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NEWS & LETTERS, August-September 2006Our Life and Times by Kevin A. Barry and Mitch WeerthSilence the Cannons! Start Negotiating!The illusion that a "strong and firm" Israeli government can unilaterally determine the borders and lives of Israel and its neighbors has shattered into a bloody reality. We can only expect that more casualties, wounded, destruction, anxiety, economic and social paralysis for us and our neighbors are the price to pay if we continue to avoid political negotiations. Barak unilaterally stopped the peace process with Syria and preferred a unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon, without negotiations or agreements. Israel was left with the Golan Heights and with an armed Hezbollah on the border. We are now paying the price. Barak and Ben-Ami, Sharon and Ben Eliezer, Mofaz and Peres, and now Olmert and Peretz gave up negotiating with the Palestinians and are trying to withdraw from some of the territories while maintaining the occupation in the rest of the territories. Now it is clear. No fence and no wall will protect Israel from hostile neighbors. The IDF has failed and will keep losing in the battle against guerrilla forces. Technological and instrumental superiority allows one to spy, destroy, liquidate, but it cannot prevent injuries in the border or the home front, among civilians and soldiers. After the long years of the failed military attempt to overcome guerrilla forces in Lebanon, how can we think that the current use of force will solve anything? We've been in this situation before! The only true defense, the only way to guarantee a different future, a future of peace and security, is to resolve the source of the hostility, to solve the conflict through negotiations, through compromise, by ending the occupation and establishing a relationship of equality and respect between Israelis and Palestinians and between Israelis and the neighboring nations. Does it sound crazy? It is the sane thing to do. The sounds of explosion, the smell of burning and the rivers of blood are the crazy things. Does it sound difficult? It is. We have realized already that the negotiations won't be simple, that the conflict is complicated, that both sides will be required to make big and painful concessions. But does anyone seriously think that military solutions are possible? No More Military Madness! Stop the Unilateral Illusion! Stop Killing Civilians in Lebanon, Israel and Gaza! Start Political Negotiations! - Taayush, Gush Shalom, The Women's Coalition for Peace, Anarchists Against Fences, Yesh Gvul, The Committee Against House Demolition |
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