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A Nation Restored - Part II

© lawhawk

Afghanistan continues to be a flashpoint in South Asia. The Taliban are on the run and the tribal leaders are meeting in Bonn, Germany trying to figure out what to do next. The US continues to launch bombing raids on Tora Bora and other al Qaeda/Taliban hideouts and targets of opportunity. To say that the end is near for the conflict in Afghanistan is premature because there is still much to be done by all the parties.

Al Qaeda remains defiant of the US and continues to spew vitriol against the US and Israel for their actions as infidels. The Taliban may have fractured leadership, but they have shown that they can still dish out bloody noses when they are cornered. The bloody uprising in Mazar I Sharif at the prison where the Taliban soldiers were being held should show that when fanaticism is combined with bloody goal, the results can only be bad.

Meanwhile, half a world away, Yasir Arafat appears to be fiddling while Palestine burns. The Palestinian plight only gets more dire with each passing hour. Without Arafat's ability to reign in Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the fanatics and extremists within the Palestinian camp have taken over. The Palestinians lack any clear direction to solve their own affairs except to blame Israel for all of their woes.

The Israelis have attempted several times within the last few years to try for a peaceful resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli situation. The rebuff at Camp David at the end of the Clinton administration should have sent a clear signal to the US, European Union, United Nations, and everyone else for that matter. In that plan, the Israelis were willing to give the Palestinians a state to call their own, with all kinds of rights and privileges except that of a right of return for all the refugees.

This was not enough.

Arafat could not reconcile the fact that his rhetoric over the years prevented a courageous decision to make peace with the Israelis. Instead, Arafat unleashed the violence that has been a continual hallmark of his career. Instead of ushering in an era of peaceful transition between bitter enemies, awful bloodshed ensued and has gone unabated since.

Palestinians and Israelis alike have been killed. Israelis continue to use the right of self-defense to protect themselves against terrorist attacks that have come to include the infamous suicide bombings. As Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon noted, they are at war against terror and Arafat is at the heart of the matter. Following the bombing attacks over this past weekend, the Israelis have launched strong attacks against the very heart of the Palestinian Authority.

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