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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (40892)	8/30/2002 1:08:06 AM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Unlike many of the pundits you post, scott, Mr. Newman seems at least conversant with reality. But there remain certain omissions: Most Israelis were skeptical of the process and needed to be convinced that it was possible to reach an agreement with the people who, until yesterday, hated them and refused even to recognize their existential legitimacy. Imagine that. Didn't events prove them right? Few resources were invested in peace education or the creation of a language of peace that would have been meaningful to large sectors of both populations. The Israeli Voice of Peace radio station actually closed down soon after Oslo. The Israelis actually did invest quite a bit in peace education; they practically removed Zionism from the curriculum. Wasn't Arafat supposed to take over the 'educating for peace' initiative on the Palestinian side? This was the bit that didn't happen. Turns out that Arafat was only interested in 'educating for implementing the Oslo Trojan Horse'. It is not sufficient simply for the violence to stop and for the negotiations to be kick-started back into existence (an unlikely scenario given that Mr. Sharon and Mr. Arafat seem to outlast just about everyone else in this ongoing soap opera of a conflict). There has to be a reborn peace movement that can bring pressure to bear from below, cajoling the leaders to return to the negotiation table. Of course, Mr. Newman now fails to mention the most important reason that the peace movement failed -- its failure to find a partner. There never was a Palestinian Peace Now.

To: stockman_scott who wrote (40892)	8/30/2002 10:30:03 AM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

A very interesting article, Scott. Thanks for posting it. I'm working through the lists before I post anything with an aim to post that should you have failed in your self appointed duty. Not this time. I have no sense as to whether Newman is right or wrong in his factual assertions but it's good to see that someone is writing about the Israeli peace movement. I found this early paragraph among the most interesting: The war against terrorism led by the United States has made nearly all forms of retaliatory action undertaken by Israel more acceptable; public survey data may show that the majority of Israelis still support a two-state solution, including withdrawal from the occupied territories and the dismantling of settlements, but until then we are fighting and killing each other with bombs and tanks on an almost daily basis. I was not aware that polling data suggested that "the majority of Israeli's still support a two-state solution" and, this was the important item for me, that support includes support for "withdrawal from the occupied territories and the dismantling of the settlements."