Perilous Times for Israel and Palestine
"Opinion"08/22/2010
Paul Munnis
If you had a neighbor who has vowed to kill you and your family and has lately been supplying rockets to a third party to lob at you and yours then you might be of the notion that a first strike is your solution. Not just a pre-emptive strike but a fatal one that eliminates your neighbor from this earth.
Once you learn that your neighbor plans to trade his rockets for A-Bombs then the first strike idea takes on a sense of immediacy and urgency for you.
What I am describing of course is the relationship between Israel and Iran. The third party, lobbing the rockets is Hamas, working out of Gaza.
Looking at the reason behind Iran’s hatred for Israel then you find it is over a series of grievances that have compounded over a period of fifty-seven years. When Israel was formed by the UN they were supposed to live in parallel with the former occupants of that territory -- the Palestinians.
That simply hasn’t happened.
But a Six Day War did happen wherein Israel drove into Gaza and captured the territory and now claims it by virtue of military conquest. Settlers have gone into the land and seized properties and booted out the Palestinians who occupied the space. Then Hamas came into Gaza and acted as a hostile agent of the Arab world and circled their wagons around Israel and started lobbing bomb tipped rockets at the Jews.
Iran is one of several Arab States that oppose Israel and views them with hatred that borders on paranoia and none is stronger in their hatred of the Israelis than Iran.
Iran wants an A-Bomb to use to threaten and even to use against Israel and has set out to realize one.
Yesterday Iran fired up their first atomic reactor, an essential tool in creating fissionable material for an A-Bomb. This leaves Israel thinking: “First Strike.” The rest of the world looks aghast at Iran and seeks to contain them through a tactic of shunning but it is not too effective of a tactic.
So it comes as a relief to hear that Israel and Palestine are ready to resume peace talks once more. If they can resolve their issues then tensions in the mid-east will surely relax for the motive behind the hate will be removed.
A lot of pre-conditions for talk resumption have been laid down and now they are met and the Parties are willing to begin a good-faith negotiation. Hilary Clinton will act as a friend of the two and she will help moderate the talks.
The odds are pretty good of something positive coming out of this. If it does then it will serve to act as a catalyst for denuclearization of the mid-east.
The two Parties have negotiated in the past and so the discussions, needs, requirements, hopes, and the aspirations are not new. Indeed under Bill Clinton the two Parties came within 3% of a settlement and he kept the talks going up until the final moments of his presidency.
Then along came George, smooth talking George, and the talks fell apart and stayed mostly dormant for the two terms (eight years) of his presidency. Now there is hope once more and the U.S. is creating hope among both Arabs and Jews in a bid for achieving peace and tranquility in the mid-east.
The world is waiting and watching. We pray for their success.