Palestinian mourners carry the body of Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana, 23, during his funeral in Gaza City on Thursday. A medical examination showed that metal darts from an Israeli tank shell that explodes in the air caused the death of Shana on Wednesday in the Gaza Strip, doctors said (Reuters photo)
The confusing aspect of diplomacy that the Neocon White House refuses to 'deal in and with' is that there are two faces to war. There is the conflict itself whereby soldiers die and there is the human side whereby people survive regardless of the war itself.
The Neocons value death. Tit for tat. Eye for an eye, kind of stuff. It is why the Bush/Cheney White House fails in war and views torture as a legitimate method to some kind of 'truth serum.'
War is a result of failed diplomacy. Diplomacy does fail, but, it is almost as though it is destined to fail in order to succeed.
In any attempt 'at reason' in what seems unreasonable circumstances, the parties involved lay out their demands and seek to find common ground between their differences, hopefully to resolve them, resulting in a compromise that sustains into generations. War is simply a way of saying at the diplomatic tables, "We mean it." Bush/Cheney use war as an end, to that result is genocide.
The concept behind diplomacy is that it is the higher value of ourselves. In other words, diplomacy distains war for the sheer brutal outcome of soldiers and citizens. To completely fail at diplomacy results in what exists now in Iraq and between Israel and Palestine; armed factions at each others throats forever. A better example of that was the civil war between the Irish Catholics and Protestants and British.
At any rate, diplomacy can achieve a peace and whether anyone wants to state it or not, except for every Bush/Cheney blunder on Earth whereby they insist on war; there is peace with nations such as Russia and China. The point is diplomacy is a dynamic that is necessary if the world is to succeed to peace and the better of our civilizations results.
The lack of diplomacy in Neocon administrations, insures war. It insures an economy of war to the detriment of, in this case, the USA's politically dominated economy. Oh let's face it, Bush tampered with the Housing Credit Market to float an economy that would win him a second term. Hello?
No nation can sustain itself as a war nation. It is not possible. War produces huge demands on a nation's economy and in the case of the war in Iraq there is no support for it internationally, again because of failed diplomacy by the USA, and the burden for the cost of the war has crippled the USA treasury as the deficit to end all prosperity for generations.
What people like Jimmy and Roselyn Carter realize is that killing is not a means to an end. War begets war, but, attempts to find 'in roads of WILLINGNESS' is a step in a direction that ultimately will result in civil treatment of people.
Former President Carter and his spouse are attempting to bring balance to the issue of Human Rights in the Middle East. Israel has complete control of the accesses to Gaza and the Palestinian Territories and use that to pressure Hamas and other Palestinian elements to succumb to demands of disarmament. The result of that strategy is human suffering to the point where resolve is extreme.
To put it plainly, the people that are Hamas simply accept their fate at the hands of Israel and have resolved to fight and die until they are completely gone as a people. That is an 'inflicted genocide' and human rights abuse. Unless people like the Carters expose the cruelty for what it is and bring about a more civilized face to Hamas, the Neocons will simply allow the suffering.
The former President has been at the center of controversy before and it resulted in peace initiatives that the Bush/Cheney administration has never produced. There certainly is hope in this attempt by Carter.
Abbas calls for Middle East conference in Moscow (click here)
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday called for a Middle East peace conference in Moscow “as soon as possible”, saying this was needed to spur talks with Israel that were moving too slowly.
“We want the Moscow conference to be held as soon as possible and we hope it will succeed in pushing the peace process forward,” Abbas said in a lecture to Moscow university students.
Confirming that discussions were still under way on a date, Abbas said a new impetus was needed to follow up a conference last November hosted by US President George W. Bush in Annapolis, Maryland.
“I regret to say that there are obstacles hindering the application of what was agreed upon in Annapolis,” said Abbas, whose visit was intended to lay the ground for the new conference.
“The negotiations are not advancing at the required pace or yielding the progress necessary for us to reach the agreed objectives by the agreed dates.” Palestinian officials have mentioned June as a possible date for the conference, but Russia’s foreign ministry confirmed that the timing had not been finalised, Interfax news agency reported.
Abbas was to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday....
While Putin has maintained a profile in the Middle East, peace promoter was never a headline in Pravda.
Jimmy Carter Lays a Wreath at Arafat's Tomb (click title to entry)
By Julie Stahl
CNSNews.com
Jerusalem Bureau Chief
April 15, 2008
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter laid a wreath of red roses at the grave of Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat during a visit to the West Bank City of Ramallah on Tuesday. "
He and Mrs. Carter and his son Jeff wanted to pay their respects to President Arafat," Carter's trip director Rick Jasculca told Cybercast News Service. But the former president didn't make any comments there, he said.
Dubbed the "godfather of terrorism," Arafat was linked to the deaths of two American diplomats in the Sudan in 1973 -- one of many terror acts laid at his feet. (See earlier story)
Twenty years later, Arafat became the first PLO leader to sign a peace agreement with an Israeli Prime Minister -- Yitzhak Rabin -- in 1993. He was considered Israel's peace partner (although many Israelis never believed it) until the beginning of the violent Palestinian uprising in September 2000. Arafat managed the terror war against Israel until his death in 2004.
U.S. officials have emphasized that Carter is visiting the Middle East as a private citizen and not as a representative of the U.S. government.
On Tuesday, the Israeli government refused Carter's request to visit Hamas-controlled Gaza. The former U.S. leader has angered the Israeli government over plans to meet Hamas's top leader, Khaled Mashaal, in Syria on Friday.
Most visiting American dignitaries -- including President Bush -- have avoided Arafat's tomb. Michaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem that handles Palestinian affairs, told Cybercast News Service that no active U.S. Executive Branch member had ever laid a wreath on Arafat's grave....
Carter arrives in Damascus for more talks (click here)
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter arrived Friday in Syria where he is due to meet the exiled leader of Hamas a day after he had asked senior officials from the militant Palestinian group he met in Egypt to stop rocket attacks into Israel.
Carter is scheduled to meet Friday with Syrian President Bashar Assad before he sees Khaled Mashaal, the Hamas leader. He also plans to meet with Syrian businessmen.
Carter's meetings with Hamas officials in Egypt and Palestinian territories have sparked criticism in both Israel and the United States, which consider Hamas a terrorist organization.
But Carter has defended his controversial meetings with Hamas officials, saying it was necessary to talk to all parties to achieve peace in the Middle East.
Carter arrived at Damascus airport on a small private plane from Cairo....
Carter, Hamas discussed Gaza truce at Egypt meeting (click here)
2 hours ago
GAZA CITY (AFP) — Former US President Jimmy Carter and Hamas leaders discussed the possibility of a truce in the Gaza Strip during their talks in Cairo, a leader of the Islamist group said on Friday.
Carter, who was due to meet exiled Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in Damascus on Friday, also raised the issue of an Israeli soldier seized in 2006 just outside the Palestinian territory, said Mahmud Zahar, who took part in Thursday's meeting in Cairo.
"We had common points of view and the talks will continue today during the meeting with the political leadership of Hamas in Damascus," Zahar said in a telephone interview.
"President Carter talked of humanitarian proposals linked to the truce," he said in reference to attempts to halt the bloodshed in Gaza, where 18 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers were killed in the latest explosion of violence on Wednesday.
The discussions also centered on a crippling embargo against Gaza which Israel imposed in retaliation for rocket and mortar fire from the territory....
