The only plan (Ha'aretz editorial)

[Violet_Crumble]

Things have never been as clear and as focused as they are today. Perhaps for the first time in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there is agreement among the Americans, Europeans and Israelis over the way forward in ending the conflict in this generation and not in some faraway future.

The willingness of the Palestinians and the Israelis to accept the compromises outlined in the road map, Egypt's involvement in the attempt to stabilize the rule of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and prevent terror, and the fact that it is Ariel Sharon, the creator of the settlement project, who is making the first significant step in dissolving it - all of these create an atmosphere of coordinated movement in the right direction on both the regional and international levels.

All of the significant players on the ground accept the rules of the game as well as the concessions they entail, with the exception of the rejectionist organizations on the Palestinian side and the extreme right wing on the Israeli side. Apart from these minorities, there is no one left who believes on the one hand that all the Israeli settlements will remain, and on the other that they will all be dismantled. No one believes that the Palestinian demand to resettle the 1948 refugees within Israel's sovereign borders is reasonable, or that a Palestinian state will not be created. There is also an international consensus against the use of terror as a means to an end, however legitimate that end is.

All of these critical understandings could melt away in an instant due to political stupidity and shortsighted personal conflicts, however. The call for early elections is not based on principles, and it is hard to view it as a welcome war against corruption. Early elections are nothing but an effort by political hacks to take revenge on the prime minister for not taking into consideration their anachronistic position, preferring instead to make decisions based on the good of the state and thus putting his own political future in danger.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/619156.html

[Jack Rabbit]

1. !!

Despite the marginal representation of the extremist camp among the public, despite the polls showing that it has actually shrunk since the disengagement, it still has the requisite suicidal fervor to bring the house crashing down on its inhabitants. Now it also has Benjamin Netanyahu.