[lit-ideas] On talking peace (Re: Re: Israel's Invasion Pretext UnderFire)

  • From: Teemu Pyyluoma <teme17@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:34:05 -0700 (PDT)

I have no desire to be a cyber-Gandhi, all though I
have to say that as a tactical matter, all the
evidence points to superior effectiveness of peaceful
resistance in comparison to guerrilla warfare. That is
a nice bonus to go along with lot less violence.

What I gather from listening to people who actually
broker peace professionally, it is pretty easy to
predict success or failure of peace talks. Basically
both parties need to want peace, and the acid test for
that is whether they consider some conditions clearly
unacceptable to the other party unnegotiable. If so,
they do not really want the peace enough, and the more
cynical among the diplomatic corps consider more
suffering the only known cure to this ailment. For
example, I followed the Aceh peace talks fairly
closely. Yes, the Tsunami helped, but it was after GAM
dropped the demand for full independence that all the
pieces basically dropped in place.

I don't know what these conditions are in the Israel -
Palestine conflict, but I'd guess the Israel needs to
get over the fact that practically all the settlements
have to go and that it is not simply reasonable to
expect any Palestinian leadership to stop every single
suicide bomber. From Palestinian side the right of
return is something that will simply not materialize
and they also need to get their own armed factions in
control somehow.

There are however enough people in both sides who
believe there is something to be gained by fighting to
keep this thing going ad infinitum. Sure, the White
House could probably stop the current Israel
offensive, but still no outsider can enforce peace.
Which is precisely why I am less than thrilled about
plans to place foreign troops under UN, EU, NATO or
whatever flag in Southern Lebanon.


Yours,
Teemu
Helsinki, Finland

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  • » [lit-ideas] On talking peace (Re: Re: Israel's Invasion Pretext UnderFire)