Monday, May 28, 2007
Hard-hitting, from Ze'ev Schiff:
The armed Palestinian organizations in the Gaza Strip are demonstrating once again what has become a norm among the Palestinians - that the agreements to which their leaders commit have no value. It's enough just to listen to Palestinian citizens complaining about how the cease-fire agreements there have no meaning. Agreements are made and signed, and immediately violated.
In this latest round of violence, the warring parties have already decided on a cease-fire five times. Each time, within hours, they were back to killing each other and injuring bystanders in the process. If this is how they behave among themselves, why should they be any more scrupulous in abiding by agreements with outside elements such as Israel, Jordan, Lebanon or Egypt? This is an important lesson that Israel must learn from the recent events in Gaza.
The phenomenon did not originate in Gaza. During the civil war in Lebanon in the 1970s and '80s, the Palestinians agreed to and signed more than 90 cease-fires. Most were violated with terrible bloodshed...
More.
Zeev Schiff was also one of those who strongly supported Sharon's disengagement, as well as Oslo. Only in a post a few months ago did he finally admit that the Palestinians are not likely to be a peace partner in the near future. As always, his hindsight is 20-20, and his foresight is blind.
Yeah, well he's not the only one. A lot of us well-meaning folks out here are now saying "mea culpa, boy were we dumb" because we thought the disengagement and withdrawal from Gaza would give the Palestinian people a chance, a chance for self-determination in Gaza, more space, economic opportunity, and of course, give a real chance for a true peace process to evolve. This in spite of practically throwing up at the sight of Jews being dragged out of their homes, down to the bones -
Well that optimism lasted about ten minutes and since the subsequent rocket attacks, suicide bombings, tunnel digging and kidnappings, the war with Hezbollah, now the violence with Hamas, it remains to be seen how "ending the occupation" in the West Bank is going to improve matters.
Ending it how? By dragging thousands and thousands more people out of their homes and giving authority over to a P.A. government which can't function, which can't control militias and which is at war with itself, not to mention, the majority of which is sworn to armed conflict and the destruction of Israel?
What are we supposed to do? Also, the idea that the world should create another judenfrei Arab state, especially in Judea and Samaria, just doesn't feel right, it doesn't feel right at all. Peace talks, real peace talks, need to address that issue I think: selling land to Jews shouldn't be a capital crime in the 21st century, regardless of who has dominion over the land! Have Washington or the UN even addressed this issue?
I find one ray of hope, oddly enough, emerging from the dustup in Lebanon: people on some of the Lebanese blogs are starting to talk about the fact that the Palestinians can't stay in those "camps", controlled by radical groups and living in ever worse conditions.
Some commentators feel they should either be naturalized IN LEBANON (not a popular option because of the ever-delicate "balance" there), or elsewhere in the Arab world; or at least be allowed to work and own homes - people are finally seeing that the camps are utterly destructive and also, that the whole "right of return" issue is simply unworkable and other solutions, solutions from within the Arab world, need to address this problem and soon.
So, there is hope.
I hope.
I, for one (as a supporter of the pullout), never expected anything more than what we're getting from Gaza -- tribal warfare and a demonstration that hatred of Israel does not a civil society make. The Palestinian Arabs are now demonstrating what they can be expected to achieve when left to their own devices. This, too, has its uses. It's our job as truth tellers not to let the press hide this sad reality and move on to the next set of conclusions and steps that need to be taken. Things were messy before and they're still messy, but the excuses are escaping captivity.