A Peace Accord in our Time?

By Charlie

Somehow, I doubt this:

RAMALLAH, West Bank - President Bush, summing up meetings with both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, said Thursday that a peace accord will require "painful political concessions" by each. Resolving the status of Jerusalem will be hard, he said, and he called for the end of the "occupation" of Arab land by the Israeli military.

Even if a peace of paper is signed here, I feel fairly confident that this conflict will not be solved in my lifetime. Also, I'm unclear as to how Abbas can be seen as a Palestinian power broker when he only controls the West bank. With Gaza now degenerating into a Mogadishu on the Mediteranian, the concept of a Palestinian state under "moderate" leadership seems overcome by events. When Hamas took control of Gaza, they ran out all Fatah members, and even threw some off of buildings. How do you share power after such violence and no reconciliation?

With Gaza pushing at Israel from the South with rocket attacks, Hezbollah-occupied southern Lebanon pushing from the North, and the Iranians hovering in the background, the window for any type of agreement may already be closed.

January 10, 2008 02:13 PM Strategery

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Comments

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ww · January 10, 2008 05:26 PM

God I hope this works-I am so sick of this fighting crap.

mindy abraham · January 10, 2008 06:04 PM

The problem with this is that we are dealing with different cultures.

Our culture views war as bad (and a weakness) while seeing peace and diplomacy as strength. In and of itself this is not a wrong perspective, but it is not the perspective of the people attacking us in places like Anbar. In their culture strength is articulated through warfare, and peace/diplomacy is viewed as weak.

Since they (Palestinians, Muslim Terrorists, anyone trying to destroy Israel, etc) respect strength through war, and literally hate any form of weakness, the only way to win them to our side is to defeat them in combat.

I'm sorry to all the people blubbering that diplomacy isn't solving the problem, but it isn't because of us, it is because of them.

These people do not like us. If we defeat them in combat they will respect us and bend to our will to stop the fighting. And if we do not defeat them in combat they will continue to fight us. But in either case they will never come to like us.

So we need to stop trying to get them to like us, and start trying to get them to respect us. This will takes a strong show of force, not a weak show of hiding behind diplomatic paperwork.

Lawrence · January 11, 2008 08:25 AM

Remember about ten years ago? All the crazy kids used to walk around saying "Peace to the Middle East"? That was so hopeful..and so, so, didn't go anywhere.

I doubt that region will ever be at peace, and definitely not in my own lifetime.

Army Sergeant · January 11, 2008 10:16 AM

How is any "Peace Talk" going to ever start or get any traction while the Palestinians are lobbing rockets into Israel daily?? Maybe we can send Jimmeh Carter over?

/do I really need the sarc tag?

Old Tanker · January 11, 2008 10:44 AM

The only way this is going to end is with the eradication of the population of one side or the other.
On one hand if the Israeli's destroy the Palistinians it will lead to world wide condemnation and guilt forever on the other the Palistinians will likewise be eradicated by whichever Arab country wants their land next be it Syria or Iran even Egypt no one will step in with some silly road map to peace then, nobody ever does when it's Moslem on Moslem genocide.

Barry · January 12, 2008 08:07 AM

If only we could sit down and talk...

We don't speak the same language. We say we want peace and they say they want piece.

But we'll never stop trying.

DoubleTapper · January 12, 2008 01:08 PM