EDITORIAL: Middle East madness

[GabysPoppy]

What goodwill did Israel generate yesterday by freeing 400 Palestinian detainees in a lopsided prisoner swap for one Israeli businessman and the bodies of three soldiers?

Not much. A suicide bomber left a Jerusalem bus a smoking ruin, killing 10 and injuring 50.

This is madness. It undermines progressive Israelis who continue to lobby for a resolution of the Mideast conflict on fair terms, meaning security for Israel and a state for Palestinians. Who in Israel has the stomach for peace talks when peoples' remains soak the streets?

Moreover, the bomber was one of President Yasser Arafat's police officers. If the Palestinian Authority cannot control its own police, what faith can Israelis put in its pledges to rein in violence generally?

snip

To this, Prime Minister Paul Martin should reply: It is hard to help those who refuse to help themselves.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1075417809386

[drdon326]

1. What he should say....

until you palestinians get rid of your TERRORSTINIANS,
screw you.

[Aidoneus]

2. who wrote this piece?

it is unsigned and without contact information. That's ok, I guess, but he leaves out an important consideration, one that apparently meant a lot to Ali (which is the central subject here, no? so that's sorta kinda maybe worth making a reference to). That is, I don't think Jaarah was thinking of the kidnapped people being freed from Israeli jails as much as the most recent killing spree in Gaza--which the author apparently finds no signifigance in, or even considers worth acknowledging at all..

[bemildred]

3. Duh.

Like with the Lawyer.

But no, I couldn't be plain old revenge, its must be some
political mumbo-jumbo that motivates them.

It is notable this time that the bloviating about revenge
is restrained and no hellfire missiles have been fired
or bombs dropped. I suppose they don't want to infringe
on the "success" of the prisoner swap.

[Lurking Dem]

4. In most papers I know

the Editorial is written by.....I dunno....the Editor????

[Jack Rabbit]

5. An editorial writer wrote this piece

We should assume that it is the collective view of the editorial staff of the Toronto Star and that the words were approved by them after each member had seen drafts of the piece.

[MikeGalos]

6. Changing the topic back to the topic

This is a fairly typical example of "equity" in the Middle East.

Israel releases 400 jailed criminals in trade for
1 Kidnapped businessman and 3 soldiers dead bodies

And people think of this as an "equitible" swap rather than a continuation of the PA's long tradition of trading hostages for convicted criminals.

Kind of reminds me of the people saying "It's just the cycle of violence" when the equate murdering a dozen civilians with a person killed in the crossfire of a military battle.

[Jack Rabbit]

7. That's not the topic, either

(Which is not to say I disagree with what you said; I just disagree that it is the topic.)

The topic is that Israel reached an agreement for prisoner exchanges with Hezbollah, yet in the wake of this there is further violence. Those who desire to make peace are descendant at the moment. Those who should be making peace either have no desire to do so or, like the Palestinian Prime Minister, are powerless to do so.

The Palestinians and their supporters have no unified strategy for achieving their goals. Hezbollah can make this kind of diplomatic breakthrough and then the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade uncorks this atrocity. Then Hezbollah threatens more kidnappings.

And where is Arafat? He is presumably the leader of the Palestinian Authority and the chairman of the PLO. Why are so many different Palestinian resistance factions running so many different directions seemingly independently of each other? Isn't there any coordination to the resistance movement? It would be a lot easier for the Israelis to negotiate an end to the occupation if there were some sign that the resistance has some direction and purpose that it seems to lack.

Those who say that Israel doesn't have a negotiating partner are right, but not for the reasons they usually give.

We're in for an awful times in the coming months, perhaps years. The concept of Greater Israel is out of the question; the Palestinian people will not accept subjugation on their own own land. They will continue to resist being uprooted for the construction of housing where they cannot live accessed by roads on which they cannot travel. However, the current state of the Palestinian resistance is one of chaos. If Sharon wanted to make peace, he couldn't. He can't because there is no credible Palestinian leader with whom to negotiate. That is not because Palestinian resistance is committed to terror, but because it has no leader with sufficient power to enforce an agreement.