Has The Time Come?
There are some things in life one never understands. After years of bashing each other, Israel and the Palestinians stand close enough to resume peace negotiations. Close, it seems but not close enough.
Israel now says it is ready having gotten the US to waffle on whether Israel must stop completely with the building of settlements on the West Bank. The PLO (Authority) says, however, that without a complete halt, there can be no negotiations. From most Americans perspective, this seems reasonable but these opinions do not count.
To break this impasse, PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas has said he will resign soon. This has sent a wake up call to all interested parties. Without Abbas there is no credibility to the PLO side and no one to negotiate with (or even just make believe you are negotiating). The price to get Abbas to continue? You guessed it, stop the building of settlements.
Common sense should dictate this as the correct action, not with standing the negotiation value of trading land for peace. Unfortunately too many Israelis claim a biblical right (god gave them this land) to much of the West Bank. Even a cursory knowledge of history would inform someone that lots of different groups have occupied this land before and after the Jews of the Bible. So if the Biblical Jews won in battle this land, does that mean that Greeks can regain Asia Minor?
Recently, Israeli naval forces seized a ship ladened with arms originating in Iran. The ship was supposedly destined for Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. This week Saudi Arabian forces were fighting on land and at sea against Yemeni rebels who are being supplied with money and arms by Iran. What do these have in common? Hezbollah and the Yemeni rebels are Shiites and their continued success is helpful to Iran’s national ambitions as well as their unbelievable religious goals.
The Israeli Government needs to put a lib on the Jewish extremists who insist on keeping land they think “god gave them”. There is an opportunity to leverage the Sunni-Shiite madness and carve out a peace with the Palestinians on the West Bank. With that settled, Gaza looks much more solvable.
This entry was posted on November 11, 2009 at 11:12 am and is filed under Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Israel, Middle East, Palestinians, Politics, Republican Party. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: hezbollah, Iran, mahmoud abbas, yemen
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