Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Rome, Lebanon and Ceasefire Talks

If you expected any real results from this, you are sorely mistaken.

There are several fundamental flaws with the Rome talks:

1) The US and Israel have already stated that they are uninterested in any immediate cessation of activity in Lebanon.

2) Israel was not present.

3) Hezbollah was not present.

Do the math - the two combatant groups - Israel and Hezbollah are not present. There is no useful consequence that come out of talks that do not involve the aggreived parties.

The argument that Hezbollah is not a political power is clearly false, with that organization having been the de facto government in southern Lebanon for the better part of a decade or more. While their paramilitary tactics offend me, so do Israel's - I see no appreciable difference.

The US and Israel can stand on their high horse about "not negotiating with 'terrorists'" all they want, that does not, nor will it, change the simple fact that little is likely to change for Israel until they learn to coexist with their neighbors.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So... peace talks with Lebanon, who isn't an active part of the conflict... didn't go well? Just think what would have happened had Isreal or Hezbollah been actally at the talks! Oh, wait... neither of their ruling parties are even remotely interested in peace. (Although I dare say that their citizens think otherwise).

Ah, so nice to know that our society is all grown up, a race of thinkers and philosophers who understand... and still go to war over minor trivialities, which are totally forgotten after the first few bombs fall...

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