary, miserably misguided, criminally pathological actions of their leaders in a realization that the good life they so ache to achieve will forever elude them until and unless their leaders not only express a reluctant willingness to deal fairly with Israel, but a whole-hearted determination to live together in mutual respect and harmony?
So here we are again, the momentum of response carrying this far-too-prolonged phase of Middle East history into yet another military action promising yet again to bring the combatants to another stale-mate, another dance of death, another historically futile attempt at what? reconciliation? Does that seem likely?
Do these crazed fanatics only recognize the big stick? They seem so enamoured of the toys of battle, the joys of jihad, the pleasures of perceived revenge that they are quite beyond redemption. They will never be fit to take their place among peoples in a civil union of trust.
They are legion, these hate-filled fanatics. Like the fabled monster of Greek legend that was felled only to give birth to relentless automatons whose function was to kill, and when they were finished, to kill again.
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, June 29, 2006
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