Drumbeats of War - The Quest for Peace in the Middle East
From one corner of his mouth, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu today told Palestinian Authority President Abbas that he was at the peace talks “to find an historic compromise that will enable both peoples to live in peace, security and dignity.” and called Abbas, “my partner in peace.”
From the other, he told Secretary of Defense Clinton last night that there was absolutely “no change to the cabinet decision to end the (partial construction freeze) at the end of September 2010. It is impossible to take the issue of settlements in the West Bank, which is an issue for the permanent agreement, and deal with it separately at the beginning of the direct talks.”
When Abbas spoke, he repeated his unmovable position that continuing the freeze was essential for the talks to begin.
When Hamas spoke, it was not in Washington, but on the streets of the West Bank, where there was gun violence for the second night in a row. The night before, four Israelis were killed in their car. Today, Hamas crowed to the world its acceptance of responsibility. Tonight more guns shouted their protest, and in the targeted Israeli car, a bullet shattered the knee of the driver and lead to an automobile accident: two severely injured, none dead this time. Hamas partisans in Gaza celebrated both events with gleeful rallies.
Why is Hamas negotiating with violence? They were not invited to the peace talks. They are way too troublesome for an orchestrated event that, they say, will take away forever their basic rights. That is arguable. But since they are not there to argue it, they feel relegated to acting out their frustration by committing multiple murder.
When the people of Israel spoke, it was to support settlement building on the West Bank.
Israeli Channel 10 aired a Gal Hadash Institute poll today that said only 21 percent of Israelis were for a continued freeze. That seems about right because West Bank Jewish leaders today abrogated the construction freeze, 26 days early and without the permission of the national authority, in protest of the first four murders by Hamas.
Somewhere in the mainstream Israeli media there was a comment by a citizen of Israel, that went approximately: “Ah, yes. I remember now what the peace process looks like. It looks like this.” Referring to the violence visited on random Israeli citizens the last time there were negotiations, which ended in the 2006 Israel-Lebanese war.
Speaking of war, and of course we are, all through this post, Israeli mainstream sources report that IDF forces are holding large military exercises again on the Syrian border in the Golan Heights, which belonged to Syria before the Six Day War of 1967 that Israel began with a surprise attack.
Lebanese sources say Syria warned that ‘any Israeli aggression on its Arab neighbors or Hizballah and Hamas’ would be met by a ’strong response.’
Other Israeli sources cite reports that Lebanese Hizballah has gone into ‘a state of war alert’ and called up part of their reserves to the border with Israel. Those sources say Nasrallah’s troops appear to be preparing to attack Israel, urged on by their patron, Iran, to begin September 2 at the formal inception of the peace talks, or on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, beginning September 8.
I’m wondering why not at the end of the High Holy Days, which is marked by the Day of Atonement, September 18? That was the start date of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, with the Arab side making the surprise first attack, Egypt coming across the Sinai, and Syria advancing into the Golan Heights.
Deja vu all over again, huh? Except we are not sure who will be the first to pull the trigger in the current quest for peace.
