What I hear you saying is that the "Geneva Accord" is not in any way helpful and in many ways is harmful -- I am not trying to put words in your mouth, just trying to understand
No problem, you got it.
It seems to me that there is no more hope for peace, and no serious intent to pursue it any longer -- all hope is gone -- that is the feeling I get when I listen to people, such as yourself, who are deeply invested in this issue
For the moment. To me, negotiating with the PA while Arafat is still alive is like negotiating with Hitler in 1944. Obviously, the situations are not identical, but they are alike in this - both polities have a crazy autocrat at their head, who is absolutely intent on war and victory, has led a large proportion of his people into sharing his madness, has shown that he can keep control even after his choices lead to disaster, and has been proven a liar and a breaker of all agreements a thousand times over.
Negotiating with such a man is much worse than useless. Deeply, deeply counter-productive. He will pocket all concessions and give nothing back but more lies.
Many Palestinians wish to chart a different course - Barry Rubin says Abu Ala is one of them, and I respect Barry Rubin's judgement on these matters - just as many German officers wanted to chart a different course in 1944. But the German officers failed to kill Hitler, and I doubt the Palestinians can even manage a try. As the Palestinians say, "We're like the Bedouins. We follow our sheikhs.", meaning, you're stuck with a bad leader for life (yet another cause of the backwardness of the Arabs).
But it does not mean all hope is gone forever. Arafat won't last forever, or even much longer, G-d willing, and the situation may be different when he goes. Obviously, negotiating with Adenauer in 1949 was a very different and far more productive situation than negotiating with Hitler in 1944.
Also, no one knows what the rest of the Middle East will be like in a few years. If we win in Iraq, things may be quite different, the pressure will be on Syria and SA to make real changes. If they pay attention to reforms, the attention to Palestine, the Great Excuse and Scapegoat, may lift. I get the feeling from some of your remarks that you have been following the Israeli/Pal conflict by just paying attention to the Israelis and the Palestinians; this is a big mistake. The Israelis and Palestinians, left to themselves, could have worked something out long ago. It is the pressure of the rest of the Arabs, the Iranians and the Eurocrats, using the Palestinians as proxy fighters, sending the money, financing Fatah, Hizbullah and Hamas, pressuring always for war and not peace, that has made the conflict unsolvable even by high degrees of US pressure. |
