The Peace Process

Posted by lex, on November 21, 2007

Many critics point to the current US administration’s hesitation to engage American prestige in the Middle East peace process as the reason why things over there remain a chaotic mess. Why we should risk wrestling with that particular pig – especially given the painful lessons learned by the Clinton administration during their attempts in the region – is a mystery, however. And over in the WSJ, former Clinton-era UN Human Rights Commission delegate Jeff Robins points out some of the reasons why Condi’s Mid East engagement process may well be the worst thing to come out of Annapolis since Jimmy Carter graduated.

In order for there to be peace between Israel and her neighbors, everyone concerned must prefer that outcome to the status quo risks and costs of continued, smoldering hostility. Clearly, not everyone does:

Credo

"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me."

— John Paul Jones

"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature"

— George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."

— Friedrich Nietzsche

"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."

— Edmund Burke

"Μολὼν λαβέ"

— Leonidas

"Blogito Ergo Sum"

— Neptunus Lex