March 29, 2006

NOW THEY FACE THE REAL ENEMY:

Choosing Divorce over Peace ( Pierre Heumann, 3/29/06, Der Spiegel)

Ehud Olmert's election victory shows that Israel is turning inward: voters want their government to focus on fighting poverty inside Israel rather than pursuing a peace process they have lost faith in. Israelis have accepted a plan to separate themselves from the Palestinians with a security barrier and a final redrawing of the border.

The Israelis are demanding a change in politics -- center-left instead of center-right, inward rather than outward-looking. They paved the way for that change in Tuesday's parliamentary election. Parties pledging a withdrawal from the West Bank got the most support. Voters hope the pullout will free up the energy and the resources needed to solve the country's problems. [...]

The election sprung unpleasant surprises on a number of politicians. Olmert may have won but his support was considerably weaker than opinion polls had indicated. The Labor Party fared better than expected, and Olmert will now have to come to an arrangement with Amir Peretz, the former trade union leader who now leads the party.


Settling with Palestine is the easy part--all it requires is imposing a state. The existential threat to Israel comes from within, where an aging and declining population may well go the way of Europe, into secular socialist oblivion.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 29, 2006 9:09 AM
Comments

Then what?

Posted by: Genecis at March 29, 2006 10:02 AM

They'll have lost the war that matters.

Posted by: oj at March 29, 2006 10:07 AM

Choosing Divorce over Peace

Just another slander in a litany of scurrilous analyses, which doesn't bother to explain just how one might negotiate for peace in the current context.

Of those 60+% Israelis who bothered to vote, most are avidly searching for the next political messiah to deliver them peace or relative quiet or some semblance of normalcy---searching for peace in their time, via negotiations, or failing that, by taking unilateral decisions---anything, anything, but war. And they'll be searching for the next one after this one.

It ain't gonna happen. Just why that might be might have something to do with Israel's partners in peace; but one would be hard pressed to find that sort of analyses among the yapping commentariat.

Posted by: Barry Meislin at March 29, 2006 10:18 AM

"The election sprung unpleasant surprises on a number of politicians. Olmert may have won but his support was considerably weaker than opinion polls had indicated. The Labor Party fared better than expected, and Olmert will now have to come to an arrangement with Amir Peretz, the former trade union leader who now leads the party."

And they'll have to come to an arrangement with Olmert. He's no pussycat IMO.

Barry, What partners in peace besides us?

Posted by: Genecis at March 29, 2006 10:34 AM

Should have said "Partners in Peace," I guess.

Posted by: Barry Meislin at March 29, 2006 11:16 AM

Israelis have accepted a plan to separate themselves from the Palestinians with a security barrier...

How is that not "peace" ?

Posted by: Michael Herdegen [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 29, 2006 5:21 PM
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