SILENCE IS GOLDEN :

Officials: Arab leaders to urge end to suicide attacks (Andrea Koppel and Elise Labott, July 17, 2002, CNN)

In an effort to kick-start Palestinian security reform, Arab leaders have agreed to use their influence behind the scenes with various extremist groups to urge an end to nearly two years of relentless suicide attacks against Israel, senior U.S. officials and Arab leaders told CNN.

Officials admit they have little leverage to use with these groups -- including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, all designated terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department.

But nonetheless they plan to argue that terrorist attacks are "not going to help" win a Palestinian state and instead will only "add to the misery of the Palestinian people," in the words of one senior Arab official.

It's amazing to see all the things like this that have begun happening since George W. Bush effectively removed us from the "peace" process. It is not that this statement can have any effect on the bombing--it almost certainly won't--but that we may be able to begin to change the atmospherics so that the bombings are no longer accepted as a logical consequence of the confrontation with Israel. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 18, 2002 10:19 PM