BALTIMORE: The 16-month war of attrition between Israel and the Palestinians _ a tit-for-tatting that is tick-tocking its way toward certain catastrophe - is as senseless, as wasteful and as futile as the dying on both sides. Neither Israeli nor Palestinian will give in unless forced from the outside. History written in a lot of spilled blood has proved that.
For the majority of Palestinians, Israel is the Goliath hungering for their land, hunkering over it with tanks and planes armed with missiles followed by those with bulldozers who would plant settlements and pave roads. Resistance to Israeli power, whether from boys hurling stones or young men blowing themselves up with nail bombs strapped around their waists, is the key to the door to Palestinian statehood.
For the majority of Israelis, the Palestinians are not righteous young Davids, but cheating scoundrels who want to push the Jews into the sea and reclaim all that was British-ruled Palestine before Israeli statehood in 1948. Resistance to Palestinian claims with armed might is the key to living within secure borders. But neither key is opening locks, because of the tactics of both sides.
Not only is there no Palestinian state, but the Israelis have been reoccupying territory from which they withdrew under the 1993 Oslo, Norway, peace accords. Not only are Israelis unsafe within their fortress-like settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but they are not even secure within Israel’s recognized boundaries.
Today, Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat have too much bitter history between them to make peace. Although they have met, they have never shaken hands. Sharon has tried to check Arafat in Ramallah. But it is not a checkmate. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict moved to a feared higher level last week.
It is going to take more than the determined, honourable but quixotic efforts by Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and intermittent trips to the region by former Marine Corps Gen Anthony Zinni to win agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Rather, it is going to take a bold step, a new major initiative led by the US. The two sides must be separated until an overall peace agreement that includes Al Quds is achieved. It will take UN troops, such as those who have been in nearby Cyprus since 1964—Dawn/LAT-WP News Service (c) The Baltimore Sun.