Friday, May 30, 2003

The road map hoax
'Don't waste your time fretting over the fortunes of the "road map" to peace in the Middle East. It's all a fraud, following the contours of all the other frauds down the years, back to such museum pieces as the Rogers Plan, conceived in Nixon time. The recipe is unvarying. The Palestinians are required to pledge that they will instantly abandon all vestiges of resistance to Israel's onslaughts on their persons, children, houses, land, crops, water, trees, livestock, roads, schools, universities, graveyards and public buildings. In return Israel agrees that a few years down the road the government of Israel will begin to ponder the outlines of a dim possibility of formal ratification as a Palestinian statelet of whatever tiny sliver of territory they haven't already appropriated.'

The TV media in Australia, including SBS, dutifully report on the 'Road Map' as if it was something to be taken seriously, instead of reporting on the possibility it destined to fail for predictable reasons, as is almost certainly the case. How long can this go on for? The problem is the Occupation, and a political settlement depends on ending the Occupation. If the Occupation does not end or begin to end, nothing is happening by way of genuine peace.

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