Heading for impasse

Arab media

We are yet again heading for a dangerous impasse. As the (yet unspecified) date for the Annapolis meeting comes nearer, crucial questions remain unanswered. Who will attend? What will the meeting be about? What will happen after?Heading for impasse


We are yet again heading for a dangerous impasse. As the (yet unspecified) date for the Annapolis meeting comes nearer, crucial questions remain unanswered. Who will attend? What will the meeting be about? What will happen after?It is astonishing that such basic issues are unresolved for what should be a vital conference to bring parties from opposite poles to a viable agreement over one of the thorniest issues in the world.It is somewhat frightening that the importance attached simply to holding the meeting should supersede the importance of actually solving fundamental issues.But it is not surprising. After all, the US is attempting to convene a meeting of two protagonists of which one it strongly supports to the detriment of a solution and in violation of international legality.A few days ago, Israeli parliamentarians voted to make any Israeli “concession” over Jerusalem even harder, demanding that any Israeli government need, to that end, a two-thirds majority rather than a simple one.That would matter little in a case where international law trumped national law, but since when has international law applied to Israel? And international law will not apply to Israel unless the US demands that Israel accede to such law.So it’s a familiar script. Israel says it wants peace, Washington claims Israel wants peace and the world accepts it, with nothing in exchange to show. Again.But such patterns can only go on so long. As one American president once observed, you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. Already, the vast majority of people in this region have no faith in this talk. Let’s face it, no one here has any faith in such talk. And while there have been plenty of people calling the emperor naked, so far they have not been heard, perhaps because they do not come with the advantage of innocence.Nevertheless, soon we will stop telling ourselves that, surely, the emperor must be wearing clothes. And that will be a dangerous time.18 November 2007
http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=3697