President Bush has repeatedly confirmed the United State’s position that
Israel has the right to defend itself against terror attacks. At the same time Sharon continued to press that Arafat is not a partner for peace, something which the US government seems not to be listening to. While this all sounds positive, Ari Fleischer added:
"The United States will be closely monitoring what Israel is doing and the United States again reminds Israel about the importance of remembering the repercussions of whatever action Israel takes today impacting the broader goals of achieving peace tomorrow," Fleischer added.
There seems to be a double standard going on here. The actions of Israel aren’t targeted at terrorizing civilians, but the Palestinians are targeting innocent Israelis. Which action is a greater threat to peace? Yes, the Israelis are attacking the Palestinians, but they are not targeting civilians specifically, and are going in in self-defense. The Palestinians are attempting to use an Israeli body count as a political negotiating chip. There’s a huge difference between the two.
I still maintain that the only way to have peace in the Middle East is to force a major regime change in the Palestinian Authority. Even if it means assassinating Arafat and his henchmen. Building a wall will temporarily stop the attacks, but the only true path to peace is by ensuring that cooler heads prevail on the other side of that wall. Unfortunately, it remains to be seen if any cooler heads have survived Arafat’s Stalinesque purges of anyone who disagrees with his terrorist agenda.
