Politics Gaza

Are there any moderates in the Israeli govt who could influence the hard-liners in charge?

 

Probably not in the current ruling right wing coalition, which is why a change is needed.

My only point of contention, which evidently is not seen as a critical component of success, is the need for a change in the Palestinian leadership as well...away from a policy of religious extremism above political pragmatism.

 

An ideological rant is not equal to an ideological action. If it was, the Middle East would have been nuked years ago.

 

It is when it it serves as the basis for negotiation.

 

obviously, one could say exactly the same about the israeli far right in particular. the settlements are a demonstration of the power of extremists. so it's a little strange to read about how hamas is the obstacle because of their extremist rhetoric.

the other main contention i have been making is that the peace process is dead. it seems obvious that having a process is preferable, but it probably has to be restarted in a new context. that should be interesting. once that's underway---assuming it ever does get underway---then it'd make sense to talk more about pragmatism.

an alternative scenario would be israel fucks up to the point of actually alienating the united states. given the complexity of change that's happening in the region, i think that it is far more possible now for such a thing to happen than it had been---even as, for example, the senate's approval of the last gaza massacre with aipac authored legislation demonstrates that it's not obvious. i had wondered if bibi's settlement expansion announcement might have done it. i haven't been following the aftermath of that particularly because my attention got shifted to egypt.

so a reason for some maybe cautious optimism lay with these regional changes, which has the effect of taking much of the assumed framework that situated us policy toward israel and thrown it out the window.

 

It only serves as "a" basis for negotiation because Israel deems it so.

 

We agree on many (most) issues, but not on how to reach a two-state solution in the best interest of all the people.

And now I am off to a pseudo brit lunch at E&C.

 

Enjoy. I sincerely hope a pseudo brit lunch is an improvement on an actual brit lunch.