Harry wrote: Devorah and Karen, If either of you two ladies replaced Sharon, what would you do to stop the procession of the suicide bombers? There's a simple one for you. Harry, is the assumption in your sentence that Sharon's deterrence is preventing suicide bombers?
Off the top of my head, I'd say that Israel needs to do something dramatic and symbolic to prove that it is serious about stopping the violence and serious about making a future for itself that does not depend on bullets and walls to survive. Deterrence alone cannot sustain Israel, and Bush needs to learn that lesson quickly. Sometimes it takes something unexpected and risky to change a mindless cycle of destruction and self-destruction. It's like being on drugs, you do things you'd never do sober. First, if I was a new Golda Meir, I would remove the fake settlements that have been established in construction trailers on cell phone line roads. I read that they were going to do this but haven't seen that it happened. Anyone know? Devorah? Then I'd take a deep breath and close and consolidate established settlements that have been deliberately overbuilt into a few viable and defendable ones, as a compromise to the radicals in Israel who feel it is their moral right to steal land from others. Promise that the gov't will participate in a long and tedious process of determining the rightful property owners, instituting payouts for those who no longer want to live inside enemy territory. It should be cost-effective. At this point, I'd be threatened by mutiny at the Knesset and in need of more bodyguards. BUT ISRAEL MUST DECIDE TO RID ITSELF OF WHATEVER IS COUNTERPRODUCTIVE TO ITS EXISTENCE, NOT JUST ENEMIES WITH BOMBS. IT MIGHT SURVIVE AS A MILITARY STATE, BUT IT CANNOT THRIVE. Israel has education, infrastructure and technology that its neighbors don't and these will be the survival tools of the future, not their oil. I'd pursue more productive economic experiments, such as the ones funded by the businessman Stef W. with projects in Aqaba and the IMF zone, New Marshall plans, finding jobs for displaced settlers and displaced refugees. I'd publicize every jobs achievement I could and ask the UN and IMF for as much assistance as possible. Open the door to economic opportunity. PLANT A VISION but also: 1. Establish borders that are defensible. Do not overreach. Greed is bad for survival. Remember Rome. 2. Declare a ceasefire and truce for 15 days and hunker down. Ask the local media for cooperation in building a psychological timeout. 3. Announce plans for a summit in a neutral place in less than 1 week, so fast your opponents in the Knesset couldn't mobilize against you. Go with an open mind and listen. Give a small treasure, some very personal gift, like a chess game or jewelry you inherited, as a personal symbol of your commitment, to the person designated as your equal in negotiations. Something from a holy site? Find a small thing that can be agreed upon by both sides and do whatever it takes to accomplish it within 3 weeks. Like transfer the withheld payroll monies to a UN account if its being held in Israeli banks making money off the interest. Publicize the success of the summit and accomplishment of baby step #1. Especially on step #1, act like a super salesman: Underpromise. Overdeliver. 4. Extend the ceasefire for 15 more days. Do not retaliate, but publicly reserve the right to do so if the goodwill established by your gesture and hard work are not valued with an end to the suicide bombers. 5. Identify baby step #2: Hold out a carrot, like resumption of jobs within Israel for those with work permits, if the 2nd ceasefire is not violated. 6. Shout down the radicals in the Knesset reminding them that an eye for an eye has contributed to the slaughter of the survivors of Hitler's pogroms and gas chambers. 7. Promise to resign if the change does not yield peaceful results in 30 more days. State to both outsiders and insiders that the goal is mutual recognition of sustainable and separate states. Keep the ceasefire going. 8. Do not give the enemy reasons to say that you have backed down on your dramatic change of tactics. 9. Announce plans for a longer summit, at the end of the ceasefire, stating the goal is to build a framework for more baby steps for both sides. Show up and have lots of experienced peace brokers on hand. 10. Prepare to be assassinated. Even if this playbook fails, there might be 60 days in which both sides could rest from the endless cycle of violence, grief, mourning, anger and fear. Maybe more people will imagine the possibilities and opportunities. Sleeping through the night might be a fresh way to start. BEGIN A PROCESS AGAIN SO THAT PROCESS BUILDERS HAVE A CHANCE, and war as an answer seems costly, wasteful and backwards. There is surely enough exhaustion and growing threat of economic collapse to give something like this a chance. Almost forgot: 11. Do not issue visas to American tourists for 6 months. Keep those fundamentalist Christians with their US flags out of the country. Israel will be in nation-state rehab and doesn't need to be tempted by people who want it to be a in constant state of drugged holy war to sustain their beliefs, people who are not willing to live there and pay the same price as its citizens do. Send those yellow-bellied holy rollers home. Invite them back when they can spend their money at your beach resorts and arts festivals. Better yet, build casinos and duty-free shopping malls to become the Hong Kong of the ME. Seriously, any Israeli government that cannot honestly admit that it has a fundamentalist "Taliban" problem is no better than Saudi Arabia or the US, for that matter. Treat them like telemarketers - they're not welcome at the dinner table. Israel should state that it will honor a legitimately and democratically elected Palestinian Authority, release all the withheld payroll funds and promise to work towards a future of shared distrust with strong borders as long as the suicide bombings end and the ceasefire is maintained. Then, let the natural markets of economics take hold. I do not believe that there will be any real progress in the I-P issue dividing the ME today unless jobs and productivity are addressed seriously, not just as election issues. A dramatic and symbolic gesture is needed by the Israel government as well as by the Palestinians. It's a matter of survivability and that is supposed to be a hallmark of the Jews. ISRAEL HAS PROVED THAT IT HAS MUSCLE, NOT JUST BRAINS, BUT NOW IT MUST PROVE IT HAS WISDOM. THE PEOPLE WHO ONCE UTTERED NEVER AGAIN MUST NOW SAY ENOUGH AND READJUST THIS TIME NOT 360 BUT 180 DEGREES. And if these things don't work, Israel should build a wall around the country, lock its borders, survive on its own for 20 years (like the Japanese hiding out for 200) and see if still likes itself then. I guess I'd like to know who are doing all the jobs that the Palestinians were doing before the Intifada? Have they been taken by unemployed Israelis or are they unfilled and contributing to lack of productivity in the Israeli economy? Do the Israelis really want those workers back? I realize that I'm going to be inundated with posts pointing out that I'm not Dennis Ross, George Mitchell, Kofi Annan, Rabin or Peres, Mother Theresa, the latest celebrity chef or the Prince of Peace and these suggestions are just not going to work. I yield to the more expert among you. But it seems from an analytical woman's point of view that something dramatic from the targeted puts the assaulters off balance and opens the way for a change in direction. Take the rhetorical ammunition away from Hamas and Fatah. Maybe then they will be seen for the radicals that they are, extremists not interested in governance, just violence. If people are backed into a corner, they usually come out swinging their fists. Here is where a little ancient Chinese military and philosophy may be in order. Both of these peoples are targets, both of them victims. Which one is big enough to take the first step to a bomb-free sanity? That would be heroic. Retaliation and deterrence may be one answer, but they are not sustainable. Harry, I've spent too long having fun with your challenge, but the elves did not finish my To Do List for me. Next time, don't add "there's a simple one for you" and maybe I won't reply at such great length. Please don't ask me what the Palestinians should do. Your obedient student, Karen
