Capturing the MidEast in short soundbites: poignant reflections by people who understand the complexities of the Middle East. My philosophy is: "less is more." You won't agree with everything that's here, but I'm confident you will find it interesting! Excepting the titles, my own comments are minimal. Instead I rely on news sources to string together what I hope is an interesting, politically challenging, non-partisan, non-ideological narrative.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Peace Process Dead
Territorial Compromise Loses Ground in Arab Spring -Greg Sheridan
There is not the slightest chance of a settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute any time soon.
Western politicians who address the issue ever more urgently are not only mistaken analytically, but may well be making things worse.
Spending time in Israel, it is impossible to reconcile the evidence of your eyes with the accepted international narrative about Israel. In the international media, Israel is presented as militarist and oppressive. In fact, it is the only pluralist democracy in the Middle East, the only nation where women's rights and gay rights are protected.
With the unfolding of the Arab Spring, elections have greatly strengthened Islamists and Islamist extremists. These newly empowered forces would fatally undermine any serious Palestinian compromise with Israel. Naturally Hamas is fantastically empowered by the way the Arab Spring is unfolding.
Israel won't make a peace deal unless it believes a Palestinian government can govern its territory effectively and prevent attacks on Israel from Palestinian territory. That is inconceivable today and all the trends of the Arab Spring make it ever more unlikely.
(The Australian)
*
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Sad but probably true.
While true that it's true, it's also true that truly uninformed leaders will continue to mis-diagnose the problem [by blaming Israel for settlements].
But truly amazing are those leaders who'd dare to suggest that a venere of a peace process must be maintained...that is truly dangerous, as it hides the fact that the core problem is truely Arab rejectionism.
Post a Comment