Talk Isn't Always Cheap

Despite the protestations of Dick Cheney, some key players are meeting for the next couple of days to discuss the prospects for peace between Palestinians and the Israelis. It's a sad fact that the principal Israeli and Palestinian negotiators - Olmert and Abbas - have no clout. Olmert, while still Israel's Prime Minister, is racked with scandal and viewed with disgust by much of the Israeli public. Abbas cannot do a thing without Hamas agreeing and Hamas wants no part of this conference.

The lack of optimism about this conference is universal. The principal organizers, Rice and Bush, have publicly shown consistent incompetence. In Washington, DC, "to Condi" has become a shorthand expression for running around, holding meetings, and getting nothing accomplished.

I could go on and on about Condi Rice. First she completely screwed up my alma mater, Stanford, by being the willing servant of a megalomaniacal university president. The damage she caused may be permanent. Now she's screwing up the world by being the willing servant of the most ignorant US President we've had in my lifetime. The damage may take decades to fix. But I'll stop.

All the negatives aside, nothing bad can come from this peace conference. Why not talk?

One day there will be at least some vague facsimile of peace in the Middle East. It probably will not happen in my lifetime. But the good news is that the Israelis finally figured out over the last decade that colonialism never works.

When I was living in Israel, there was this strange pervasive belief that the country could be the benevolent overlords of the West Bank and Gaza. But the truth is that a country has to be completely inhumane and brutal to acquire territory - murder and expel those living in the territory - or let go. Colonialism is an unworkable middle ground. Israel has come to its senses about this; they are desperate to let go of the West Bank and Gaza.

The bad news is that the Palestinians have yet to figure out that they will never move back to Haifa. The phrase "right of return" has never been abandoned by the Palestinians. That phrase means one thing: Israel should not exist. The bad news is that Israelis still view Palestinians as a group not that much above farm animals. The bad news is that Israel has no viable leadership to achieve peace at this point in time. The bad news is that the Palestinians have never had any kind of viable leadership.

That's a lot of bad news. And I'm sure that others can come up with much more. We are a long, long way off from getting anywhere near something resembling a workable agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

No this conference will not lead to anything close to peace. But anytime these two parties can sit across the table from each other in a formal or informal setting is an achievement. Their talk isn't cheap. It's an admission that peace is a desirable goal and that the current status quo is unacceptable. An admission like this may seem meaningless to many - it probably seems too obvious to even state publicly - but it isn't to me. It's a major step. Thirty years ago, Israelis were convinced that colonialism was the only viable solution. Thirty years ago, Palestinians were convinced that destruction of Israel was the only viable solution. Now there seem to be alternatives present. Perhaps thirty years from now we will see a formal peace agreement.