September 19, 2001

2:10 PM

I'm somewhat surprised that no one has yet posted anything about this (see also here and here, etc). My heart leapt last night when I heard this on NPR. All I could think of was that perhaps the five to six thousand seemingly-senseless deaths in our country will eventually, somehow, some way, end up saving at least that many Israeli and Palestinian lives - perhaps even pave the road to permanent peace. Perhaps some good can come of this, amidst all the pain. Am I a hopeless optimist?
posted by anastasiav (12 comments total)

It may be said to be holding but Hamas and Fatah have both said they will continue what they are doing till Israel is out of occupied territory. This is a shame since Israel's position seems to be that they are about to leave till a peace agreement is reached that nails down in writing that there will be no more fighting.
posted by Postroad at 2:26 PM on September 19, 2001

Yes, anastasiav. Thank you for posting this.

A lasting peace, instead of operation "Infinite War", would surely be the memorial that the victims deserve.
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 2:37 PM on September 19, 2001

Forget about pulling out of the occupied lands, Ariel Sharon has rejected even stopping construction of settlements.

However, it may be that only he has the power to finally comply with international law and leave the territories-- it is a lot easier for a right-winger to make concessions than someone on the left. Look at what happened to Rabin when he gave up violence and negotiated peace.

I don't think Sharon is up for that job, but you never know.
posted by cell divide at 2:40 PM on September 19, 2001

Thanks for the heads-up, anastasiav. I had a feeling that they may try this. I think I may have read something hinting about it last week, I'm not sure. In any case, I'm glad that they are giving it another go. Maybe one of these times it'll stick. I don't have a lot of confidence that peace can be brokered there, simply because the fighting is a way of life now, but maybe, just maybe it will work.
posted by misangela at 3:08 PM on September 19, 2001

feelinghopeful
posted by feelinglistless at 3:34 PM on September 19, 2001

Well, some of us just haven't heard about "this" and "here" and "here" and "etc."

At least one link name that is descriptive of the linked content would be nice. I skip MeFi postings that use this mystery meat navigation.
posted by fleener at 3:36 PM on September 19, 2001

Actually, it was posted yesterday.
posted by owillis at 3:54 PM on September 19, 2001

48 hours may not be enough time to gauge the reaction not just between Israelis and Palestinians, but also from the rest of the world. In either case, a moving image is that of Arafat giving blood last week even though he needs to get those abs exercised!
posted by ari at 4:34 PM on September 19, 2001

owillis, the double-post you cited is even more reason for MeFi'ers to post links with descriptive text. When a user wants to do the right thing and confirm that his link has not already been posted by someone, it's doubly difficult to scan through a week's worth of posts when a bunch of the links have obscure titles such as "this" and "here."
posted by fleener at 4:45 PM on September 19, 2001

i'm pretty sure "hopeless optimist" is an oxy - moron.
posted by alvin eichholz at 10:16 PM on September 19, 2001

I'm kind of new here, but I'm pretty sure searching metafi for a url does turn it up even if the url is not visibly the label for the link.
posted by juv3nal at 12:51 AM on September 20, 2001

Fleener, I want to thank you for turning this thread around. Here I was writing about the first day in over a week I'd felt an emotion other than grief, dispair, or fear, but you're right ... its much more productive to knock me for my posting style multiple times. Why don't you say it again ... I don't think I got your point.

< /sarcasm >

owillis - I knew it had to be here somewhere and I just wasn't seeing it. Thank you very much.

juv3nal - Thanks for your comment. I did actually do both a url search and a visual search, but the url for my post was somewhat different than the original one posted, and for some reason I missed the original one on the visual.
posted by anastasiav at 5:57 AM on September 20, 2001