Suspense

Izzy is puzzled by the headlines in today's Jerusalem Post. It does not seem like the controversial excavation at the Temple Mount has been suspended, especially after Olmert's assertions to his cabinet that he is absolutely committed to this renovation project.
Yet Mayor Uri Lupolianski said last night that building works on the new ramp up to the Temple Mount will be stalled until all the contentious objections by Islamicists, archaeologists and sundry others are handled; this is a responsible action. But it transpires that the Antiquities Authority's salvage dig will continue. Isn't this dig one of the sticking points? Arab Israelis and Muslims from Indonesia to Iran have objected to the dig because of the (far-fetched) possibility that underground tunnels are meant to undermine the foundations of their shrine and mosque. Reassurances by the Israelis that the Archaeological garden lies outside the holy site have not quelled rumours. Perhaps placing the city council's proposed 24/7 web cam inside the salvage dig would go further towards abating this potential crisis (if enough light can be thrown inside...and if the Muslims are convinced there is no trickery involved.)
Trust is what's lacking. Mutual suspicion of opportunism and manipulation is what fuels the righteous fury, along with a sense of entitlement. Certainly, the security troops on their hefty steeds looked ready for a fight, as did the shouters of slogans and hurlers of bottles and rocks.
Closing the boys' high school in the area is a dim tactic on the part of the Israelis. If Muslim kids are in class, they are accountable to their teachers and far less apt to be out on the streets hurling stones. Conspiracy theories abound, but so often it is just ineptitude.

Slapping down the possibility of peace?

Security was the focus for a quartet of Christian clergymen who crossed into Bethlehem to pray at the grotto where they believe Jesus, the Prince of Peace, was born. The Archbishop of Canterbury, appalled by his grim journey into the West Bank, pointed out how the new security barrier, which the Israelis say is preventing suicide attacks, is a manifest symbol of what is "deeply wrong in the human heart". It reveals a "fear of the other and the stranger which keeps all of us in one or another kind of prison", he said. "In this so troubled, complex land, justice and security is never something which one person claims at the expense of another or one community at the expense of another," the archbishop, Dr Rowan Williams, added.

The flight of Christians from this celebrated town is a response to heightened violence and isolation--factors which makes it increasingly hard to eke out a living. Christians used to make up more than 85 per cent of Bethlehem's population in 1948; today they comprise only 12 per cent. But Christian proprietors owned most of the town's hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops. As the West Bank's middle classes abandon their family property, what little prosperity there was vanishes.

Without prosperity, there can be little hope for a Palestinian peace.

Considering the chaos between splintering Palestinian factions, mixed with opportunistic neighbor states that encourage and arm them, the future for peace looks dismal.
Amos Oz ponders the preconditions that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is putting on any negotiations with Syria, in his latest opinion piece that appeared in the Parisian press; meanwhile Marek Halter, in Le Figaro, examine recent blunders which may be stoking future war in the Middle East.
He cites the prophet Isaiah - who he calls the ultimate proto-activist, armed only with the Word:
"And the fruit of justice shall be peace; and justice will deliver tranquility and security for all." (Isaiah 32:17)

Grossman: "not easy to look at ourselves"

Israel has squandered peace opportunities in the Middle East, says the author David Grossman. Now it's time to make an offer the Palestinians can't refuse. The excerpt below is from his hard-hitting speech, on November 4th. Grossman, a novelist and peace activist, spoke to a crowd of 100,000 Israelis at the eleventh Rabin Memorial ceremony, in Tel Aviv. (Translation by Haim Watzman; published in The Guardian and the New York Times.)

"This year, it is not easy to look at ourselves. We had a war. Israel flexed its huge military biceps, but at its back its reach proved all too short and brittle. We realised that our military might alone cannot, when push comes to shove, defend us. In particular, we discovered that Israel faces a profound crisis... When did we lose even the hope that we might some day be able to live different, better lives? More than that, how is it that we continue today to stand aside and watch, mesmerised, as madness and vulgarity, violence and racism take control of our home?"

The eloquent Grossman is a bellwether of doom. Less than 48 hours after he called for an immediate truce to the Lebanese war in August, his middle son Uri was killed minutes after his tank crossed the border to battle Hizbollah. And four days after this public plea to Prime Minister Olmert to reach out to Palestine, the world recoiled again because Israeli shells rained down on Beit Hanoun and killed 19 civilians, even though the IDF had officially concluded their Gaza offensive, Operation Autumn Clouds. Such a tragic blunder is bound to have consequences. Hamas is threatening to launch suicide attacks again in retribution. These had largely stopped after the election of the new Palestinian government.