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| Pic courtesy NYT. |
We're being bombarded with media (both mainstream and social) about the arrival of "peace" in the Middle East.
When you've lived as long as I have, and observed the history of that part of the world, the notion that there is now "peace" is greeted by at the least incredulity, and at the most derisive laughter.
I am the same age as the state of Israel, after all.
Granted, credit should be allocated to Trump, as he seems to have driven much of the negotiation. His financial connections in Saudi Arabia though his son-in-law have no doubt greased the palms of the oligarchs that run the show in that country, and his family businesses will no doubt benefit from the reconstruction benefits and the contracts they generate.
He needed them to be onside, and along with the Qataris, the Egyptians and the less compromised Europeans, in the end they were.
He is, after all, in the same business as Osama Bin Laden.
Let's identify what has actually changed after the agreement.
First, and most critical, the Israelis aren't continuing to kill scores of Gazans using air-delivered high explosives daily. I have personal experience as a conscript, of being on the receiving end of misguided ordnance. It was a long time ago, but it's not something you forget. To be delivered from that is, I suppose, a kind of "peace".
Second, the living hostages have been released, along with thousands of Palestinians imprisoned by the Israelis.
And there is hope of something more permanent. Excuse my cynicism, but I'll believe it when I see it.
2 comments:
"as a conscript, of being on the receiving end of misguided ordnance", when and where and at whose hands?
On two separate occasions. The first was on the afternoon of 13th March 1970, when the platoon following us mistook our tail end Charlie for a VC and opened up with M60 and M16 rounds. He was wounded (a round grazed his face) and needed plastic surgery. I was about five metres from him at the time, and a full belt of M60 landed very close. The second time was in May when Yank self-propelled guns based at the Horseshoe sent two salvos into our NDP (an ambush on a track junction). They were firing H & I on track junctions and neglected to check for friendlies. Fortunately the rounds landed just outside our position and the shrapnel went forward. You will find the first incident reported in Michael O'Brien's "Conscripts and Regulars" on page 163. It is also recorded in Commander's Diary. I've never seen a report of the second incident.
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