Stardate 20010719.2307 (On Screen): Now it's
really hit the fan in Israel, because there now seems to be a Jewish terrorist movement making attacks against Palestinians. Sharon has
criticized Arafat for not doing enough to find and control Palestinian terrorists, and now we get to see (or not) his commitment to finding terrorists on his own side.
When both sides in a conflict spawn terrorist movements, you have what amounts to violent anarchy, with the groups trading tit-for-tat attacks that never seem to end. This is the situation which existed in Northern Ireland for more than 30 years, and it only ends when the violence burns itself out. Negotiation isn't possible because no compromise will satisfy both sides. During the early stages of the terrorist-versus-terrorist conflict, each attack brings reprisals from the other side, and each attack suffered by a side's people brings new support and recruits. But later on, the futility of it sets in, and this ceases to happen; all the people on both side begin to hate all the terrorists equally. That's when it ends, but that can take decades because it requires near unanimity of the people on both sides to reject the conflict. Sometimes it never ends, if the feelings run sufficiently deep and if religion is involved (as is the case in both Northern Ireland and in Israel) because there will always remain a core group of committed people on both sides to keep the conflict going. If there was scant hope of peace in Israel before, the chances now are dismal indeed. (discuss)
Update 20010720: Well, Prime Minister Sharon says he's going to hunt down the Israeli terrorists. Good for him. Of course, with one of the dead being a 6 month old baby, he had little choice.
