Are we Closer to Peace?

All efforts to negotiate in the past have failed. The Israelis have always been unwilling to give up enough land to satisfy the Palestinians. At the same time, continued expansion of Jewish settlements and the continued aggression from both sides has undermined any previous negotiations.

The coming of Sharon has signified a massive escalation on the battle front. Sharon symbolises the genocide of the Palestinians in Lebanon and thus makes it hard for Palestinians to negotiate.

The unavoidable new intifada that came in response to Sharon seems to have had an unexpected result though. The Palestinians have not been defeated in 100 days as Sharon had promised. The targeted killing of "suspected terrorists" has not weakened the Palestinians' ability to fight. On the contrary, the increased suffering of the Palestinians has strengthened the people's resolve and thus made "suicide" or "martyr" bombings more upcoming.

The Palestinians have never fought this hard. The Israelis no longer believe that Ariel's methods will result in an end to the conflict.
Israel's economy is suffering, and the Israelis are tiring of the conflict. Israel is loosing international support, and the need for peace is growing rapidly.


THE QUESTION IS: Can the new intifada bring the Israelis to a real negotiating table. Perhaps a desperate political need to make peace is all that can bring the Jews into a serious discussion.
The current Saudi plan suggests the return of much more land than the Jews have ever offered before, but Israel still seems to be considering it, while before Sharon, it would not have been a real possibility. Perhaps the combination of unified Arab negotiations and the Palestinian intifada will help forge a peace on Arab terms.
Is it possible that the Hizbullah style fight by the Palestinians might result in the same Israeli defeat we saw in Lebanon and thus make a complete pullout unavoidable?
It seems all out aggression is the only language the Jews really understand. If so, perhaps we are looking at the beginnings of a Palestinian victory against Israel.

This topic is important to all Arabs. Only once peace exists in Palestine can we really start to build our economies again."