Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (143245)	3/13/2002 12:10:20 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575883

Ted peace comes when one side or the other or both think they can't win so they settle for what they can get. (or when one side is totally defeated). In many ways the peace process can increase the violence and death. It gives the Palestinians hope that they can get what they want and it causes the Palestinian leaders to play games with causing or encouraging violence to try to push Israel on one or two issues. Tim _____________ Ending the War Process By WILLIAM SAFIRE WASHINGTON Ari Fleischer was teased at the Gridiron dinner the other night for being "the only White House press secretary with his own Middle East policy." That was because the president's spokesman had blurted out an incontrovertible truth last week, as pressure mounted for renewed U.S. intercession between Palestinian attackers and Israeli defenders. What was the unspeakable truth? Only this: that the intense pressure for a comprehensive settlement brought to bear two years ago by the previous administration (which remained nameless) had led to the diplomatic disaster at Camp David and, in its aftermath, the current violence. But that self-evident truth, so widely accepted until recently, is impolitic to recall today. Therefore, a media corps that had just furiously denounced a "disinformation" scheme planned in the Pentagon demanded an immediate dose of disinformation from the White House. Dutifully, Condoleezza Rice disavowed the truth about the path to war and rebuked the spokesman who had uttered it, thereby mollifying the press, dovish partisans and Gaza terrorists. The unspeakable is still printable here, however. Then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak, desperate for a deal that would get him re-elected, made egregious concessions of land that would have endangered Israel. Bill Clinton, eager to wash away memory of his transgressions, pressed Barak for even more concessions to appease Yasir Arafat. That Saudi-sponsored Palestinian, seeing Israel's panicked leader on the run, was thus emboldened to make greater demands. Envisioning total victory, he launched the terror war on civilians. That's what happened. No soft, nonpartisan politesse can erase that well-recorded, hard history. Though Clinton's motive was Nobel, his incessant intercession was a gamble that failed spectacularly — paving the path to Arafat's war. That history, frantically being buried by diplomatists, is exhumed to draw its lessons: One is that unilateral compromise is appeasement, which only whets the appetite of Arab extremists. Another is that the prospect of intervention — by the U.S., U.N. or Europeans — gives Palestinian terrorists an incentive to prolong the bloodshed in hopes a horrified world will coerce Israel into submission. What should Israel do to give Palestinians reasons to reorient their leader or replace him with a group that can control Hamas, end the carnage and create a viable state? 1. Make plain that Israel's population will be aggressively defended. Invading Arabs, as previous Israeli generations learned, are defeated by pre-emptive action and fierce counterattack. Reject all "cycle of violence" moral relativism: only the Palestinian side is targeting civilians. 2. Pursue all openings to negotiation, even undelivered royal speeches taking rehashed extreme positions, as Ariel Sharon is doing — but let Arabs understand at the outset that the Barak-Clinton surrender terms are far from reasonable expectations. 3. Cock an ear to Benjamin Netanyahu. If the Israeli left destroys the unity government, Bibi might wrest control of the right, which would likely win the election. A frank presentation by the former prime minister of his plans to pulverize terrorism would strengthen Sharon's hand as the best maker of an interim deal. 4. Send ambassadors to the U.S. and U.N. who can make a persuasive case on television that America's war on Al Qaeda and Israel's on Hamas is the same war. How can the U.S. help end the war process? 1. Reject any linkage between the present Arab war on Israel and the coming American war on Iraq's dictator. Saddam Hussein's game is to get pan-Arab support by embracing Palestinian terrorists; he has awarded over 60 "martyrdom" checks of about $10,000 each to the families of suicide bombers. If forgetful Saudis and Kuwaitis link their cooperation with our cleanup of Baghdad to U.S. pressure on Israel, our traveling vice president should tell them this would mean the withdrawal of their much-needed American protection. 2. Demand Arafat use his army to defeat the other terrorist organizations, so that a solid truce can be arranged. Then advise him that there will be no "Powell plan" rammed down Sharon's throat; instead, Arafat should aim for an interim agreement to be signed in a new Palestinian state's capital — which he should not expect to be Jerusalem. nytimes.com