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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2005-03-15

Meet The New Boss, Same As The Old. . .

In last week’s Time Magazine(subscription required), which I just got around to reading today, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sat down for a Q&A with Matt Rees and Jamil Hamad. Parts of the interview seem lucid and engaged, and the photo that accompanies the article certainly gives the impression that Abbas is not nearly as—oh, what’s the word?—eccentric as his predecessor.

Unfortunately, not all of his answers give that same impression:

Time: Who was responsible, then, for the Tel Aviv attack?
Abbas: It was individuals. We arrested five. If you ask me who is responsible, the Israelis are responsible. The bombers came from the suburb of Tulkarem to Tel Aviv, crossing the wall. So who is responsible? The Wall and the Israelis.

I’ve been searching for an analogy to this ludicrous assertion, but it’s so far detached from reality that I’m having a hard time. It’s like blaming the Atlantic Ocean for the 9/11 attacks—the Americans use the Ocean as a barrier, and the existence of that barrier is offensive, so we must attack them.

That analogy doesn’t quite do the trick, but you get the idea. If this incisive mind is what the world is pinning its hopes on for peace in the Middle East, we might be waiting a long time.
Posted by: Michael / 3/15/2005 03:05:00 PM

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