Stardate 20020329.1245

(On Screen): There are times when it's easy to become contemptuous of diplomacy. There are a lot of things it does well, and some things at which it fails completely. Israel is in the process of assaulting Arafat's compound in Ramallah right now (with, I think, the intention of killing him) and leaders in the Arab world and in Europe and other places all hoping to save Arafat's life.

So what do they all do? Call each other on the phone and urge everyone else to do something about it.

While it's not even obvious what anyone (except the US) is capable of doing, the point is that by the time any kind of consensus on effective action could take place, Arafat will already be cold.

And anyway, mostly what they're doing is to mouth platitudes.

One of the reasons why all this is useless is that they've all used up their diplomatic silver bullets with Israel. Months (and years) of condemnations and pressure and general hostility have put them in the situation where they have no diplomatic weapons left. Short of actually going to war, it's difficult to see just what it is that any of the Arab nations is capable of doing to Israel any more that they haven't already done. By the same token, Europe has expressed disapproval over Israel's actions so many times now that yet another such expression is just another throb of the headache, to be ignored.

The diplomatic pressure-dial is already at 11.

The US, pretty much the only major nation to have stood by Israel, is the only one which actually can apply pressure on the Sharon government, but I don't expect that we will. One reason is that it would, I think, be good for the US in the long run if Arafat were to die. But another is that the only reason the US still has any such sway is because the US hasn't been wasting its silver bullets, and I suspect the US will continue to horde them.