July 31st was a bad day for the Arab-Israeli peace process. Israel strayed from the "road map for peace" by inviting construction bids for expanding the Jewish town of Neveh Dekalim in the Gaza Strip. On top of that, Israel's Knesset [parliament] passed a law temporarily banning the immigration of Palestinian Authority citizens who are married to Israeli citizens. Obviously, neither of these are moves which would enhance the trust required to establish peace between two peoples. Instead, they breed discontent and hatred. Before this, there had actually been a peaceful cease-fire for a month, but July 31 marked the beginning of yet another deterioration into low-scale warfare.
On August 1, one of the pro-terrorist groups irresponsibly called "peace activists" by most major media outlets attempted to tear down part of the barrier that Israel is building in the West Bank to make it harder for terrorists to infiltrate Jewish-populated areas. Fortunately, Israel did not consider this an act of war but merely a riot, and only used tear gas and rubber bullets.
On August 6, Israel released 339 people from prison as a show of good will. However, attitudes had changed, and the release brought nothing but condemnation. For one, Israel had earlier promised to release 540 prisoners. Also, a third of those released had never been charged with a crime, many were arrested for common street crime, and many were near the end of their prison terms anyway. The Palestinian Authority and Hamas issued statements demanding that Israel release every terrorist.
Also on August 6, Israeli forces entered the Palestinian Authority controlled city of Jericho and arrested ten people in one of the most aggressive events of the week.
The cease-fire finally died on August 9 when Israeli forces entered Nablus and attempted to arrest a Hamas leader. He resisted, and a battle ensued. A stray shot ignited the ammunition dump inside his house, and four people died in the explosion. A few days later, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas retaliated by bombing a grocery store and a bus stop.
These high-profile events distract from what has been going on at the north of the country, where relations between Israel and Hizbollah have also deteriorated into exchanges of fire. Recently, Hizbollah attacked an Israeli border post near Shebaa, and Israel launched airstrikes at suspected Hizbollah positions in Lebanon. According to the Christian Science Monitor, Israel has been violating Lebanese airspace almost daily, attempting to provoke a violent response from Hizbollah. Provoke they did, and anti-aircraft shells fell on the Israeli town of Kiryat Shemona.
Both these strings of events are examples of how difficult it is for Israel and its neighbours to approach anything resembling peace. Israel, surrounded by mortal enemies since its founding by people who had been surrounded by mortal enemies for 2,000 years, has a hard time trusting anybody. When it reacts accordingly, anyone it deals with has a hard time trusting Israel -- and reacts accordingly. To make things worse, all of the groups Israel is trying to deal with once had the destruction of Israel and genocide of Israel's population as their highest purpose. Israel demands a high standard to proof to show that these attitudes have changed over the years.
Signs for peace sometimes appear. When Israel withdrew from Lebanon, Hizbollah's attacks stopped except for in the Shebaa area. Unfortunately, signs more often lead to continued war as they have recently.
In a game theory matrix, the cost to any side for refusing peace is zero -- they're already there. However, the cost is tremendous if either side weakens its position and the other side attacks. A leader may have to be a fool to weaken his position and take steps towards peace, and many Israelis called Barak a fool for trusting Hizbollah and withdrawing from Lebanon. In that instance, it worked, but that does not mean it would work every time, and the current inciteful actions may erase that gain.
It seems there can be no peace without trust, but also there can be no trust without peace. That is the paradox of the peace process. Trust is something in short supply in the Levant. The only trust that exists is that each side trusts the other to take advantage of them if they take any conciliatory action. Consequently, neither does, and what has been dubbed the "cycle of violence" continues.
Posted by Warrior Tang at August 19, 2003 10:47 PM