Is Peace Possible?

All of you must be saying: "For crying out loud, are they really going to talk about THIS one now? Don't they know that the peace process is dead? Haven't they heard about TERRORISM?" So yes, we're going to talk about this one. Partly, because the topic has come up in the past few days for some obscure reason in Israel and, mainly, because it's OUR blog, and we can do as we wish with it... Don't take it personally, ok?

But to the point - in recent months, Arab nations such as Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and some Gulf States have been showing subtle support for Israel's right to defend itself against present and future attacks by the "Axis of Evil": Syria, Iran, and their local area representative (LAR, as opposed to LAN) in the form of one Hizbollah organization. At the same time, the elected president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas and, more importantly, the Syrian president, Bashar Assad, have called upon Israel to return to the negotiating table without any preconditions. Israel, under the impressive leadership of one Ehud Olmert, has rejected all such calls. Funny enough, in both cases the reasons were similar: namely that the "other side" is not sincere and is busy supporting terrorism. To his great satisfaction, Olmert has also been supported by Shimon Peres.

Today, a more open and blunt statement came out, claiming that "now was not the time to make declarations which would contradict the current US administration's strategy vis-a-vis the Middle East". In other words, both Olmert and Peres and, for that matter, every living human being in the Jewish world, know that there could be no better opportunity to get back to the negotiating table (as no preconditions were demanded), yet because no one wants to piss Dubya off, and risk zero-support if or when Iranian rockets are lobbed at Israel, no one will give the go-ahead to sit with either side. Instead, Olmert has just approved an additional 1.9 billion shekel increase in the Defense budget for 2007, and the army is getting ready for the previous war in Lebanon. Not that it'll have to fight a second round in that battle again, but just in case, why not be ready? Why weren't we ready in the first place? Perhaps because you CAN'T be ready for that kind of offensive? But let's not get theoretical and philosophical here - let's just get the f*@#ing shells in the cannons ready, it's just around the corner - I can almost smell it, can't you?

So in this continued inevitability of war (ongoing now 59 years and counting) what have we forgotten? Perhaps that peace is never made with friends, only with enemies? Perhaps that an enemy is sometimes defined as someone that wants, plans for, and does hurt you until such time as he considers you his friend? So when the Israeli leadership refuses to talk with Assad until he closes Hamas offices in Damascus, and stops supporting Hizbollah, and swears to never be a good friend of Iran, all PRIOR to getting ANYTHING from Israel, are we surprised that the peace process is dead? Have we ever tried, but really tried, putting ourselves in the shoes of our enemies? Would we stop supporting anything that was anti-Israel until that last drop of ink was used on what they call a Peace Agreement? Will we ever give up a single square-inch of the Golan Heights, or move back a single tank, until Assad signs that sheet of paper? Never! And rightly so. But then we mustn't hold up the future of this region, and the prospects of peace, by making ridiculous and unacceptable demands of our enemies. Even if they don't mean it, and deep down they really only want to warm their relations with the West, what can we lose by going to the negotiating table and, in front of the entire world, show our peaceful intentions instead of our rubber-bullets flying into innocent children on the filthy streets of the most densly populated spot on earth, Gaza? Should we take the chance? How dare we NOT? What Israeli leader or politician have a right to continue to mortgage our children's future, for lack of REAL decision-making and leadership capabilities?

Any comments are welcomed...