Reply #3: Still, Doctor [View All]

[The Magistrate]

It could be the beginning of something useful.

What seems to be looming in the situation is the outline of something that has been clearly discernable for a long time. Diplomacy here has been based on two propositions: that the Arab Palestinian leadership was interested in negotiating for a peaceful resolution, and that a cessation of the fighting could only come from from negotiation with the Arab Palestinian leadership. The reality of power has long been that a government of Israel could impose by force majure any "settlement" it chose to enforce, however equitable or otherwise this might be, and by doing so achieve at least a great dimunition in the violence to which its citizens were exposed. Sharon seems to be seriously considering action on the line of power, which must produce some serious attempt by the diplomats to vindicate their own course, or accept its abandonment as a guide for action.