A Partner in Peace
Palastinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’s response to the bombing of a karaoke bar in Tel Aviv on Friday night should leave no doubt that Abbas is exactly what Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon has long insisted was the missing link in the peace process: a partner for peace. Abbas spoke out immediately against the attack, calling those who orchastrated it terrorists, and promising to bring them to justice, not because it is what the Isrealis want but because it is what the Palastians need, saying, “We will not allow anyone to sabotage the ambitions of our people.”

Breaking with the tradition of his predecessor, Yasar Arrafat, Abbas didn’t pay lip service to the western press and then praise the attackers as martyrs to the Arab press. Instead, he put words into action, ordering the Palastinian police to find those responsible for the attack, resulting in three arrests within 24 hours.

What is left to be seen is whether Isreal will match Abbas in his refreshingly sincere break with the old responses to terror. Some Isreali talking heads hit the airwaves on Saturday with the same old broken record: the Palastinian’s need to put words into action, its up to them to police their people, if they can’t do it, we will. For now at least, Sharon is keeping his mouth shut.

Events in the Middle East can spiral out of control in response to a single event. The catalyst for the second intafada was Sharon’s own decision, in September 2000, to march into the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem with a large cotery of armed gaurds, inciting a clash with locals that left seven Palastinians dead. What followed was four years of horrific bloodshed.

The moral of the story is that neither side can afford any misteps in their handling of the flare ups that will enevitably arise despite the truce that Abbas has wrung out of the major terrorist organizations. Sharon’s recent policies indicate that he is serious about peace. With Abbas as his partner, he stands a fairly good chance of joining the growing pantheon of hawkish conservatives who manage to achieve peace where liberals have failed. Maintaining a measured response to these rogue attacks (although a West Bank cell of Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack, the organization’s leaders in Gaza have vehimently denied any knowledge of it) will be tremendously difficult for Isreal’s government, its press, and its people. They, like Abbas, will need to keep their eyes on the prize.

Update: 2/26, 11:19 PM: Islamic Jihad is now taking responsibility for Friday's attack.

- posted by Simon Marcus @ Saturday, February 26, 2005