Stardate 20020125.1020

(On Screen): The President of Lebanon says that peace is impossible as long as Sharon is PM in Israel. That's for sure, because the platform of Sharon's coalition is that the Palestinians cannot be trusted to negotiate in good faith.

But then he says the following:

There is no peace prospect with Mr. Sharon. We've tried him in Lebanon. He believes only in force and that does not solve things. The use of violence does not work.

How can anyone say that with a straight face after what the US just did in Afghanistan? Violence is quite often successful; the history of the world is full of problems which were solved that way, albeit only "solved" from the point of view of one side. And the US just proved it again.

In any case, it's not clear just who these statements were intended for. It's obvious that they will have no influence on the voters of Israel, and at this point I think it's clear that the US government no longer believes in a negotiated settlement, either, until there is some sort of radical change in the situation (i.e. the Palestinian Authority actually suppressing such groups as Islamic Jihad).

And the people of Lebanon and the Arab world hardly need any encouragement to despise Sharon and the Israelis. So just who was this for?

I think that they are pleading for Arafat's life.

"Arafat represents his people," Lahoud said. "I don't find any other leader to take his place. Do you?"

Hariri said Arafat's leadership, not merely a lack of viable alternative candidates, made him indispensable.

"Arafat is the only one in town. He represents the historic leadership. Maybe he is not capable of winning a war with Israel but he is 100 percent capable of signing a peace agreement and the Palestinians will accept it," he said.

The only problem is that the failure of the Barak proposal proves that he isn't capable of signing a peace agreement unless it represents complete capitulation by Israel. The Barak proposal contained everything the Palestinians wanted except the "right of return". And Arafat turned it down, apparently because he knew the Palestinians wouldn't accept it.

If Arafat would not accept the Barak proposal, then what point is there in negotiating with him further?