* Chicago Sun-Times staff ed: ‘Sharon has reasonable request for advancing peace’
Sharon is asking for something of great symbolic and practical importance: a reduction in the poisonous hate toward Israel that Palestinians are force-fed daily in school and on TV. “The venomous propaganda in the Palestinian media and education system is the root and foundation of the expansion of the suicide terrorism phenomenon,” Sharon said. Palestinians should have taken care of this long ago, if they really want to someday live in peace with their neighbors.
* Michael Oren in the JPost:
No Palestinian leader today is capable of reversing the warlike brainwashing of children and of reeducating them for coexistence… At this stage it would be premature, if not counterproductive, for the U.S. and the other members of the Quartet to designate some Palestinian as Arafat’s successor and railroad him into signing a treaty he might be either powerless or unwilling to fulfill.
* David Gerstman critiques Friday’s New York Times editorial that called on Sharon to aggressively support Abu Mazen.
It’s remarkable that the Times considers the fact that Abu Mazen hasn’t yet delivered anti-Israel speeches a major forthcoming act on his part, worthy of international approbation and immediate Israeli concessions.
* In The New Republic, Ilene Prusher finds Abu Mazen lacks the charisma and guerilla/terror credentials necessary to rally significant Palestinian backing.
That, of course, is the heart of the problem — the bulk of the Palestinian people don’t accept Israel’s legitimacy, and therefore won’t support any Palestinian politico who makes gestures in that direction. Until this changes, it’s hard to see real progress on the peace track.
