Monday, November 22, 2004
History
For a change, I decided to go back to my bridge between world history and local events. To a significant extent, history serves to unify and give perspective to other topics.
It's still a bit early to tell whether the recent battles in Fallujah have had the desired effect of curbing the insurgency, but finding and cleaning out weapons caches and the like can't hurt. I haven't seen much discussion of what has been planned next, but hopefully it will be possible for the military to give attention to other trouble spots within the country.
Given the rabid hatred of some of the major groups of Palestinians for Israel, I'm not too optimistic that Arafat's successor will be a major improvement. Certainly, anyone wishing to have his position will have to contend with numerous other people and their backers who covet that same position and influence. That person dare not be too moderate, given the tendency of terrorists to treat their own people who are too friendly to their enemies as traitors. That's a self-defeating policy in the long run, but sometimes it does take a long run. In the meantime, the best Israel can hope for is that more moderately inclined would-be leaders among the Palestinians will at last have a voice.
It's still a bit early to tell whether the recent battles in Fallujah have had the desired effect of curbing the insurgency, but finding and cleaning out weapons caches and the like can't hurt. I haven't seen much discussion of what has been planned next, but hopefully it will be possible for the military to give attention to other trouble spots within the country.
Given the rabid hatred of some of the major groups of Palestinians for Israel, I'm not too optimistic that Arafat's successor will be a major improvement. Certainly, anyone wishing to have his position will have to contend with numerous other people and their backers who covet that same position and influence. That person dare not be too moderate, given the tendency of terrorists to treat their own people who are too friendly to their enemies as traitors. That's a self-defeating policy in the long run, but sometimes it does take a long run. In the meantime, the best Israel can hope for is that more moderately inclined would-be leaders among the Palestinians will at last have a voice.
