Wednesday, January 05, 2000
Cure for Post-election trauma
By Wally Dobelis
Some positive nlisotes to cure the post-election trauma
In this week of post-presidential election vote counts in the US, watching the film bites of the Arab young men darting out into streets to throw rocks at the Israeli young men, who have no rocks and therefore respond with gun fire, filled my mind with dismay. Can the world cope with this kind of conflict, and how much time will the new management team of the US will have for on-the-job-training to deal with it? The promise of peace that started in Oslo in 1993 and gradually eroded with the murder of Rabin in November 1995, and the unsuccessful Camp David negotioations of July 2000, has reached rock bottom with the new intifada of October 2000. It seems that the fragile flower of peace, tended and watched by millions, can be stomped out by any enemy of peace at will, with no effort. No one can step up with guns or planes in to attempt to bring it back. Kosovo was easy, in comparison.
For a while I was beginning to wonder whether the Arab thinking process parallels ours. What kind of fathers and mothers would let their sons go out with stones every morning to risk provoking other young men with guns to kill them, and for what gain? Imagine the conversation: "Mom, I’m going out, to throw rocks at Israeli soldiers." "Why, for God’s sake?" "Well, if they kill me, the world opinion will condemn the Jews." "Will that push the Jews out into the sea and give us an Arab Palestine?" "No, but the UN may censure Israel." "And then what?" " Well, maybe Iran or Iraq will drop atom bombs on Israel." "And then what?" "Then we will all die in a world war." "Well, then, goodbye, son, dress neatly and be careful." I really cannot buy this Leonidas’s mother’s dialogue. At least she sent him to Thermopylae to fight the Persians with equal weapons.
Here’s a is more likely conversation: "Son, I don’t want you to go." "If I don’t go, the Hezbollah (or Hamas, or Palestine Authority or whatever) leaders will brand me a coward." "And then what?" "They will punish us, we will be outcasts, seen as Israeli collaborators, and our lives will be under a threat." "Supposing none of you young people go?" "Nobody wants to be the first." "Supposing we mothers protest?" "Come on, Mom, this is the Middle East, not the US, Ireland, nor even Russia. In Saudi Arabia they still behead young women for dating the wrong guy." "Then, there’s no way for people like us to express our opinions." "Not when the Hezbollah (etc, etc) leaders want to keep their power, and keep the money flowing from Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Muslim nations - and that includes the compatriots in the US. Even Arafat cannot accept a rational peace offer without fear of being instantly deposed or liquidated. The best he can do is to offer cessation of hostilities in return for some land concessions in the Occupied Territories. He can whittle away at the Israeli control there without compromising his demands for Jerusalem." "Well, then, there is nothing we can do. Goodbye, son, dress neatly and be careful."
Is there really nothing the leaders of the Western world can do, except perform empty ritual gestures for public consumption, and "to keep the peace process alive?". Yes, the anti-peace saboteurs on both sides can break up any real peace efforts at will, whenever there is a threat of a real success. There is now an international technique for it. The peace effort in relatively democratic North Ireland, which has been going on more than twice as long as in Israel, has been sabotaged time and again by people who have a lot to lose - power, self-importance, also funds from America (in the case of the IRA) - if a coalition government is established. Look, women for peace, the most powerful segment of the population that can exert pressure for a compromise (Take another Greek example, Lysistrata), in Ireland are under a less severe threat of retaliation. Still, the peace efforts have collapsed time and again, either by explosives or by spoilers dressed neatly in 18th century garb marching in the wrong places to provoke retaliation.
Nevertheless, it will have to be the women who will have to make the peace in the horror spots of this Earth. If this looks like I’m proposing a woman president for the US, don’t take me too literally. A woman can be already elected president in the US, on merit. I’m talking about a whole world out there in which women have been kept out of power, to the point that even the little that they have gained, in a country like Afganistan, is being taken back.
Power for women and education, that is what the world needs before these nationalistic power and greed sicknesses that beset the world can be cured. These on-again off-again armed truces that we can forecast for Israel, Kosovo, Ireland, Sierra Leone and the other killing fields of Africa will last for decades (I’m serious), but the permanent peace-making solutions will not take place before education, particularly for women, breaks the power of the warlike male supremacy. The killing power of AIDS in Africa is forcing the women to take some control over their own destinies, and the social injustices in such male-dominated societies as Afganistan and Iran are forcing women to form underground organizations. It may take several more decades, but the progress of electronic communications has speeded the world up. The signs are there.
Meanwhile, good luck to all of us, and to our new corporate management team, whoever they may be, bought for three billion dollars. Be sure to get competent help, fast. Once this is over we will be together, regardless of how we felt and voted. That is all over, we are together again - although someone may start raising funds tomorrow, it’s only 3 years and 364 days till the next election.
*Wally Dobelis has been writing weekly columns for the past six years on local and national history and politics, on New York architecture, landmarking and preservation, on the 1960s of Reform Democrat struggles, on the old bookstores on 4th Avenue, on books, plays and movies as they affect his East Midtown New York readership.His venue is Town and Village, a weekly paid subscription newspaper (est 1947), named for Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, with 10,000 devoted educated readers who hang on his every word (sometimes complaining about the longer ones).You can look him up in the Marquis Who's Who in the East and Contemporary Authors. Don't look for him on the Internet (except in the NYPL bio references), you're his first modest attempt to crack the national scene. NP?
