JOHN SHEEDY,
Sir, - How long are we to witness almost daily scenes of distraught Israeli faces in the wake of suicide bombings? Enough! Surely it has been demonstrated beyond contradiction that the policy of dealing with the situation exclusively on a security basis is ineffective and counter-productive. It merely generates deeper hatred, spawns another generation of martyrs, and effectively removes any prospect of restoring peace. Demonstrably, it has no future.
Cherie Blair was not expressing anti-Israeli sentiments. She was stating the obvious. There is no political process in being. It is a matter of the Palestinians either accepting expanding settlements within their territories, the permanent exile of their dispossessed, no formal recognition of their de facto position in East Jerusalem, and no prospect of achieving an acceptable independent State, or of resisting by violence. There is no other option available to them. There is no basis for hope.
It is up to the Israelis to undermine the necessity, as perceived by the Palestinians, for violence, by entering into a political process with them. Most Palestinians profess to want to end violence and to get on with their lives, as do most Israelis, but they must be provided with a basis to enable them to do so.
The case may be made that the Palestinians missed their opportunity in turning down the proposals available to them under Barak's leadership. Nevertheless, the Israelis must cease their ongoing humiliation of them. They cannot expect to negotiate meaningfully with them, while at the same time treating Arafat in particular, and the Palestinians in general, with absolute contempt. The basis for successful negotiation does not exist in the absence of some degree of mutual respect by each party for the other, and for its position.
The initiative for peace lies with the Israelis. Only when they take it up can there be any prospect of beginning the process of reconciliation and of restoring peace. Tragically, to put it at its kindest, their present leadership seems to have its feet firmly stuck in the mud of history and to be wholly incapable of making the required leap of the imagination. Copy to President George W. Bush. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN SHEEDY, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.