I'm going to set my cynical nature aside for a moment and just hope it works this time

Each Side to Call Truce in Middle East
At summit today, Palestinians are to declare an end to their uprising. Israel is to halt military activities in Gaza and the West Bank.
By Ken Ellingwood
Times Staff Writer

February 8, 2005

JERUSALEM   Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed to declare simultaneous cease-fires during today's summit in Egypt, a breakthrough that could end a bloody, four-year uprising and ease the way for more far-reaching steps toward peace.

An aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the two sides would not sign a truce but their actions would have the same effect. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is to announce an end to the uprising that began in September 2000, and Israel will halt its military activities if the Palestinian leadership makes good on its promise to crack down on armed militants, said the Sharon aide, Raanan Gissin.

Israel was also expected to formally announce that it would release 900 Palestinian prisoners and pull its troops from five West Bank cities, handing over security to Palestinian forces.

The agreed-upon gestures   and the air of cooperation that produced them   marked the most promising attempts at conciliation since the outbreak of the intifada, which has left more than 4,000 people dead, most of them Palestinians.

Posted by Prometheus 6 on February 8, 2005 - 7:29am :: War
 
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sigh... if only it were just a matter of the truces "working."

Sharon has only one intention, regardless of what he ever says (watch what they do not what they say).

And I fear that Abbas is going down the road that Arafat went down in Oslo—selling out Palestinian interests to make "progress" in negotiations and in that way cling to power.

I haven't followed the fine details of the the political developments for over a year, as I find it too painful. So maybe I'm wrong about Abbas. Maybe he's doing the repeat of setting of Palestinian forces against various Palestinian factions to a) weaken his opposition and b) take the moral high ground and force Sharon further into negotiations than he intends to go. But so far Sharon doesn't seem prepared to actually negotiate a whole helluva lot.

But please keep hoping. I will, too...

Posted by  Ben G. on February 9, 2005 - 6:49am.
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See Ben? You're gonna make me take off my blinders.

What Sharon wants is a Palestinian police force to defend Israel (both physically and rhetorically) from other Palestinians, and a situation where the greater numbers of Palestinians don't dilute the population to the degree that Israel is no longer a Jewish/Zionist state. That last requires Palestinians on the whole to not be Israeli citizens...hence the talk of a "two state" solution, which mechanically is more of a one-state/one colony solution.

Posted by  Prometheus 6 on February 9, 2005 - 12:55pm.
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yup, that about sums it up--except, perhaps, to say that the notion of defense is purely rhetorical, since advances in the process of colonization inflame Palestinian resistance and lead to more deaths of Israelis. I guess it's defend Israel (an idea and chunk of land) but not Israelis (real people), who are pawns in Sharon's game, too.

Posted by  Ben G. on February 9, 2005 - 2:14pm.
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