Bombast and Bonhomie
They met, they posed, they posited. With that assurance for the future, we may now all breathe a sigh of immense relief and get on with our lives. Much as the principals will debark, continue the debate ad infinitum, debase the principles they embraced and get on with the more serious business of confrontation, accusation, violence and blood-letting.The core element which might conceivably lead to a release of the impasse was the one vital ingredient missing throughout the public display of collective support and resolve. Recognition of Israel's right to exist as a Jewish nation, among her geographic Arab neighbour-nations. So, in fact, what has changed to create a new, more accepting environment?
Not one shred of unanimity from among the assembled representatives of Arab nations to finally relax their animosity at the presence of a Jewish state among their own, on what they perceive to be hallowed Islam-blessed land. That is the final sobering political reality. Not the arduous, perplexing, mind-numbing process of hammering out a agreement over borders, refugees, Jerusalem.
Absolutely nothing can be accomplished without the elemental issue of acceptance having first been established. It remains resoundingly absent. And distressingly clear that the peace process represents a temporary aberration in a larger landscape of rejection. Arabs are not given to compromise, and their memories remain rigidly focused on a blot on Islamic honour.
Honour is not to be trifled with in the world of Arab Islam. It is first and foremost among the qualities embraced by a fiercely self-absorbed, tradition-perpetuating primitive tribal mindset, reflecting a visceral reaction against foreign intrusion in the Arab world. The reasonable, practical acceptance of partition would have spared the world - Israel and the Palestinians 60 years of anguish.
It was not to be. And the present holds out no great promise for the future. There is no sincerity in evidence in the Arab world in dealing with the inconveniently insulting presence of Israel within its geography. Any country, like Jordan, albeit begrudgingly willing to accept her presence, could not possibly withstand the censure and the pressure applied from its Arab co-religionists.
Mahmoud Abbas, whose representative status as the primary leader of the Palestinian people under the umbrella of the Palestinian Authority is tenuous at best. He, along with his colleagues, and in tandem with Hamas, refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state; they will only agree that Israel is a real presence, a tangible national, political portion of the geography.
The short-term goal is the realization of a Palestinian State. The long term goal is the eradication of the State of Israel leading to the enlargement of the Palestinian State. Arabs appear to be functionally incapable of moderation, of true co-operation, of submitting to any kind of armistice that they construe as defeat.
For to accept a portion of what they desire rather than the entirety of their demands is to lose face; honour defiled.
Ehud Olmert mentions the dread instilled in his people and his country by Palestinian terrorism, the disruption of thousands of lives, the destruction of families, and the dire need to forestall future such disasters. "We want peace. We demand a cessation of terror, incitement and hatred." Well might he state what he desires so desperately, but it seems destined to remain elusively beyond reality.
Israel may be prepared for a painful, danger-fraught compromise to achieve these reasonable aspirations whereby she may at last hope to live in peace and security among neighbours who no longer remain dedicated to her annihilation, but the fruition of such dreams remain as remote as they ever have been.
Good will and determination from one side only will not suffice to solve the intractable issue of her existence in that geography. The palpable hostility emanating from her neighbours is a direct encouragement to Islamist fanatic militias to continue their holy jihad against the Jewish state.
If any direct evidence of that hopeless view is required, the experience of Tzipni Livni, Israel's foreign minister who headed the Israeli negotiating team is a lesson in reality. She took pains to approach representatives of the 15 Arab nations present at the Annapolis conference, to try to arrange agreement for future meetings and was met with unequivocal disinterest.
Of the two Arab countries with which Israel has signed independent peace treaties, Jordan's foreign minister agreed to a meeting, while the Egyptian delegation refused. Does this auger well for the future? How welcoming a reaction can that be construed as under the circumstances? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wasn't far off the mark, calling the conference a failure.
He, after all, more than anyone, is likely to state the obvious. A conclusion that speaks to the detriment of Israeli aspirations, offering him the chortling opportunity for schadenfreude. Despite which Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah were beyond themselves with fury denouncing the perfidious abandonment to their shared cause through the presence of the 15 Arab countries at the conference.
Entertaining the world further by the spectacle of Ahmadinejad hectoring them for supporting the "cursed Zionist regime", and exercising his option as a self-regarding national leader of the Islamic world of political terrorism by faulting King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in a telephone conversation, for his show of submission to U.S.-Israeli interests.
Not to fret, however, it was, after all, merely a show.
Labels: Israel, Justice, Middle East, Terrorism
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, November 29, 2007
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