Pax Nortona – A Blog by Joel Sax
From the Land of the Lost Blunderbuss
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One of the few things you’re going to see me say about Israel/Palestine
Posted on July 18, 2002 in Peace
This has never been one of my favorite subjects. It seems to me that the real struggle is over who can claim to be the victim. I give the slight edge to Palestinians at this time, but I’m not letting anyone off the hook. My constant fear when speaking on this issue is that by stating my opinions for or against some atrocity that one or the other side commits I find myself drawn into a company that insists that the other religion and people are just evil and should be exterminated. No thank you.
I wrote this as a response to an article on lizzamayhem:
Personally, I think the whole thing went to hell on the day everyone knew that George Bush was going to be president. Clinton’s peace-making was laughed off by both sides as the machinations of a lame duck. Now we have a wimp who is more interested in setting up a secret police force in his own country in the alledged belief that there is a terrorist on every street corner than in standing up to both sides here.
I find both Israeli and Palestinian actions horrific. While I support the general causes of BOTH sides (a state for each), I am utterly disgusted with the suicide bombings, the settlements, the shootings at civilians, the attacks on Arafat’s HQ, the checkpoints, the massacres of refugees, the violent PLO in-fighting, etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum.
As long as one side or the other things it has our ear, it will continue to act in the highhanded manner that it has been acting in. And the other side will become even more desparate and violent. I suggest a quarantine of military supplies on both areas of the region as a possible first step. Then a LOT of talking. We’ve lost two years of negotiating time thanks to the ineptness of our State Department. Colin Powell may have the best of intentions, but I suspect that he’s hogtied by the resident of the Oval Office.
The sad thing is that while officials in Washington, Tel Aviv, and the Gaza dawdle, more innocent civilians are going to die. The only sane approach, IMHO, is to feel for the people having such terrible leaders. Ariel Sharon isn’t going to end up as the victim of a Palestinian suicide bombing: he’s happily leaving the martyrdom to the Jews on the street. The same can be said, if perhaps not of Arafat, of many in the PLO leadership.
It’s the leaders, not the people. On both sides.
