Here we go again. President Bush is telling another country how to fight its own war, in this case instructing Israel to behave. Bush practically ordered Israel’s prime minister to withdraw troops from the Palestinian areas.
He didn’t order the Palestinians to do anything. They don’t take orders from him.
Let’s assume.
Since Bush only orders Israel around, there are several possible scenarios:
1. The Israelis withdraw like they’re told, like good little boys, and try to negotiate a peaceful settlement. The Palestinians agree and promptly resume terror bombing Israeli civilians.
2. The Israelis attempt to construct a new wall bigger than Herod’s to seal themselves off from the Palestinians. In that case, the Palestinians step up their bombings.
3. The Israelis declare amnesty and release all jailed Palestinian terrorists. The Palestinians agree, and step up their bombings.
4. The Israelis agree to a Palestinian state, and send an ambassador to Arafat’s apartment. Arafat smiles. The Palestinians step up their bombings.
5. The Israelis wear only jockstraps, and stand on their heads in corners. The Palestinians step up their bombings.
Israel is kind of like Czechoslovakia in 1938, a rare democratic form of government surrounded by potentially powerful and dangerous totalitarian enemies (including Iraq), committed to wiping Israel out. Chamberlain tried to give concessions to Hitler. But you can’t deal with fanatics…..who have set agendas. Fanatics rarely compromise. If they do, they violate the agreements.
Bush is wishful-thinking-forgetting this.
They (fanatics) don’t think like you and I.
If a Paestinian state is ever formed, it will be ruled like other Arab states by a dictator, not an elected official.
Arafat knows if he tries to broker peace, the extremists of his group will kill him (like they did Egypt’s Sadat). He’s no dummy. His job is to try and appear reasonable, a world leader (this week he’s playing the martyr, hiding in his apartment with a cell phone), and at the same time, secretly head the effort to suicide bomb the hell out of crowded Israeli restaurants.
Fanatics only understand strength……..and power.
The Israelis understand this.
Until the Palestinians stop turning themselves into Roman candles, and stand up in the sunlight and fight like men, there’s nothing to talk about. The killing will have to go on until the reason for it is gone.
