..."we continue to negotiate with arafat....
Powell will have two lists in his pocket, one for Sharon and one for Arafat. He also will have one for the Saudis but I think the princes already have made a decision that it's in their best interest to slowly draw down the US bases. Nevertheless, their oil will flow.
As for Sharon and Arafat, Sharon will be asked to put up a good faith payment to back up his expressed acceptance of a Palestinian state in the future. Sharon has been straight with us; he does what he says (less, for the moment, packing Arafat off to Morocco). Despite Arafat's clumsy dissembling in our faces, he will get his umpteenth opportunity to halt the violence. It has to be far more meaningful than our silly and repeated demand that he deliver a speech in Arabic telling Palestinians to halt the violence. Aside from Haaretz, there won't be many Israeli takers--but they'll listen once again.
Arafat has been getting about a billion dollars a year in aid since 1994, most it targeted for development and social services but little, if any, went for those purposes. Once Sharon pulls out the IDF, even more money will pour into the territories for reconstruction. If used properly this time, it could put Palestinians who used to work in Israel back to work at home.
What's that word? Bloviating.
We've been so close--and now we are back to the late 40s. The only sure thing is that prophets are in short supply but there are plenty of fools who try to sketch a solution. Friedman is no fool, but when he tries to wrap it up in 800 words--three of them being "settlements, settlements, settlements"--he omits mention of Arafat's pledge of right of return to "the land of milk and honey" for displaced Palestinians; that's the toughest nut. Unless the Arab countries agree to take the displaced, they remain in limbo.
But now we're looking into the future. We haven't passed step one. There is the saw about the turtle and scorpion which used to pass as funny: The scorpion asked the turtle for a ride so he can cross the river. Once in mid-stream, the scorpion bites the turtle. "Why did you do that?" the turtle asked. Now we'll both die." Replied the scorpion: "Don't you know, this is the Middle East." |
