BYE BYE GAZA - Barry Chamish

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forced to wage that war in self-defense, and the disputed
territories were held not as the object of conquest, but to be
part of eventual negotiations for lasting peace.
back to CFR President Haass oped promoting the
destruction of Israel
It has been a long time since the words opportunity and
Middle East appeared in the same sentence. But now they
are. Even better, this optimism may have some basis in
reality. One important reason for this change in attitude is, of
course, Yasser Arafat's disappearance from the scene. Like
the Thane of Cawdor in Shakespeare's Macbeth, "Nothing in
his life became him like the leaving it."
Arafat never grew beyond the man who appeared at the
United Nations decades ago with both an olive branch and a
gun. His unwillingness to jettison terror and choose
diplomacy proved his undoing, as he lost legitimacy in the
eyes of both Israel and the United States. The result was the
failure to create a Palestinian state.
But it is not simply Arafat's passing that provides cause for
optimism. We now have a Palestinian leadership legitimized
by elections, one that appears to be opposed to using
terrorism as a tool to achieve political aims. Mahmoud Abbas
(Abu Mazen) has a good record of questioning the wisdom of
the intifada that has taken too many lives and caused only
misery and destruction on all sides.
Changes in Israel are also contributing to the mood swing.
There is a growing awareness in Israel that the current
situation -- one of open-ended Israeli occupation of lands
mostly populated by Palestinians -- is inconsistent with
Israel's determination to remain a secure, prosperous,
Jewish and democratic state.
The formation of a new Israeli government, one more centrist
in its composition and support, is another positive