The beat goes on

It becomes clearer every day that the Sharon government is not only not interested in peace with the Palestinians, it will take whatever steps, say whatever is necessary, to destroy the very idea while continuing to claim for itself the mantle of innocent victim.

Consider this from the Washington Post for January 23.

As the Bush administration readies a new diplomatic mission to invigorate the Middle East peace process, a senior Israeli official yesterday painted a dire picture of the situation, saying there is "very little that can be done" by either Israel or the United States in the absence of Palestinian action against terrorism. ...

The Israeli official held out little hope that Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia will rein in Palestinian militant groups and forestall a unilateral disengagement by Sharon. "Unfortunately, socially and politically there is no Palestinian nation," the official said. "You have to understand Palestinian political society today is a collection of a couple hundred independent entities," each with its own leader and local militia. "When a Palestinian prime minister is confirmed, practically it means nothing."

That is, an official of the Sharon government is saying there can be no settlement with Palestinians until they do what the same official in virtually the next breath says they can't.

Bluntly, this amounts to a confession that Sharon does not want peace, because it means that he has repeatedly demanded what his own government regards as an impossible-to-meet precondition for talks that could lead to a settlement. That is not the practice of a government honestly looking for peace but of one looking to avoid it. Indeed, the contempt for Palestinians is palpable.

The [US-sponsored] road map, he said, is "just a piece of paper" to implement the president's vision. "We love the president's vision," he said, because he "made it clear that unless the Palestinians will endorse themselves into a law-abiding, civilized society, there will be no political negotiations with them."

"This principle, this sequence, is that you, Mr. Palestinian, will obey the rules which are well-accepted among other members of the civilized community of nations, and then you may be allowed to discuss politics," he said.

A government that stands in violation of, if memory serves, someone over a score of Security Council resolutions, that continues to illegally occupy conquered lands, that is the only nation in the region that is known to have WMDs, that is building an internationally-condemned fence intruding into Palestinian land, that has killed Palestinians and peace protesters with apparent impunity, that slapped down an offer to reopen negotiations about the Golan Heights, that has practiced collective guilt, bulldozed homes, and engaged in a routine practice of humiliation and brutalization of Palestinians at border crossings, is not a government that is in a position to lecture anyone about their supposed lack of "civilization."

The Israeli official offered only one possibility that might alter the current situation. "If something will happen to [Palestinian President Yasser] Arafat, in a natural course of events, of course, things may change in a day," he said.

Oh, yeah. Add "advocates the murder of foreign officials" to that list.

Footnote: I'm fully aware that the "road map" calls on the Palestinian Authority to take steps to combat terrorism. But to demand that as a precondition to talks (which the road map does not require) while admitting its ability to do so is limited, is a height of hypocrisy.

By the way, that same road map calls on Israel to dismantle its settlements in the occupied territories. So far, despite a bunch of PR hoopla, the only such settlements affected are ones Jerusalem calls "illegal," which means ones not approved by the government. Approved ones are not only unaffected, they receive the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars in support. Oh, and most of the dismantled settlements were already abandoned.

Finally, don't bother trying to change the subject by accusing me of "condoning terrorism." I'm doing no such thing. I'm slamming hypocrisy and lies.