The good news is that (so far) relative quiet has prevailed between Israelis and Palestinians. The bad news is that there has been no real progress for a long time, despite lots of meetings and some Israeli and Palestinian gestures. Things that don't happen rarely make news, but they can be cause for alarm. A growing child who does not talk or walk by age 5 should arouse concern in its parents. The renewed peace process, Peace Process Jr., is several months old now, but it is still lying in its crib more or less helpless, at an age when we would have expected it to begin doing things. At least, it smiles occasionally, which is a positive sign, but that is about all it does.

Perhaps it is inevitable that eventually the rejuvenated peace process will founder on the polls-apart stands of Israel and the Palestinians regarding core issues such as refugees, land and Jerusalem. However, the current impasse is not related to those issues. It is due to concrete things that Israel could do, but is not doing, to alleviate the onerous nature of the occupation and to show Palestinians that the way of non-violence advocated by Abu-Mazen can bring real benefits, as opposed to the Intifadah, which brought only poverty, death, suffering and delegitimization. Without such elementary improvements that will make life tolerable for everyone and give some hope to the Palestinians, we will not even be able to have a pragmatic "modus vivendi," let alone a final settlement. [more]

by Moderator @ 01:26 PM CST [Link]