--- Go and read this Jackson Diehl
piece in the Washington Post. (hat tip: Vodkaboy)
Just a random thought: it's rarely a good thing for anyone when Sharon
thinks he's got everyone by the short and curlies. Israelis included.
Bad things happen. They do. Just look at the man's track record.
Arrogance is not a position that helps his thought processes.
As far as the proposed deal? Eeugh. Revolting.
I've said before that I think that damn wall is a bad idea. I can
understand why Israelis feel they need it. If I thought that building a
wall around our borders would keep out the nutjobs that want to kill
us, I would want one surrounding our territory, too. But the rule of
"where there's a will, there's a way," reigns supreme and there's no
avoiding it. It's like locking your car. You want to protect your
possessions, but chances are if the thief is clever, they'll find a way
around your security system. It's the way of the world. There is no
foolproof security system; the only thing you can do is to make it so
difficult that people won't wan't to bother cracking your defense, like
encryption. Codes are so huge, so unwieldy, that it takes a good long
time to break them. But they can be broken.
Human beings are perverse in this way: we like a challenge. This is
what I see happening with the suicide bombers the Israelis are trying
to keep out with the wall: it's going to take some time, but they'll
get around it.
Sharon likes his wall, however, because not only is it keeping him in
office by limiting the suicide bombings---this, of course, is despite
the fact his son has been indicted and there are rumors that he's not
far from the dock either---but it also gives him a lot of territory.
It's a boundary. A boundary that he set up in the first place. If the
US helps to broker a deal with the wall demarcating the portions of the
West Bank that Israel will receive in a settlement it will be a bad
thing for US interests. We already can't get a fair shake in the Middle
East. We're firmly on Israel's side, and that's fine, but we do have
other interests in the region as well. Other Arab interests. If one of
the reasons to broker this deal would be to stop the circle of violence
in Israel because that affects how we're seen elsewhere in the Middle
East, how, precisely, would giving Israel everything it wants be a good
thing? Explain that one to me, will ya, because it just doesn't
compute. If part of the reasoning to get this deal done is that it will
help the success rate of the US's initiatives in the Middle East, how
does giving Sharon everything
he wants just to get it done help us in the long run? It doesn't. It
makes us even more the bad guy. Sure the violence will stop, but for
how long? And how will it resurface and in what form? As far as the
success of this plan? I think this was a leak intended to gauge
support. We'll see how well it flies in real time, though, if it ever
comes to pass.