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Friday, 17 October, 2003
 
Israelites

Usually I try to have little to say about Israel and Palestine . The situation there is too intracted, the positions too hardened, and attitudes which ought to be far outlays on the spectrum lie curled at the foot of the median. I am not a middle east expert - abbreviate this IANMEE. Normally I don't bow to the presence of a declared expert in a subject, backing away with lowered eyes, mumbling how I meant no offense in attempting to hold an independent opinion. I make exception here. I would want to hold a post-graduate degree, or have done equivalent reading in the subject before making public statements on the politics of the middle east. I've gradually learned that every country or national aspiration in the world has an idea of a "Greater Freedonia" they can envision, usually involving a set of borders that incorporate most if not all of their immediate neighbors. Narratives are supplied that reference events going back 10s of years, decades, centuries, and millennia. These ideas often seem to have been articulated in their modern sense in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, or about the time that middle classes formed and took themselves off to universities. That is just a coincidence, I'm sure. Still you don't want to get between nationalists and their myth-dreams of living large. From Dodge city to Tombstone all the gunslingers will tell you: "this town ain't big enough for the both of us."

Sometimes you have questions, though. Here is a story I first noticed on Sunday or Monday, this is the story from a Zurich Paper Swiss peace plan irritates Israel (English Window, NZZ Online, 15. 10. 2003). It is revealed that a group of moderate Israelis and Palestinians have completed a draft of an alternative peace plan after working in secret for two years. The reaction of the israeli government was quick and reflexive, they dismissed it out of hand. It was not authorized, and carried no weight, put no obligations on them. Frankly they reacted like someone who has been stung by a bee. Or rather like someone who has just looked out a window to find a brush fire in the yard, hard by the house. I find it hard to imagine Israeli officials didn't know these people were meeting but they do seem to have been taken aback by their starting to hold press conferences and waving peace plans about. All this organization made the Israeli's apparently suspect there were other more professional trouble makers involved in this effort. Which led to this articles description of Israeli ire at such Swiss underhandedness. Israel remains, as does the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Authoritarian, committed to the American Roadmap. A mere nostrum against possible mare tranquillitatus. However; having stalled all traffic on the roadmap's roads, neither side is looking for volunteer efforts. Both sides have effectively decided to wait it out another generation or two, to conduct wars of attrition against the other, and concede nothing in the mean time. Since this is where the principles have gone, it is where the debate and facilitators must follow.

There are many things to consider in this light. Not the least of which is the admission by unnamed Bush administration officials that they are aware that Israeli has modified a number of U. S. supplied Harpoon cruise missiles to carry nuclear warheads ( Israel putting nukes on subs / Issue may hurt U.N. bid to halt Iran's suspected program ).

I admire the optimistic mind set, but I do not admire the man who brandishes an empty glass and declares it is full and demands: "now drink from what I pour you."
9:54:26 AM    comment [];trackback [];




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Prolegemma to any future FAQ.

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paul bushmiller
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at the least, this.
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victoria - the kinks
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