The complete idiot’s guide to Mideast peace – part 198

‘Gaza in critical condition, says UN’s Ban Ki-moon’

‘UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged an immediate halt to violence in Gaza, saying the Palestinian territory is in a “critical condition”.’

If this conflict were being decided by PR exposure alone, the good and the bad, then Israel is certainly getting the worst of it at the moment.

But, when you’re the biggest kid on the block in terms of military might and have powerful friends in high places backing you up, then this is not, perhaps, all that surprising. Especially if you’re hammering the smaller kids to death in public and can find no good reason to stop doing so.

And yet world opinion isn’t a factor that can just be ignored even if, at times, it isn’t quite so favourable as one would like. There are consequences in neglecting this aspect of the scene, many of which are long-term and all detrimental to whatever future plans and objectives may be coming down in the pipeline.

So, can Israelis and Palestinians ever find a good enough reason to stop fighting, finally decide to settle their differences and in a manner such that only some good, old-fashioned horse trading is left for them to do?

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

The ‘key’ may not be to everyone’s taste but neither is the killing of thousands of people, especially when many of them are from your own side. And, when you still end up with having prospects for peace that are now so much less than at any time in all of the past 66 years, the case for the ‘key’ is made even more pressing.

Besides, the ‘key’ is wonderful PR. It shows somebody is concerned enough about the future and is willing to take some real risks, calculated ones, of course, in order to secure that future for posterity and the world.