Ariel Sharon and Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurei were to sit down for negotiations later this week. Sharon never agreed to one-on-one meetings with the last Palestinian PM, and the announcement of these new meetings came as a bit of a surprise, probably due to Sharon's severe political problems (new polls showed an overwhelming majority of Israelis wanted him ousted).
Now we're back to square one:
Two Palestinian suicide bombers who apparently managed to cross the Gaza Strip's fenced boundary with Israel blew up moments apart in the industrial port here today, killing themselves and 10 others and wounding more than 20, the Israeli police said.After the attack, the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, canceled a planned first meeting this week with his Palestinian counterpart, Ahmed Qurei, who was appointed last fall. With its Middle East peace initiative at a standstill, the Bush administration has been pushing for the two men to meet.
The attack was claimed by Hamas and the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, a militant offshoot of Yasir Arafat's Fatah faction. In a joint statement, the two factions attributed the bombings to two teenagers, aged 17 and 18, from a refugee camp in northern Gaza. Palestinians marched in Gaza late today to celebrate the attack.
Sharon should not have cancelled the meeting. The Palestinians are living in sludge at this point - almost certainly the worst conditions have been since '67 - and the sludge just happens to be criss-crossed and surrounded effectively by military deployments and a giant concrete/metal barrier.
Imagine what those two suicide bombers have seen in their day, just 17 and 18 years old. Imagine how many hundreds more are just like them, vicious and bitter and jaded by the misery of the occupied territories. The Israelis will never find the peace they deserve until they stop choosing "toughness" over compromise, and stop letting the extremists veto progress.
[Crossposted at NotGeniuses.com]