I wish that I had the words to express the great anguish I feel about the
situation in the Middle East. Everything about it is just so difficult.
Neither side exactly looks angelic. I've been looking into what Israel has
done with its settlements in the past, and I can't say that I am exactly
pleased - indeed some of the actions Israel has taken with the planting and
expansion of settlements has been objectively wrong. It also looks as if
Israel has likely done some fairly nasty things during some of its
offensives against Palestinians. Despite Israel's merits, I can see how
they can be difficult to like sometimes.
Nevertheless, I really feel like we are in danger of losing one of the
primary achievements of civilization since World War II. This achievement
has been the international consensus that civilians are not legitimate
targets for the achievement of political ends, and that wars should be
fought between established armies.
It now seems almost amazing to think just how comparatively unified human
civilization was in this consensus on Sept. 12th. We were all rightly
shocked and horrified by the devastation wrought by extremist ideologues on
unarmed civilians simply going about their daily business the day before.
And yet, just a short time later, as terrorists resumed their campaign of
blowing up innocent Jews, simply for living in the State of Israel, this
consensus is rapidly unravelling. Somehow, someway, far too many people
keep viewing terrorism against Israeli's is *different*. And less than a
century after many of these same people and their own countrymen were
willfully and tacitly complicit in the systematic extermination of Jews, it
is hard not to wonder if that difference is Anti-Semitism.
Such differences cannot ever be proven, nor ultimately are they as
important as the far more worrying conseuqnces. In this case the
consequence is the abandonement of the long held moral principle that one
can never, ever, negotiate with terrorists because the mere act of
negotiation produces an incentive for further terrorism - and terrorism is
one of the highest forms of evil, and simply cannot be tolerated.
Thus, I worry about what might happen, if, as _The Economist_ proposes,
this current crisis paradoxically provides the impetus for a "peace"
agreement? What then? Well, almost certainly, Hamas, Hezbullah, and the
Al Aqsa Martyr Brigades will immediately take credit for having forced
Israel to make peace. And then, in that moment, the world will have a
truly grave problem on its hands - as the entire world will receive the
message: Terrorism Can Eventually Get You What You Want.
Therfore, it occurs to me that all our worrying about peace proposals and
pressuring Arafat to accept a compromise agreement is in fact all rather
misguided. What we really need to start doing is pressuring the
international community to start doing the moral and right thing - and to
start affirming that peace is *by definition* impossible until the
Palestinians give up on terrorism. Until then, I worry that the most
dangerous thing for all of us in the Middle East may be the "peace." And
just perhaps, maybe we should all pray for war.
JDG
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John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
"We fight against poverty because faith requires it and
conscience demands it." - George W. Bush 3/22/02
