The End Run


Vogue in this era seems to be to skirt real issues and trump up lame excuses to thwart peace and prosperity. George W. Bush is the epitome of this — war of choice, tax-cuts. He learned from Sharon who quickly — what little hope there may have been in September 2000 — crushed six years of Clinton and George Mitchell’s efforts to bring peace to Israel by treading, with armed police, on the Temple Mount and/or Al-Haram al-Sharif, which was precisely the lame excuse on which both negotiating parties stalemated. Yes, a silly religious issue, not unlike the barrage of our own Rightists who insist on bringing up sundry issues like abortion, gay “marriage,” religious monuments in public places — ad nauseum.



Sharon knew that he had the backing of Israel’s majority which should have been content with a recovering economy, was against “appeasement.” Israel, like building a tunnel under a Mosque, is masterly at this ploy of provocation, which Bush adapted with “axis of evil” and “bring them on.” Of course, Israel learned something from our own expansionism — after all, primitive Palestinians are likened to native Americans of the Old West.



Oddly but to a degree I can’t fault Israel for this attitude. Millions of Arabic Jews and Muslims have benefitted by integration and Israeli citizenship; had Palestinians long ago accepted this alternative they would now be at peace— free to practice their faith— and enjoying the fruits of modernity, including universal health care which is the envy of the world. However, it was clear since 1948 that Palestinians were as feverish over their homeland as was Israel over theirs. The fault, of course, rests with Britain and the UN for ignoring the potential dangers.



Nor can one fault Israel after the war of 1948 which hardened them, having huge death and wounded toll in a nation at that time with under a million population. Nevertheless, this horrendous environment should have been warning enough for the Western countries and the UN to keep the peace.



 Israel has a long list of party leaders who played into the hands of Arafat, giving him tons of excuses to distrust them as they distrusted him. For instance, Netanyahu failed to live up to the Oslo II agreement. Sharon’s over-reaction to stone-throwing and light fire, led to suicide bombings. The first Oslo talks were widely accepted on both sides until the settlers and the Likud party forged strong opposition; in turn, and inexcusably the hard line terrorists wreaked devastation on the Israel population. Tragically, Rabin, man of peace, was assassinated by a Jewish religious fanatic.

Irrational extremism, particularly festered in religion or equally in hyper anti-religion, is the greatest threat to peace at home and to the world.