Sunday, January 04, 2009

Dead End

I am with Haaretz on this one. It is impossible to see how an invasion of Gaza is going to end well, for anybody. The definition of insanity is generally believed to be following the same course repeatedly and expecting a different result. That is the history of the Middle East for the past 60 years. One side commits an atrocity, the other side retaliates, wash, rinse and repeat. Always repeat. The only constant in all of this is the killing and with each new death, the idea that "our side" must achieve total victory over the enemy, is fed. Unfortunately, the endpoint of this logic is genocide, because genocide is the only way that "total victory" can be assured.

I don't pretend to have the answer to all of this. However, if there was ever a need for an intervention of sanity, this would be it. Otherwise, the blood will continue to flow and the crazy internal logic of revenge will continue to dominate the politics of the region.

Update: Ethan Bronner, in the New York Times, asks some good questions. Looking around, nobody has answers, only questions.
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