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Playing Catch Up - A Return to Reality

© lawhawk

Well, it's been two weeks since I last posted an article here. Sorry that you missed the column but exams came first. Anyway, finals are done and I'm back into the world of Mid-East politics. I'd like to take this opportunity to also thank Steffen Jensen who has been a regular contributor to discussions here as well as for his assistance in a research thesis I completed for school. It is my hope to have the work published in a journal soon.

In the meantime, lets catch up on events in the Middle East. Well, we've seen that the Israelis are continuing to hold to their position that they can't give more than nine percent of land in the West Bank to the Palestinians which the Palestinians say they won't accept anything less than thirty percent. Does this sound to you like two people in negotiations who aren't thinking creatively and will accept nothing less than total surrender of their opposition's position. The negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians have come to a standstill for precisely this reason - neither side wants to give in to the other for any one of a dozen reasons.

The Israelis claim security, their right to the land and that they don't need to give all the land in the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority. The Israeli government also has to deal with the fact that some right wing and some ultra-Orthodox members of the Knesset will not accept a withdrawal of any sort from the West Bank. This hampers efforts even more as the supporters of the peace process are increasingly found on the outside of key government decisions.

The Palestinians say that they can't prevent terrorism and that even if they cracked down on terrorist movements, it will only cause them more trouble down the line. They say that they can't accept less than thirteen percent withdrawal and that Israeli claims to push up the timetable set by the Oslo Accords are not acceptable. And of course the Palestinians are claiming that at least part of Jerusalem will be incorporated into part of Palestinian controlled territory that would in all likelihood be capital for their Palestinian State.

In other news, Iraq continues to suffer under the sanctions that have been in place since 1991. There has been some quiet movement which has not been covered too well in the US press but the Iraqi public continues to suffer.

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