Smile, And All Will Be Well
When it seems as though there's nothing left to lose, then one becomes willing to throw caution to the winds. To open up, make other offers, accept the previously-unthinkable, desperately reach for potential solutions. Desperate times make for desperate choices. Sometimes it appears there are no other alternatives but to take those chances.When the hounds of war are baying at one's ankles, and powerful 'friends' forcefully insist that risks must be taken in the hopes that something positive can finally be accomplished, the result is a defining risk-taking acceptance of utter necessity.
The appellation 'moderate' to describe any offshoots of the Palestinian Liberation Organization appears a true oxymoron. A recalcitrant enemy determined to unseat their adversary, by 'moderate' means of bloody attrition, as opposed to a determined enemy beset by the sacred need to exact vengeance by means of bloody extirpation. Take your pick...?
Embrace the devil you've dealt with in the past, despite that devil's utter incapacity to honourably, courageously and intelligently bargain in good faith for the purpose of establishing a workable co-existence. The alternative is to accept total all-out war resulting in an increased death count on both sides.
The anguish of deciding to 'trust' once again qualities of character that seem simply not to exist. But miracles can happen.
And it seems almost miraculous to hear dedicated terrorists declare that they are ready and prepared to lay down their arms for a mutual agreement to cease and desist. To embark on another tributary in
So Israel is once again permitting itself to be placed in yet another vulnerable position; assisting Fatah to re-arm itself.
Agreeing to an amnesty against wanted Fatah terrorists, those with blood on their hands through the murder of Israelis. Members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades signing pledges forswearing violence? Can it be so? "I want to live a normal life without Israeli assassinations and arrests", said one leader.
So those who have agreed to hand over their weapons (and are paid handsomely for it), agreeing to join the regular forces of Fatah in defence of their homeland (ostensibly again in competition with Hamas) will no longer be targeted by Israel.
Under U.S. urgings, Israel has prepared itself officially to assist Mahmoud Abbas to beef up his forces, to re-arm them, to prepare for new parliamentary elections in the hopes of entirely replacing the previous Hamas-led, democratically-elected cabinet.
Israel isn't immune from harsh criticism from many of its parliamentarians with respect to this move, nor is it removed from critics on the Israeli left who complain of its isolation of Gaza Palestinians, under Hamas through the closing of commercial crossings.
Israelis cannot entirely trust an aspiring nation whose authorities demand that she accept the return of millions of Palestinians to what is now the State of Israel. Nor can Israel conceive of its historical capital Jerusalem split asunder to become separate capitals, one for each neighbouring state on the creation of an autonomous Palestinian state.
Much is expected of Israel, to accord with the wishes and demands of an aspiring Palestinian state. Can Israel trust Fatah?
"I don't trust the Israelis", according to al-Aqsa's Jenin leader. "But I am committed to the Palestinian political decision and I want to give the Palestinian government a chance." And the al-Aqsa commander on the southern West Bank has declared "I have handed in my gun and I have joined the Palestinian [police] force."
Dare we hope that these two camps, one Israeli, the other Palestinian, may finally have exhausted their suspicion and enmity to the point where peace finally seems agreeable to them?
Don't they each, Israeli and Palestinian, deserve to live normal peaceful lives? Can rhetoric be translated into reality?
Labels: Middle East
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, July 18, 2007
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