Paul Greenberg
A scorpion asked a camel for a ride across the Nile.
"Not on your life," the camel replied. "I know you. We'd get halfway across and then you'd sting me."
The scorpion was shocked, shocked at his friend's cynicism.
"Why would I do such a thing?" he asked. "If I stung you, we'd both go down."
"Makes sense," agreed the camel. "Very well, hop aboard."
The two got halfway across when, sure enough, the scorpion stung the camel.
"Why'd you do that?" asked the camel. "Now we'll both die."
To which the scorpion, with his last breath, replied: "That's the
We've been here before. Again and again. Mideast peace negotiations are opened with pomp and ceremony. Diplomats talk. And talk.
The leaders of
Somebody ought to post a sign on the marquee wherever these various statesmen will be meeting for this latest round of futility:
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS
All New International Cast
Same Classic Script
Continuous Showings
If it all sounds familiar, that's because it is. Because this is where we came in. Whether this show is being staged in
All the parties to this continuing charade assert they're dedicated to pursuing a "just and lasting peace," to use the inevitable phrase for the mirage all claim to seek. They may actually believe it. Nothing enhances a good performance like sincerity.
But there's not much suspense left in this script. By now everybody must know what an eventual peace in the Mideast would look like. The terms have been worked out in conference after conference after conference. Why not just brush off the last, rejected draft of the
Two states, one Jewish and one Arab, living side by side. (Instead of the usual arrangement, which bears entirely too close a resemblance to dying side by side.) Land transfers that would leave the larger Jewish settlements in place on the
There's light at the end of the tunnel! Only there's no tunnel. And there's no Arab leader willing to enter it, lest he never get out alive. How many peacemakers -- Jewish, Arab and other -- have been assassinated by now in the
If there is one addition that would assure success for these negotiations, it would be the appearance of another
In order to negotiate a two-state solution, somebody needs to represent both states. But who represents the proto-state of Palestine in this latest round of talk and only talk of peace?
If the Arab side were really interested in a two-state solution, it could have had one long ago. The happy vision of two states, Jewish and Arab, living in peace, security and economic and political cooperation, goes way back -- at least to the
One can almost trace the history of Arab-Israeli relations by the times such a solution has been proposed but never came to fruition. There was the
And that's to mention only some of the wreckage along this road to peace that, again and again, has led to war.
Once again we're in the middle of still another empty diplomatic exercise, which promises to produce a paper peace at best. To borrow a phrase from
Has any people ever been so ill served by their leaders as the Arabs of Palestine? No wonder, whenever it is suggested that Israeli Arabs become citizens of this new Palestine, they protest mightily. Who would want to be subject to so chaotic a regime?
The current vivisection of Arab Palestine resembles what
Jaw-jaw is always better than war-war, as
Strange as it may seem, this may be as good as it gets in the
That's the
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(C) 2010 Paul Greenberg