Some positive nlisotes to cure the post-election trauma
In this week of post-presidential election vote counts in the US, watching the film bites of the Arab young men darting out into streets to throw rocks at the Israeli young men, who have no rocks and therefore respond with gun fire, filled my mind with dismay. Can the world cope with this kind of conflict, and how much time will the new management team of the US will have for on-the-job-training to deal with it? The promise of peace that started in Oslo in 1993 and gradually eroded with the murder of Rabin in November 1995, and the unsuccessful Camp David negotioations of July 2000, has reached rock bottom with the new intifada of October 2000. It seems that the fragile flower of peace, tended and watched by millions, can be stomped out by any enemy of peace at will, with no effort. No one can step up with guns or planes in to attempt to bring it back. Kosovo was easy, in comparison.
For a while I was beginning to wonder whether the Arab thinking process parallels ours. What kind of fathers and mothers would let their sons go out with stones every morning to risk provoking other young men with guns to kill them, and for what gain? Imagine the conversation: "Mom, I’m going out, to throw rocks at Israeli soldiers." "Why, for God’s sake?" "Well, if they kill me, the world opinion will condemn the Jews." "Will that push the Jews out into the sea and give us an Arab Palestine?" "No, but the UN may censure Israel." "And then what?" " Well, maybe Iran or Iraq will drop atom bombs on Israel." "And then what?" "Then we will all die in a world war." "Well, then, goodbye, son, dress neatly and be careful." I really cannot buy this Leonidas’s mother’s dialogue. At least she sent him to Thermopylae to fight the Persians with equal weapons.
Here’s a is more likely conversation: "Son, I don’t want you to go." "If I don’t go, the Hezbollah (or Hamas, or Palestine Authority or whatever) leaders will brand me a coward." "And then what?" "They will punish us, we will be outcasts, seen as Israeli collaborators, and our lives will be under a threat." "Supposing none of you young people go?" "Nobody wants to be the first." "Supposing we mothers protest?" "Come on, Mom, this is the Middle East, not the US, Ireland, nor even Russia. In Saudi Arabia they still behead young women for dating the wrong guy." "Then, there’s no way for people like us to express our opinions." "Not when the Hezbollah (etc, etc) leaders want to keep their power, and keep the money flowing from Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Muslim nations - and that includes the compatriots in the US. Even Arafat cannot accept a rational peace offer without fear of being instantly deposed or liquidated. The best he can do is to offer cessation of hostilities in return for some land concessions in the Occupied Territories. He can whittle away at the Israeli control there without compromising his demands for Jerusalem." "Well, then, there is nothing we can do. Goodbye, son, dress neatly and be careful."
Is there really nothing the leaders of the Western world can do, except perform empty ritual gestures for public consumption, and "to keep the peace process alive?". Yes, the anti-peace saboteurs on both sides can break up any real peace efforts at will, whenever there is a threat of a real success. There is now an international technique for it. The peace effort in relatively democratic North Ireland, which has been going on more than twice as long as in Israel, has been sabotaged time and again by people who have a lot to lose - power, self-importance, also funds from America (in the case of the IRA) - if a coalition government is established. Look, women for peace, the most powerful segment of the population that can exert pressure for a compromise (Take another Greek example, Lysistrata), in Ireland are under a less severe threat of retaliation. Still, the peace efforts have collapsed time and again, either by explosives or by spoilers dressed neatly in 18th century garb marching in the wrong places to provoke retaliation.
Nevertheless, it will have to be the women who will have to make the peace in the horror spots of this Earth. If this looks like I’m proposing a woman president for the US, don’t take me too literally. A woman can be already elected president in the US, on merit. I’m talking about a whole world out there in which women have been kept out of power, to the point that even the little that they have gained, in a country like Afganistan, is being taken back.
Power for women and education, that is what the world needs before these nationalistic power and greed sicknesses that beset the world can be cured. These on-again off-again armed truces that we can forecast for Israel, Kosovo, Ireland, Sierra Leone and the other killing fields of Africa will last for decades (I’m serious), but the permanent peace-making solutions will not take place before education, particularly for women, breaks the power of the warlike male supremacy. The killing power of AIDS in Africa is forcing the women to take some control over their own destinies, and the social injustices in such male-dominated societies as Afganistan and Iran are forcing women to form underground organizations. It may take several more decades, but the progress of electronic communications has speeded the world up. The signs are there.
Meanwhile, good luck to all of us, and to our new corporate management team, whoever they may be, bought for three billion dollars. Be sure to get competent help, fast. Once this is over we will be together, regardless of how we felt and voted. That is all over, we are together again - although someone may start raising funds tomorrow, it’s only 3 years and 364 days till the next election.
*Wally Dobelis has been writing weekly columns for the past six years on local and national history and politics, on New York architecture, landmarking and preservation, on the 1960s of Reform Democrat struggles, on the old bookstores on 4th Avenue, on books, plays and movies as they affect his East Midtown New York readership.His venue is Town and Village, a weekly paid subscription newspaper (est 1947), named for Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, with 10,000 devoted educated readers who hang on his every word (sometimes complaining about the longer ones).You can look him up in the Marquis Who's Who in the East and Contemporary Authors. Don't look for him on the Internet (except in the NYPL bio references), you're his first modest attempt to crack the national scene. NP?
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 5:27 AM 
