Surrealism in the news today.
Yes, there really was a Gaza Marathon this past week. Although video of the event appears to show a female runner starting along with the men, the reporter notes that “organisers had to consider the sensitivities of male and female athletes running side-by-side.”
In other news, after the Fatah/Hamas agreement, the frank admission by Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal that ‘two state solution’ means ‘no more Israel’, and the continued refusal of any of the parties on the Arab side to agree that Israel is the state of the Jewish people, the UN’s Ban Ki-Moon took the courageous step of asking Israel to make “decisive moves toward a historic agreement.”
And after the Israelis decided that they really didn’t intend to pay the Palestinians to kill them, the Europeans (who know a thing or two about killing Jews) stepped right in to make sure that every Palestinian Arab can afford the explosives he needs.
Some surreal bits from today’s WSJ article/interview with Meshal (who has moved to newly-comfortable Cairo from newly-dangerous Syria):
Hamas has scaled back its use of violence in recent years, halting suicide bombings and reining in the firing of rockets at Israel. Still, Hamas militants in the West Bank were responsible for a number of shootings of Israeli settlers in the West Bank last year. Last month, Hamas militants in Gaza fired an antitank missile at an Israeli school bus, killing one child.
- Only settlers.
- Just one child.
- The bus had been full a few moments before.
- It was a highly accurate laser-guided weapon.
Diana Buttu, a former aide to Mr. Abbas, said she expects a joint Fatah-Hamas strategy on Israel would mean Hamas gives up violence, while Fatah abandons its strategy of negotiation. That could lead to the pursuit of legal action against Israel, civil disobedience and popular protest campaigns.
Maybe they’ll fire rockets containing subpoenas or respectfully refuse to obey the law against murder.
The surrealist opposition:
“In order to stop the unilateral process of recognizing a Palestinian state and get us off a track that is bad for Israel, Netanyahu must negotiate,†[Kadima leader Tzipi] Livni said. “For him to be believed, he must pay prices.
“He needed to pay with a freeze but he stammered.†…
She said that elections in Israel would “stop the world in its tracks†if they realized that a new government willing to negotiate with the Palestinians was going to be chosen. She accused Netanyahu of only caring about his political survival. — JPost
In other words:
- Israel hasn’t paid enough ‘prices’. The Oslo concessions and Gaza withdrawal don’t count?
- A ten-month freeze didn’t work, but a 3-month extension would have.
- The ‘world’ would stop pushing a Palestinian Arab state if only Israel had a left-wing government.
Technorati Tags: Israel, Hamas, Gaza, Tzipi Livni
I wonder whether Tzipi Livni believes the nonsense she is spouting. She has to offer an alternative to Netanyahu policy when in fact there is no real or reasonable ‘peace’ alternative. The real worry is that Israel is now being outmaneuvered politically by the Palestinians whose fake face of ‘moderation’ will be enough probably to lead the Europeans to support the Palestinian statehood at the U.N. This may also move the U.S. and President Obama to opt for the one- sided Palestinian statehood plan the U.S. is on record as opposing. Its a political gamble for him but considering the no- real- challenge- to him now being offered by the Republicans there is an outside chance he might do it, using of course JStreet double- talk to justify it.
Let me hope that I am wrong and just worrying out loud.
The problem is I cannot conceive of a way for us to go on the diplomatic offensive given the built-in – bias and prejudice which now almost the entire world (Excepting perhaps the U.S. Congress and a few other good friends) sees us.