Intervention - how much should the rest of us do it?

[KillerMuffin]

Sometimes religious differences really suck

Here is the link:

http://www.msnbc.com/msn/468764.asp

Brief history of Israel:

http://encarta.msn.com/find/concise.asp?ti=761575008&sid=33#s33

There are two pages (7&8), if you care to look (if you are at all interested in the area and what is probably going to become the next major international conflict you should).

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Selected Text from the first article:

THE SPIRALING violence appeared to doom President Clinton's efforts to get Israeli-Palestinian peace talks resumed soon. "The peace process is clinically dead now," said the chief Palestinian negotiator, Ahmed Qureia.

The latest blow to peace prospects came when Egypt announced Tuesday that it was recalling its ambassador to Israel, Mohammed Bassiouny.

The unrest began on Sept. 28 when Palestinians rioted after a visit by right-wing Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon to a Jerusalem site holy to both Muslims and Jews. Since then, violent protests by Palestinians have been met with a fierce Israeli military response, and at least 244 have died. The attack on Gaza

The peace process, formally suspended by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak amid the violence, had been deadlocked since July, when Arafat refused a proposal that would have given him control over 90 percent of the West Bank and parts of Jerusalem. In addition, key members of Barak's coalition deserted him over the proposal.

Qureia, the Palestinian negotiator, said peace talks could only resume if they were held under international sponsorship. Qureia said the United States has proven to be ineffective as a mediator because it showed clear bias toward Israel.

White House spokesman P.J. Crowley, referring to the bombing of the school bus, said the United States condemned the attack on innocent civilians. "But we are also concerned about excessive force in response that only fuels the current cycle of violence that both sides need to break," Crowley said of the Israeli air strike.

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So the question is, how much international intervention should there be in this situation? Everyone seems to be demanding that someone should get involved to stop the violence, but no one seems to know who should do it. The US sent Albright, who screwed up as normal, and then the Egyptians also pulled out. Who can blame them? This seems to be like a schoolyard fight over who owns the swingset, only with people dying over it.

 

[Expertise]

A larger question arises before negotiations.

Who do you negotiate with?

Although Arafat is the dominant player in Palestinian politics right now, he has demonstrated time and again that he has between little and no control over the populace.

The Palistinian nation is a fractured group of factions with widely varying agendas. I am not sure that there is a viable way to negotiate with them at this point.

Before anybody slams me, I lay the blame for this patch work quilt at the feet of the Israeli's.

Although the situation is bad and getting worse I do not anticipate this becoming an international conflict. It will remain a viscious internal one unless, something totaly unforseen transpires.

It seems even the Israelis, who tend to have a contingency plan for everything, lack direction. Words of conciliation followed by helicopter gunships. Restraint followed by overwhelming force.

I have imeasurable sympathy for the children and innocents in this coflict. However, I can not abide the accusing fingers of Palestinian's when one of ther own is cut down in the street. They send their sons and daughters to the slaughter when they allow them to hurl stones and molotov cocktails instead of epithets.

The only lasting peace will be a negotiated one where both sides approach the table with a mandate from their people. No peace will be had if they approach out of wearyness from the killing.

Since neither of these conditions exist intervention or a peacekeeping/peacemaking force would be a tragic error.