I’ve been watching the unfolding scenario in Israel and Palestine all day, absolutely stunned at how far this has gone… and how fast.
Earlier, the EU said,
“All sides need to consider their responsibilities extremely carefully,” EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in a statement.
[snip]
“Both sides must step back from the brink before this becomes a crisis that neither can control,” she said.
And now, there’s this:
Palestinian militants in the West Bank are reported to have killed an Israeli settler they had abducted at the weekend.
Palestinian security sources were quoted as saying the body of the 18-year-old man, Eliahu Asheri, had been recovered in the city of Ramallah.
Surely… surely it’s obvious that neither the Palestinian Authority nor Hamas have any control over what’s happening.
If they could stop it — if they could have freed the three hostages — they would have, because Polimom believes they know, just like the rest of us always knew, that Israel was not bluffing.
And Israel is supremely pissed off. This is horrifying to watch…
I am not sure they would have. After all, this way they can continue the conflict against Israel (which is what defines both Hamas and the PLO), while not being directly responsible (the whole ‘plausible deniability’ thing.) It also helps them to raise money from their more wealthy brethren.
I am of the opinion that the Arab world could have stopped this conflict any time that they wanted – but they wanted it to continue, since with an external enemy to focus on, the people wouldn’t be so likely to look at the mess the rulers have made of their own countries. Now, they are too much involved to back down without losing face (sort of like the Argentinians as the RN was steaming to the Falklands/Malvinas with a whole lotta whoop-ass to deliver), but they are just as scared to let it go any farther forward (’cause when the IDF delivers their own shipments of whoop-ass, the Arabs are gonna lose, and that doesn’t look to good either.)
~EdT.