| Worse Than One Thought |
9 June 2003
|
Middle East Summit Fails Already
Even for the Mid-East, the failure of the latest summit was astounding. President Bush had not even returned from his trip (granted, he took a side trip to Qatar) before two major Palestinian powers, Mr. Yasser Arafat and Hamas, has largely undone whatever Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazen had achieved.
In Mr. Arafat's case, the situation is one of old habit. He does not know how to be conciliatory for any amount of time, and his very existed as a force in the region hinges on him never making it into the promised land of peace. So long as he is leading a struggle, he is heroic in the eyes of the naive. Once he is leading a country, and having to balance budgets, cut popular programs and meet payrolls from taxes he must collect, he becomes just another politician.
As for Hamas, they are even more dependent on continuing the struggle against reality. As a religious social entity, the group needs a mass of dispossessed upon whom to prey. So long as there are needy, underemployed Palestinians, Hamas has a following. Give them a house and two car garage, and Hamas has nothing to offer them.
Of course, there are obstinate fools on the other side as well. The settlers on the West Bank who claim God gave the Jews all that land (never mind that for 2,000 years, He chose to have someone else living on it), would rather fight to the death than share His bounty with outsiders.
As desirable as peace there would be, there hasn't been much since the 10th Legion left. There's not reason to expect any now.