The Road Map is gaining momentum, as Israel makes goodwill concessions and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas is expected to call for an end to violence in the Intifada in a speech on Wednesday:
Abbas will declare in his speech at the Aqaba summit on Wednesday, that the “armed intifada must come to an end, and (the Palestinians) will turn to peaceful measures”. The draft of the Palestinian statement, which has reached diplomatic sources in Jerusalem, also states that “we will invest all our efforts, while using all the means at our disposal, to alter the intifada’s military nature, and we will succeed”.
But, lest anyone get their hopes up too high, the endless finger-pointing hasn’t changed and probably never will:
Palestinian officials complained that Israel has not yet agreed to come out with an equally strong statement promising to end its military raids in PA areas.
Sometimes the conflict reminds me of a fight between two children who are playing up for their parents’ attention:
“He started it!”
“No, she started it!”
“Mom, tell him to stop!”
“STOP IT, BOTH OF YOU”
“But Mom, that’s not fair! He started it!”
Of course, that’s not the reason the Road Map will fail. The terrorists will gladly make sure of that by launching attacks on more innocent Israeli civilians the minute it looks like anything is getting too close. Despite Abbas’s being propped up by the US, he has no real power or popularity among the Palestinian people. Unlike Sharon, he was appointed, not elected, and polls show him with less than 2% of the public’s support. His words are a mere drop in the bucket, even assuming he actually meant them.
But in the meantime, neither Sharon nor Abbas wants to be the first to throw a monkey wrench in the process, thus pissing off Bush. So it stumbles forward on its doomed path. And all I can do is hope that, unlike Oslo, this map won’t lead Israel straight to more misery and that it won’t cost nearly as many innocent lives.