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The Roadmap to Peace: Does it Lead to a Dead End?

© Bryan Dietzler

It looked like the "Roadmap for Peace" was off to a fine start just a week ago when President Bush met with Ariel Sharon and Mohamed Abbas and all agreed to begin implementing the plan immediately. Abbas returned to talk with the terrorist group HAMAS about ending their long and violent struggle against the Israelis and was subsequently rebuffed by the group's leadership. Sharon had his tough times as well as people began to protest his move to tear down illegal Jewish settlements. Everyone knew that this wasn't going to be easy.

Then came the violence. In the past few days, tensions have risen and the happenings in that part of the world are costing lives. It all began when Palestinian militants attacked and killed five Israeli soldiers. It is part of the Israeli doctrine to counter violent attacks on their people or property with decisive force and so they used force to make a reprieve for the killing of their soldiers. This attack was aimed directly at one of the senior leaders of HAMAS and it succeeded in injuring him and killing several others. However, it would not end there.

Following the attack on the HAMAS leader, a suicide bomber blew up an Israeli bus, killing 16 people and wounding many others. Once again, Israel retaliated firing upon the car of two HAMAS leaders killing both along with would-be rescuers as well as wounding several others. The circle of violence continues to grow in that region threatening to destroy any hope of implementing the roadmap for peace that has been talked about so much in the past couple of months. It seems as if both Israel and the Palestinian militants are on a collision course that could lead them to full-scale war.

As long as HAMAS remains a strong force in Palestine, the roadmap to peace might never be implemented. Something has to be done to lower the influence of HAMAS or to end the need to involve them in the peace process. This means that somehow they have to cease to exist as a force and that might have to include the use of military efforts to end their violent influences. Abbas is trying, maybe not as hard as he could, to try and make peace with HAMAS but their leaders are very uncooperative and may not want to go along with the peace plan.

Another problem in implementing the peace plan is Yasser Arafat. Once considered a friend and major contributor to the peace process, Arafat has been left out of the peace talks this time for a reason. It appears that Arafat is no longer a substantial supporter of a peaceful means to end the violence and create a separate Palestinian state. In fact, it appears as if Yasser Arafat is encouraging the use of violence to help bring to an end the Israeli occupation. He has a lot of influence on the Palestinian people and his support of violence to end the occupation is not helping the roadmap to peace in any way.