Tuesday.....International.....Existential or Territorial

Reiterating a thought from past blogs, the primary failure in Middle-East peace negotiations has been in not identifying "that element" in mankind that hates peace, has no use for negotiations and cares not for the safety of even its own people in its loathing for Israel. In the past, Israel had offered bold initiatives towards peace and at other times positively responded to bold initiatives. They have negotiated with people who want peace; both sides have given, there was hope for a time, until that element within mankind reared its ugly head and the peace ended and war followed. Anwar Sadat was bold in his quest for peace, but that element, once again sought only to destroy efforts for peace. Hillary Clinton, who should never have ascended to the position of Secretary of State, proclaimed that Israel must prove (its) peace commitment. What this does is embolden those who wait, in delirious hatred, for their opportunity to push Israel into the sea. It hurts the peace process and literally brings the prospect of intifadas and war nearer. The only peace initiative with any chance of success, would be the one that also addresses the problem with this question; What do we (the two parties) do when "those" who only want war, terrorize to destroy the peace... for they surely will? The Palestinian negotiators and people, and other Arab states involved in the process, must openly acknowledge this element. They have to not only make peace with Israel, they must unite with Israel against those who have had no honorable intentions at all as they spread their terror. At such a time as this, a comment like Israel must prove (its) peace commitment would be appropriate for they (Israel) would also be called upon to unite with those who up until then were viewed as enemies. It is fatally naive to think that only two parties, Israel and Palestinians, are involved, for those perpetual destroyers of peace and of hope must be acknowledged, and dealt with in unity by everyone who wants peace. Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal addressed this concept in today's issue as he described the hatred of some towards Israel as being an existential one and not a territorial one, for Israel's "existence" is the problem with them. I would argue that those who truly want peace, do have territorial concerns. Stephens castigated Israel's so called friends who piously said that they supported Israel's right to defend itself but ignored rocket attacks from Gaza. It is easy to simply criticize Israel and one has to wonder if this one-sided criticism is an attempt to avoid involvement in a conflict and thus seek their own prosperity; but this is an impossibility, it actually increases not only the probability of war but the scope and intensity of it, and ensures worldwide financial tremors. It would be wise for our administration to consider this and keep its most critical gaze on those who do not even want peace.