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Naming the War: Two Years of Violence

(Jerusalem Post) - Naming the war the "Al-Aqsa Intifada" has proved a Palestinian stroke of genius, with its adoption by much of the Western press helping to cast the conflict internationally in Arafat's terms. Here are some views of what to name the current conflict: The Idealists' War - Richard Perle The idealists were those who were convinced, in the absence of convincing evidence, the Palestinian Authority as it is now led was prepared to reach a compromise with Israel that would guarantee the permanence of the Jewish state on territory to which the Palestinians had long laid claim. The issue was never acceptance of the 1967 borders. The War of the Occupation - Naomi Chazan For the Palestinians, this is a war of national liberation against Israeli occupation. Operation Justice Recovered - Dore Gold Arafat miscalculated, believing that Israel¹s unilateral retreat from Lebanon could be replicated in the West Bank and Gaza, without binding him to renounce further Palestinian claims inside of Israel proper. His error was the same as other authoritarian leaders who see democratic debate as weakness and who fail to understand that democratic societies, energized with a strong inner-conviction in the justice of their cause, cannot be broken. The Camp David War - Michael Oren The Palestinians initiated the fighting after the Camp David summit meeting, during which they demanded the return of all refugees to Israel and Israel refused to commit demographic suicide. The War Against Peace - Natan Sharansky Dictators, by their nature, need an external enemy to justify their hold on power and the oppression of their own people. This war was a dictator's war against his people. I don't believe any people naturally hates another; the Palestinian Authority has spent a decade educating their people to hate. The War of the Borders - A.B. Yehoshua There are two parallel wars, one over the location of the border and the other over the very existence of a border. The Sixth War - Ehud Ya'ari Hizballah calls the current war "The Sixth Arab-Israeli War," and I concur. The War Oslo Wrought - Norman Podhoretz Some of us predicted when the Oslo accords were signed that they would lead not to peace but to war. The terrorism materialized in a form more diabolically evil than we had been capable of imagining.
2002-09-20 00:00:00
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