Last week, a USA Today reporter and an Israeli government official sought a place to hold an informal interview. Walking down Jaffa Street on a busy Thursday noontime, they looked at the Sbarro restaurant but rejected it, for it was too crowded, full of hungry tourists and families who had seen the green, white and red sign known the world round for quality Italian food. A man walked into the restaurant with a pouch at his waist, asked a clerk about how long a take-out order of spaghetti would take, then detonated a bomb that killed 15 people outright and wounded dozens more.
Arms and legs rained down onto the street.
An Israeli soldier savagely beat a Palestinian nurse ministering to one of the victims, and another policeman kicked the bomber's decapitatated head in a fit of rage.
Later that day, the government of Israel shelled houses in Gaza, fired missiles from F-16s that blasted the security apparatus of Yasser Arafat, and decided to close down the al-Aqsa mosque. Israeli police stormed the Government House of East Jerusalem and closed it down. Four months previously, a mob rushed a police station where two lost Israeli reservists were held and savagely murdered them.
The bodies fell down into the street.
The ringleader of the mob exposed his bloody hands on CNN for the whole world to see.
We can definitely see the Israeli government's actions as the legitimate prerogatives of a nation-state in defense of its citizens. We can see the actions of Islamic Jihad as the cowardly recourse of terrorists against the innocent. In reality, the whole Middle East conflict is a war of wide, long-term illusions linked to specific short-term actions. And the only solution to the crisis would be one where the viewpoints of all parties are realistically linked to the short-term actions.
Let me explain my "long term illusion." On the Israeli side, it is that the Palestinian Authority can be forever cowed into submission with air power, tear gas, rubber bullets and police snipers. This illusion is fed by Sharon's political mandate, which requires that Palestinians suffer every time Israelis die. In the same way, Islamic Jihad, HAMAS, and every tin-pot mob leader gain their significance through the illusion that the more of Israel's six million citizens die in the most spectacular manner, the more likely that Israel will withdraw from the West Bank.
There is no linkage between the actions of anyone and any of the events. All events are specific in nature and exist for only a short period of time. Israel attacks people who are as innocent to the Sbarro bombing as the Israelis who died in that Sbarro were to Israeli occupation. This al-Aqsa intifadeh has taken on an entirely political nature.
There are long-term causes on both sides of the conflict. The long-term cause that motivates the Palestinian side is the rage over being denied any vestige of material prosperity ever since 1948. They may blame this on Israel without small justification (although this staff columnist believes that most of the immediate rage is the responsibility of Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Authority's legendary corruption). The long-term cause that motivates the Israeli side is their insecurity in the face of hostile neighbors, forcing them to occupy the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights. Currently, no action is being taken over either issue. Instead, the sides perversely deepen both Israeli insecurity and Palestinian rage.
In order to get the Palestinians and Israelis to cooperate, any solution must address long term causes. Palestinians must be economically rehabilitated. Israelis need to have their security ensured. There is NO way a short-term action can lead to long-term peace. Having the President stand there and force Shimon Peres to shake Yasser Arafat's hand won't do anything. Cease-fire agreements won't help. But a stable government for Palestine that attracts foreign investment and prosperity to the region might ensure long term prosperity. An Israel at peace with her enemies might encourage that country to withdraw to its 1948 borders.
The real question is to address the notion that short-term actions have long-term solutions or significance. We ought to vehemently deny the significance of all actions where the two parties collide. Palestinian terrorists didn't kill 15 civilians Thursday. The truth of the matter is that Hussein Omar Abu Naaseh killed Judith Greenbaum and 14 others last Thursday. The truth of the matter is that last October, during a pitched battle, a police sniper fired a bullet that passed through the body of a 12 year-old named Mohammed al-Durres.
These are all those deaths are, aren't they? That is what happened in the clearest possible language. That's the truth of the matter. These deaths are the result of a maturity mismatch. To take any action related to stopping these effects in the long term is an exercise in futility. We can at best fight a tactical war against these enemies if we rely on fighting fire with fire.
How do we create this sublime stage where actions are viewed for what they are and an enlightened outlook is shared by all? Beats me. I'm just simply framing the question in a way that analyzes the conflict from a very wide view. Perhaps we need a hegemon in the region. Perhaps we need to change both the governments on the Israeli and Palestinian side which pick at this conflict like a scab that refuses to heal. Perhaps we need an impartial security force in the region that treats all crimes as short-term actions with short-term significance. Perhaps we could follow the advice of bumper stickers around the country -- nuke them all and let God sort them out. I just know that there's something very wrong here and it won't get solved soon unless the dimensions of the problem are looked at critically.
