“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king,” or so the saying goes. Today, the land of the blind is Israel, the West Bank and Gaza and there is no king rising. All are blind with the blood of the innocent, and everyone knows who’s at fault. The other side. The other side, if you take sides. If you try not to take sides, there’s plenty of blame to go around.
It’s Yasir Arafat’s fault. A good deal was laid before Mr. Arafat at Camp David in the summer of 2000; and even better one was presented to him a few weeks later at Taba. He should have signed. No, the deal did not give the Palestinians everything they wanted, perhaps not everything they deserve, but it would have been a huge step toward a two-state solution. It would have been an opportunity for Palestine to prove it could exist alongside Israel in peace and create a space – maybe five, maybe ten years – to let Israelis put aside their reasonable apprehensions. It would have been a time to build a reservoir of good will that could have been tapped during final negotiations a decade hence. Yasir Arafat was blind not to see it, choosing instead to stand like a gambler at the roulette wheel, betting double or nothing, double or nothing, and nothing is what he got. Blind too, were the other Arab leaders. If they had expended half as much energy in 2000 as they spent in Beirut recently, they could have nudged Mr. Arafat into using his pen.
It’s Ariel Sharon’s fault. Not only blind, Mr. Sharon is deaf from the thunder of his own guns and a moral quadriplegic to boot. His hands are caked with dried blood, still unwashed, from thousands of Palestinians murdered in his 1982 invasion of Lebanon. A year ago, an Israeli friend said to me, “We have to elect Sharon; he’s the only one who can give us security,” and so the Israeli electorate closed its eyes and voted. Where is Israel’s security now? Ariel Sharon is the greatest recruiter the Palestinian suicide brigades ever had. From his swaggering walk on Temple Mount to his iron-fisted invasions of Palestinian territory, nothing Mr. Sharon has done can lead to a peaceful resolution of the political situation, and he knows it, but Mr. Sharon is obviously not interested in peace. Before anything positive can happen in the Middle East, Ariel Sharon must go.
It’s George Bush’s fault. The Bush administration came to power boasting about its foreign policy expertise, but a seventh-grade social studies class could have done a better job on Israel and Palestine. Right out of the gate, the Bush team ignored the peace process, because it was so closely linked to the efforts of Bill Clinton. No, George W. would rather let a war begin than do anything that might somehow make Mr. Clinton look good. The administration sat on its hands until the bullets and bombs and bodies started flying and then every action it took seemed only to aggravate one side or the other. On one hand, the White House declares the right of a Palestinian state to exist. On the other hand, it sits by as Israeli tanks roll in and take away what little sovereignty the Palestinian Authority has. After the September 11th attacks, Mr. Bush painted the world black and white, with us or against us, pro-terrorist or anti-terrorist. Are Palestinian suicide bombers terrorists? Is Yasir Arafat’s Palestinian Authority a state sponsor of terror? The administration won’t answer that one. It’s the great gray question in Mr. Bush’s black-and-white world. Just as Ariel Sharon’s brutality recruits suicide bombers, so Mr. Bush’s stumble-footed mid-East policy fertilizes the growth of Islamic anti-American sentiment.
It the United Nations’ fault. Secretary General Kofi Annan has made some of the right noises on the Middle East, but the one noise that really needs to be made is the call for the insertion of international peacekeepers between Israelis and Palestinians. Israel opposes it, so the United States opposes it and so Mr. Annan probably believes there’s no point in making suggestions that will go nowhere. But it has to happen. Right now, the water between Israel, Palestine, the U.S. and Arab nations is so poisoned that third-party intervention is the only hope for a cease-fire and a cease-fire is all one can dare hope for. It looks like peace will be below the horizon for some time to come.
Looking for a One-Eyed Man
“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king,” or so the saying goes. Today, the land of the blind is Israel, the West Bank and Gaza and there is no king rising. All are blind with the blood of the innocent, and everyone knows who’s at fault. The other side. The other side, if you take sides. If you try not to take sides, there’s plenty of blame to go around.
It’s Yasir Arafat’s fault. A good deal was laid before Mr. Arafat at Camp David in the summer of 2000; and even better one was presented to him a few weeks later at Taba. He should have signed. No, the deal did not give the Palestinians everything they wanted, perhaps not everything they deserve, but it would have been a huge step toward a two-state solution. It would have been an opportunity for Palestine to prove it could exist alongside Israel in peace and create a space – maybe five, maybe ten years – to let Israelis put aside their reasonable apprehensions. It would have been a time to build a reservoir of good will that could have been tapped during final negotiations a decade hence. Yasir Arafat was blind not to see it, choosing instead to stand like a gambler at the roulette wheel, betting double or nothing, double or nothing, and nothing is what he got. Blind too, were the other Arab leaders. If they had expended half as much energy in 2000 as they spent in Beirut recently, they could have nudged Mr. Arafat into using his pen.
It’s Ariel Sharon’s fault. Not only blind, Mr. Sharon is deaf from the thunder of his own guns and a moral quadriplegic to boot. His hands are caked with dried blood, still unwashed, from thousands of Palestinians murdered in his 1982 invasion of Lebanon. A year ago, an Israeli friend said to me, “We have to elect Sharon; he’s the only one who can give us security,” and so the Israeli electorate closed its eyes and voted. Where is Israel’s security now? Ariel Sharon is the greatest recruiter the Palestinian suicide brigades ever had. From his swaggering walk on Temple Mount to his iron-fisted invasions of Palestinian territory, nothing Mr. Sharon has done can lead to a peaceful resolution of the political situation, and he knows it, but Mr. Sharon is obviously not interested in peace. Before anything positive can happen in the Middle East, Ariel Sharon must go.
It’s George Bush’s fault. The Bush administration came to power boasting about its foreign policy expertise, but a seventh-grade social studies class could have done a better job on Israel and Palestine. Right out of the gate, the Bush team ignored the peace process, because it was so closely linked to the efforts of Bill Clinton. No, George W. would rather let a war begin than do anything that might somehow make Mr. Clinton look good. The administration sat on its hands until the bullets and bombs and bodies started flying and then every action it took seemed only to aggravate one side or the other. On one hand, the White House declares the right of a Palestinian state to exist. On the other hand, it sits by as Israeli tanks roll in and take away what little sovereignty the Palestinian Authority has. After the September 11th attacks, Mr. Bush painted the world black and white, with us or against us, pro-terrorist or anti-terrorist. Are Palestinian suicide bombers terrorists? Is Yasir Arafat’s Palestinian Authority a state sponsor of terror? The administration won’t answer that one. It’s the great gray question in Mr. Bush’s black-and-white world. Just as Ariel Sharon’s brutality recruits suicide bombers, so Mr. Bush’s stumble-footed mid-East policy fertilizes the growth of Islamic anti-American sentiment.
It the United Nations’ fault. Secretary General Kofi Annan has made some of the right noises on the Middle East, but the one noise that really needs to be made is the call for the insertion of international peacekeepers between Israelis and Palestinians. Israel opposes it, so the United States opposes it and so Mr. Annan probably believes there’s no point in making suggestions that will go nowhere. But it has to happen. Right now, the water between Israel, Palestine, the U.S. and Arab nations is so poisoned that third-party intervention is the only hope for a cease-fire and a cease-fire is all one can dare hope for. It looks like peace will be below the horizon for some time to come.