February 27, 2005
This looks promising
A few days ago a suicide bomber took out a nightclub in Tel Aviv, just two weeks after a few, fragile cease-fire was brokered between Israel and Palestine by Sharon and the newly-elected Abbas. This would normally be cause for great concern - and still is - but the response to the attack has been quite interesting. Normally, the group responsible for the attack comes forward almost immediately, and congratulations are offered by the other groups. Not this time. Instead, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades all condemned the attack. Islamic Jihad later claimed responsibility, but it is thought that this was at the behest of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, in order to deflect attention from Hezbollah and its Syrian and Iranian masters.
Why the difference this time? Well, first of all, Arafat is dead. I think we're now just starting to see exactly how poisonous the man really was, if all it takes is his death to bring about such immediate progress. But second, I'd venture to guess that the recent, overwhelmingly successful Iraqi elections had some small effect. The Arab world still doesn't like us, but the elections did give us some small boost of goodwill. Even better, rumor has it that officials are in negotiations with insurgent leaders to broker a political settlement to the conflict. American troops would be much more welcome as guests than as occupiers.
This is starting to get a little encouraging. We'll see what happens.
