The Meat Grinder

If one could think that the chaos in the Middle East could not get any worse, it did this past month. A new round of terrorist attacks against Israel killed dozens and included attacks during one of Judaism's holiest and important events - the Passover Seder. Israel's response was swift and vigorous. They sent their troops into the territories and struck at suspected terrorist hideouts searching for those responsible for the attacks and to prevent further Israeli deaths.

The world has gone on to condemn Israel's response because it has included attacks against the Palestinian Authority and effectively cut off PA Chairman Yasir Arafat's ability to communicate with the rest of the world. The attacks also include surrounding a large number of Palestinian gunmen in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity - one of Christianity's most revered sites. Reports indicate that over 100 and as many as 250 gunmen are within the church and its surrounding complex, trying to hold out against the encircling Israeli army. The Israelis have refrained from attacking the gunmen in the church, but the Israelis have succeeded in preventing those suspected in carrying out murders from additional attacks.

The European Union has roundly condemned Israel's use of force, as has the UN Security Council - both declaring that Israel must withdraw from the territories. The Arab countries have expressed their usual condemnation of Israel; blaming them for the terrorism and that any links between the terrorist activities and Arafat were propaganda and not true.

The blame game and condemnations against both sides continue to escalate and the US was pushed into sending US Secretary of State Colin Powell to the region to try and arrange a ceasefire.

I fear that he will be unsuccessful because the two sides have little, if anything in common to base a ceasefire or peace agreement on. Both sides have shown a lack of trust towards the other that does not appear easily overcome. Palestinians have been betrayed by their leadership and continue to believe that suicide bombing to murder Israeli citizens will bring about the creation of a Palestinian state in the territories while Israelis see the continued terrorism as justifying the belief that Palestinians do not want a peaceful coexistence with Israel but rather their elimination from the region.

There are no moderate voices coming from the Palestinian side that support a peace agreement on anything less than all of the West Bank, Gaza, and all of Jerusalem - which has been their position all along. In fact, the PLO Charter remains unaltered in its call for the destruction of the state of Israel. That is no way to build trust in having Israel turn over land to a group that calls for its very destruction.

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