scope creep..

i remember when our government asked the palestinians to renounce violence as a precondition to talks.. i dont remember the moment or the statement but i remember perceiving that to be the precondition..

then it became requiring the palestinian authority to recognise israel as a jewish state.. one of the most bizarre requests.. i could never understand how having a non state entity crown us as the land of the jews was a plausible reason to defer progress on a matter as urgent as peace in our country and region..

now the prerequisite appears to be to refrain from perfectly non violent action pursuant to international law to seek the enforcement of what they and much of the world appears to believe is their legitimate right..

the palestinians have been just as brilliant.. asking for negotiations to be predetermined by finite statements.. asking for us to accept blame.. and ultimately yielding to the pressure and coming to the table.. just as we have..

when juxtaposed against previous preconditions you cant help but worry about the nature of our respective governments' attitudes.. i am encouraged that the peace talks have recommenced.. and i can see why it took jordan's intervention.. a close country lead by a seemingly objective intelligent and reasonable leader to retrigger the track..

i am cautiously pleased that there have been reports of border proposals being exchanged without any many disruption to the talks..

and i cant help but wonder if the iranian threat and our growing isolation havent pushed our government to realise that even the zionist wonderchild is no match for a roaring unpredictable middle east in a global ocean of dire financial turmoil..

from the palestinian side.. its hard to miss the paradoxical dichotomous trend of democracy and islamification both toppling governments together.. the fact is however that other than the islamists no one is winning.. women in egypt are becrying the clear lack of inclusion in the country's future leadership nothwithstanding the fact that the women of tahrir stood firm beside everyone else during the momentous demonstrations that changed history by leading the mubarak being ousted..

fatah as a secular movement probably knows that it needs to achieve fast.. otherwise it stands to be removed once and for all.. hamas on the other hand need to bet the full hand.. iran is being isolated and has punished them for siding with the syrian public by cutting funds and the arab streets spring never made it to summer.. unless they can downplay fatah as a old guard corrupt anti democratic traitor (which is not so hard) they will end up empty handed both politically and financially.. and then they will have to cave and ultimately do what they fear most which is renounce violence and accept that israel is here to stay..

the entire region - just like this post - appears to lack focus.. you think you have it all figured out but you dont.. anything could happen.. i keep going back in my mind to the tahrir days during which i had no doubt that moubarak would crush all opposition ruthlessly and that the west would support him in fear of the muslim brotherhood..

and there you have it.. a critical mass of people showed up and the US could no longer genuinely do so.. suddenly everything switched..