In Kevin Costner's last decent movie, Field of Dreams, the story was encapsulated by the repeated quote, "If you build it, he will come." This seems to be the same fantasy underlying diplomacy in the Middle East. Unfortunately the Middle East is film noir to the Field of Dreams fantasy wish-fulfillment.
According to the New York Times, Condoleeza Rice is committed to bringing the Israelis and Palestinians together around a Peace Table, Rice Tries to Hold Together Plan for Mideast Talks:
“I’m committed to this,” Ms. Rice told reporters at the end of a day of preparatory meetings with Palestinian and Israeli officials. “As long as I’m secretary of state, that’s what I’m going to do.”
The new talks — the first such negotiations in six years — are set for Monday. Ms. Rice will act as host for the meeting with Mr. Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel at her hotel in Jerusalem.
The article is accompanied by the usual photos of smiling politicians we have all grown so fond of over the years. It includes various half-truths and shared-fantasy formations, along with some harsh realities which intrude [Emphasis mine-SW]:
During a meeting with Mr. Abbas at his heavily fortified compound in Ramallah, Ms. Rice made clear that she was willing to begin work on a peace deal with him even if the United States boycotted a unity government. That might allow Mr. Abbas, as the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, to hold talks with Israel even if a new Palestinian unity government did not recognize Israel or renounce violence, two conditions that Israel and the United States have both demanded.
But the big question now is whether Israel will agree to restart peace talks with Mr. Abbas while it is boycotting the government he helped negotiate. For Ms. Rice, that may be a tough sell.
....
“The path to a Palestinian state goes through renunciation of terrorism and violence,” Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Saturday night. Mr. Olmert added Sunday, in broadcast comments, that a Palestinian government that does not recognize Israel and renounce violence “cannot receive recognition, and there will not be cooperation with it.”
Mr. Olmert reiterated that point when Ms. Rice returned to Jerusalem from her meeting in Ramallah, Israeli officials said.
Ms. Rice said she expected the effort on peace negotiations to be slow. “If we ask people to run at this point, I think somebody will fall down,” she said.
And even if talks do begin, they are likely to be hampered by the reality that both Mr. Abbas, who has to share power with Hamas, and Mr. Olmert, whose approval ratings are low, may not have the political capital to make compromises.
Olmert's approval numbers make George Bush's support look stratospheric. The article does include some information about the obstacles involved:
The Mecca agreement includes a vague promise to “respect” previous peace deals, which some Palestinian officials have said they hope can persuade Western donors to restore direct aid that was cut off after Hamas won legislative elections in 2006. But the Mecca pact makes no mention of recognizing Israel, nor any mention of renouncing violence toward it, which Western donors have said are conditions for restoring aid.
Both Israeli and Bush administration officials were angry about the agreement, arguing that Hamas got a deal without being forced to bring its views closer to those of Mr. Abbas, who is viewed by the United States, the European Union and Israel as more moderate.
I have always found it amusing to see Mahmoud Abbas described as a "Moderate". He is a Holocaust denier who, despite being the head of a 60,000 man army, continually complains about his inability to control the violence by the "small fringe" of Palestinians who refuse to ever consider peace with "the Zionist entity". Such parsing was made into an art form by his mentor, Yassar Arafat. It has always worked well in extorting money from the gullible Americans and Europeans, while ensuring that no real Peace could ever accidentally break out between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
In reality, the Unity government between the Islamic terrorists of Hamas and and the slightly more secular terrorists of Fatah is even worse than reported. The indispensable Elder of Ziyon offers this news:
Now that the PA has unified under the terror Hamas leadership, they of course want that wonderful Palestinian Arab unity umbrella to spread even wider.
They invited two other terror organizations, Islamic Jihad and the PFLP, to join the government as well.
Islamic Jihad said "no thanks" and PFLP is still considering it, but it shows even more clearly what "unity" means to the Palestinian leadership - it means supporting terror, pure and simple. The world's darling "moderate" Abbas did not utter a peep in protest against this move, proving beyond any doubt that the Palestinian Arab idea of a government is for one that officially calls for the death of millions of Jews in the pursuit of the destruction of Israel.
Elder supplies the links to the story, which appears on the Palestinian National Authority State Information Service web site, but strangely enough, has eluded notice by the MSM.
It is one thing for those who idealize "diplomacy" to suggest talking to people who you disagree with while at the same time proposing that we rule out any use of force. (I would suggest that is not really diplomacy but surrender by a more acceptable name, but that is a minor quibble in this situation.) It is worse when those who are supposed to recognize reality and find ways to negotiate the mine fields of the world's most treacherous regions become enamored of talk at any cost.
In the movie, Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner's character became wealthy and famous by acceding to what, in reality, were auditory hallucinations and delusions. This, unfortunately, only happens in the movies. In real life, pretending that genocidal murderers are Peace loving Moderates, or that a government that is run by the same, though with a more "Moderate" spokesman, can be "tamed", is a sure avenue to more blood shed, more innocent lives lost, and more despair.
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