Flagging Olmert's Snub to Pakistan

Is this the shape of things to come?
Artist Zoya Cherkassky has designed an Interim Flag to update the present national banner and unfurled it in cyberspace on Independence Day. She explained to Ynet news that “The problem with the current flag is that it was born Jewish and only appeals to Jews. There are other people in this country, and just as Arabic is a second language, I would expect that this would be reflected in the flag." To many, these are fighting words. But she has a point.
Zoya's flag shows a Star of David with undefined boundaries. In fact, the shape resembles an explosion, which seems brutally apt for the present situation, as tensions with Hamas increase by the hour and Israelis must brace themselves for a new wave of terror attacks. Preparations for new military incursions into Gaza are underway, they say, and strikes will start after a report on the political and military blunders of the summer Lebanon War gets published. It's deja vu all over again, so it is crucial to reach for a better solution. The red warning flags are hoisted all around, jaws are flapping the same stale slogans, and it's high time to think outside the box.

That's why rejecting Pakistani General Pervez Musharraf's offer to intercede in peace talks with the Palestinians was a poor decision. As todays' Haaretz commentary points out, Israel should welcome a bid from non-Arab Muslims who recognize that peace is the path forward.

Musharraf is no stranger to the risk of extremist Islamic groups, since he must deal with pro-Taliban Mullahs in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Provinces and Baluchistan who object to his western leanings. He is no paragon as a democratic leader, having seized power in a coup. But Olmert's snub to the general, a beleaguered US ally who happens to have his own nuclear weapons, comes across as high-handed, shortsighted, and stubborn. It shows his weakness. The attitude of Pakistan, along with non-Arab Muslim countries such as Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia, could prove critical. The Prime Minister has turned his nose up at a "powerful incentive, under which not only 350 million Arabs, but some 1.25 billion Muslims, would cease to view Israel, at least officially, as an enemy that ought to be annihilated." This is a chance for diplomatic relations and normalization in exchange for not being "dragged into a military abyss." Not a bad bargain.