The belief in a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian or Arab-Israeli conflict persists like a demonic possession. Those who believe Israel essentially confronts an ongoing siege, religiously rooted in Islam, adduce evidence for that view -- overwhelming rates of anti-Semitism in every Arab country, Nazi-style anti-Semitic propaganda and imagery throughout the Arab world, majorities of Palestinians saying they favor suicide bombings and the dissolution of Israel, and so on.
But for true believers in a peaceful solution, evidence does not avail. Whether motivated by an impatience with Israel s existence (possibly tinged with anti-Semitism) and its perceived costs for Western stability and profits, or by naivete and reality denial, some remain unimpressed even by the dire outcomes of Israel's recent attempts at bilateral or unilateral pacification. It makes no difference that those results include drastically increased bloodshed and poverty and the rise of a fundamentalist Palestinian government tightly linked to the world jihadist movement. Some still act as if the conflict is a squabble between two morally equal sides equally longing for its peaceful termination.
Notable among the deniers is the International Crisis Group (ICG), which describes itself as "an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation, with nearly 120 staff members on five continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict."
The ICGs president is former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans, who at the height of the Oslo Terror War in 2002 published a Guardian article calling for "an internationally imposed settlement in which Palestine would be non-militarised, and a U.S.-led international force would provide security to both [the Israeli and Palestinian] states." Evans presumably did not ask Palestinians if non-militarised existence enforced by Western Christians was attractive to them.
Serving with Evans on the ICGs board are former U.S. ambassador Thomas Pickering, also an inveterate denier of implacable hatred and conflict who trusts in dialogue even with Iran; and Chris Patten, who, as a British commissioner in the European Union from 2000-2004, was particularly critical of Israel and played a key role in impeding investigations of Palestinian misuse of EU funds for terrorism and corruption. Not surprisingly, the ICGs Executive Committee includes one George Soros.
Not even the post-disengagement rain of Qassams on Israeli communities, the election of the Hamas government with its charter calling for the eradication of all Jews, or continuing religious incitement to mass murder on official Palestinian Authority television stopped the IGC from announcing on its website on September 22 a new push for a comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The ICG describes it as "a new global advocacy initiative designed to generate new political momentum [for such a settlement]. Major funding support for the initiative -- to cost around $400,000 in its first year -- was announced at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York." The announcement refers later to the present policy vacuum, and it is clear which serving president is being accused of this vacuum and which former president is trying to fill it.
After the chaos of the last few months, intones Evans, there is a new sense of urgency about finding a comprehensive, just and sustainable peace. But the spark has to be somehow lit, and a serious new process started.
The announcement then sets out five dimensions of how the ICG will go about lighting that spark. "They include an international publicity campaign, in the first instance mobilising respected former presidents, prime ministers, foreign and defence ministers, congressional leaders and heads of international organisations around a statement of support for a comprehensive settlement."
The announcement then proudly proclaims that "the statement now circulating, to be released in the first week of October, has already been signed by more than 80 such U.S. and global leaders, including Zbigniew Brzezinski, Frank Carlucci, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Joschka Fischer, Christopher Patten and Desmond Tutu" -- none of them, except possibly the ambivalent Fischer, known for warmheartedness toward Israel.
The ICGs other dimensions include "a series of brainstorming sessions, bringing together officials and regional experts, to help inform the actions of the UN Secretary-General, his Middle East envoys, the other Quartet players and relevant regional countries...; a high-level group of former U.S. Government officials convened to generate bipartisan support for the U.S. administration to engage fully in efforts to achieve a comprehensive resolution...; a Crisis Group task force of respected international figures to visit key international capitals and build support;" and "a series of reports and briefings to provide information, analysis and guidance to policy-makers."
The pseudo-sophisticated gobbledygook never addresses a single fundamental question. Apart from the whole Arab world, on what basis does the IGC believe that the Hamas government and the Palestinians in general, with other organizations they have spawned including Fatah, the Popular Resistance Committees, Islamic Jihad, and so on while being intensively infiltrated by the Hezbollah-Syria-Iran axisare desirous, and capable, of reaching lasting peace with Israel?
At a time when even the European Union has eased its diplomatic pressure on Israel and acknowledged at least the problematic nature of Hamas, why does the ICG march forward with an initiative that, if it succeeded, would only pressure Israel to cede land abutting its population centers to those who repeatedly proclaim their wish to annihilate it and indoctrinate their children in murderous hatred?
For the IGC, awash in its plans and buzzwords, such questions do not even exist. Israelis can always ponder them in the next round of suicide bombings.
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