November 17, 2004

A state of nature

By Richard Baehr
The death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has brought forth all the shopworn bromides about the critical opportunity now ahead, to finally forge a lasting peace and a two state solution for Israel and the Palestinians. Arafat's death has not changed any of the underlying dynamics that continue to prevent such a peace or a two state solution from emerging. The first of these critical dynamics is that Palestinian society is now more accurately described as a chaotic, violent state of nature (in the Hobbesein sense), than as a political entity ready for the next step to peace and statehood. The second is that the overwhelming political sentiment of the Palestinian community remains the same as it has been for a century — that no Jewish—majority Israeli state can exist, that Israel's creation was an original sin, and that in the end, it must disappear. President Bush, in a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair last Friday, indicated that he would...(Read Full Article)