The complete idiot’s guide to Mideast peace – part 170

Never mind Hamas’s demands. What about Israel’s? | The Times of Israel  ‘Op-ed: How is Netanyahu’s stated goal of sustained quiet going to be attained, when the Islamists’ military wing seems ready to fight to the last drop of Gazans’ blood?’

Never mind Hamas’s demands. Or those of Israel for that matter. What about the rest of us? When do we get to have a say about the conflict? We’re the ones who have to stand idly by while both sides knock great chunks out of the local scenery with lots of people getting killed in the process.

Sixty six years ago and at certain times thereafter, the spectacle of these two implacable enemies engaged in a fight to the death had some clear novelty value for a worldwide audience. And, as long as the battleground wasn’t too close, a quite comfortable margin of safety was also present. But we’ve all seen too many sequels of the original by now. The novelty has long worn off, the price of admission to the show has become far too high, so expensive that the vast majority of us would wish to see the curtain brought down on the whole production in the event that a happy ending cannot be worked out by the scriptwriters in the very near future.

And if they can’t measure up, then maybe the rest of us should simply take over and finish writing the script for them. How hard can it be?

www.laxiankey.com – ‘ for those of us with better things to do.’