Click this link which demonstrates at last the form that the face-saving will take in the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Israel has negated the possibility of extending the 10-month settlement construction moratorium that ends this month. The Palestinians have repeatedly said that they will walk away from the negotiating table if the moratorium is not extended. It seemed an impossible impasse (there’s a redundancy for you). Now, the Palestinians have said that they will not necessarily leave the talks if the moratorium is not extended. So how do both sides save face (an important aspect of all political compromises)?
Israel is not forced to do something that they cannot do politically at home, extend the official moratorium. And the Palestinians? By an unwritten moratorium imposed on building by the Israeli government, an undeclared moratorium will continue. In fact, the moratorium that ends on Sunday, September 26, did not include building in East Jerusalem, but only in the West Bank. Nevertheless, Israel has quietly stopped building in East Jerusalem as well recently, an indication that this will be the way that the Palestinians can expect Netanyahu to continue with the building stoppage, while using rhetoric to assure domestic voters that the official building moratorium will not be extended. The current moratorium will end on the 26th, but an undeclared building stoppage will continue in both the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Is not the Washington administration almost Solomonic in finding ways to satisfy both sides? Neither Carter nor Clinton nor the minor push by G.W. Bush at the end of his second term were able to arrive at compromises that allowed both sides to placate their peoples while still moving forward toward “peace.”
While it appeared that the negotiations might be scuttled very early in this process, a way has been found around the political obstacles that both sides face domestically. This is an important factor in any successful clearing of a diplomatic impasse. Neither side can be forced into any sort of action, or even appear to be coerced. Both sides must have ways to claim victory for their peoples. Both parties understand that the other side will use inflammatory rhetoric to satisfy the high-strung emotions of their constituents, while bending the will of their people gradually peace-ward; first, by claiming victory in these disputes, and then by presenting to their people the concessions and conciliatory responses by the other side. Aristotle described this process in his book “On Rhetoric.” Machiavelli would bulldoze any opposition to his plans, in much the same way that the war in Iraq began under G.W. Bush (who insisted that his staff read Machiavelli’s “The Prince” every year!). Such tactics have always been the forte of right-wing governments – not persuasion, but force. Lasting peace treaties have generally been handled diplomatically, not militarily.
Of course, every informed Christian knows that this treaty will not last more than three and a half years, culminating in the military campaign we know as Armageddon. Most expect that Iran will attempt to start a war in the Middle East within days of the signing of the treaty. This is entirely possible. The true Church will, however, have departed this depraved planet before the Tribulation period is inaugurated by a comprehensive Middle East peace treaty.
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