your village voice

There Goes Middle East Peace... (Again)

Though relatively quiet on the Palestinian front before Wednesday's suicide bombing, Israel's anticipated retaliation is looming over the drawn-out reconciliation process. Is there any chance that national sovereignty and future peace will overwhelm the heated actions and rhetoric of these countries?

According to The Globe and Mail, Israeli soldiers are massing outside the Gaza Strip, preparing for a ground invasion to root out Palestinian militants. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, after being lauded for dismantling thousands of Israeli settlements, has ordered a "wide-ranging and continuous" operation in response to Wednesday's bombing. In a statement from his office, Mr. Sharon warned he would not meet with PA President Mahmoud Abbas if such attacks continued:

Unfortunately, the Palestinian Authority is not taking any serious steps in -- and is not serious about -- the struggle against terrorism. Therefore, we decided and agreed that we will conduct the struggle against terrorism in all its aspects.

In such a situation, I will not meet with Abu Mazen, and the Palestinians are losing all of their national dreams due to this situation.

Terrorists must be elated. Their dreams of jihad are coming closer to fruition the longer Israel matches atrocity with atrocity. Surely, this undermines any thread of control Mahmoud Abbas has over radical Palestinian groups in his country's midst.

This is a sick Greek tragedy, where the end is already pre-ordained and all are doomed to follow into oblivion. If both sides cannot respect the other, this part of the world will go up in nuclear flames.

I only hope the world community will stop it before it gets that far. But even by then, the centuries of hatred and fear will have shaped things for centuries more to come. The cycle of vengeance must be broken, and ultimately only by those in Israel and Palestine.

posted by the prisoner @ 11:23:00 AM