Arafat does not want peace. He will negotiate for but always reject any lasting efforts to stop violence. Why we continue to humor him in any way is beyond me. Moreover, why the US has not come out and condemned these actions for what they are also escapes my perception. Significantly, Bush called the bombing, "acts of murder." This is significant because he did not call the bombings terrorism. One can but assume that he and his cabinet do not take this situation seriously or want it to go away. They do not want to seriously confront it. Zinni is there to broker a ceasefire, and yet since he's touched down, the violence has done nothing but escalate. This is deliberate on the side of the Palestinians. All of their successes from the creation of the PLO have come from violence. It is violence that brought them to the world stage, and with the west's refusal to condemn them, they continue their campaign of violence. It is time for the US to act on this matter in a serious and definitive way. No peace can be brokered with a group that is formed for and knows only violence. Peace would cause them to cease to exist. Self-destruction, while one of the weapons used by their soldiers, is not their goal.
- posted by levinson @ 12/01/2001 08:59:00 PM