Ariel Sharon was the architect of the 1982 massacres in Lebanon. For that role, he went into somewhat of a political exile. He returned from that exile by being the focal point of the current Palestinian uprising by his deliberate provacative visit to the Temple Mount - he invited intifada, and he got it. And he rode that to political rehabilitation and getting elected as prime minister of Israel.
Asking the Palestinians to trust Sharon is somewhat akin to 1940s European Jews being asked to trust, say, Heydrich or Eichmann. Yes, I am saying that Sharon is a war criminal, for the 1982 massacres. I heard Sharon attacking Arafat in connection to Martin Luther King: King called for nonviolence, it was said, and thus Arafat is a failure in comparison to King because of the violence of the intifada. However, Sharon failed to analogise that King called for nonviolence and not the use of troops and tanks to bomb homes, buildings, kill people, and that Sharon is as far from the King vision as Arafat. What a hypocrite. Especially in that we saw terrorism in this country - the bombing of the Sunday School children - and King still taught nonviolence - a lesson Arafat and more especially Sharon need to hear, in that Sharon commands a muc h greater, far more powerful arsenal. An individual who is so crushed by oppression that they engage in a sucide bombing is a pittance in comparision with the Israeli armaments. Barakm offered Arafat a deal that would have left pockets of a paelstine state not continguous with other Palestinian areas - all Palestinian areas were islands surrounded by Israel. Arafat was hardly offered a viable Palestinian homeland. Would history be different if Rabin had not been assassinated by a right wing Israeli? Everyone claims that God/Allah gave the land to them. Unless the deeds from God are produced, properly witnessed and notarized, I must rest in the Scriptures that the earth is the Lord's, and all the lands therein. In that the land is all God's/Allah's, we can only presume that we are tenents on God's earth and must find a way to live together. Demonizing the other side leads to more violence. Israel must withdraw its troops from palestinian areas. The infitada must stop, and the withdrawal may allow that to happen, at least to a major extent. If Bush had a coherent view that he could hold from day to day, rather than the new day new policy stuff we have been getting, he would appoint Bill Clinton as special ambassador to the Middle East; Clinton's commitment to peace and his clear expertise in the Middle East and negotiations might broker an opening in these ongoing horrors, and maybe help develop an agreement both sides could accept with whatever teeth grit. And I'd suggest that Clinton, after his appointment asd special ambassador, could bring Mandela and Archbishop Tutu with him to assist in the negotiations. The latter two have experience in bridging generations of hate. The former, Clinton, was a strong defender of Israel and yet intervended in Kosovo to protect Muslims from slaughter (for which Bush criticized him) so that gives Clinton even extra credibility. Bring Carter in, too, as a part of the team, the archeitect of the Camp David accords. This team could perhaps accomplish what is not happening now. Unless Bush thinks beyond his narrow little good vs evil blown by the events of the day confines, the horrors against peoples on both sides shall continue and horrify. It would be bold - Clinton, Tutu, Mandela, Carter - send them with all authority to negotiate amongst these people on both sides who have geat anger, fears, grievances, and competing claims, and blood of the others on their hands and hate in their hearts, And may the jet bombers flying shotgun in the skies turn into butterflies above the nations. (the Rev) Vince PS Yes, I am back. NP: Linkin Park: In the end
