A journey to la-la land - Haaretz

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Sun., November 11, 2007 Kislev 1, 5768

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A journey to la-la land

By Yoel Marcus

tags: Israel, Ehud Olmert

The Annapolis summit, let us not forget, will be taking place under the shadow of Israel's tarnished reputation.

"I'm like Begin," says Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. "I prefer the risks of peace to the agonies of war." What he forgot to mention is that when Menachem Begin cooked up Anwar Sadat's visit to Jerusalem in secret and later signed the Camp David Accords, he did so from a position of strength, benefiting from the prestige, power and mythical status of the Israel Defense Forces. That was the same IDF that recovered from the surprise of the Yom Kippur War, deployed its troops within 40 kilometers of Damascus and surrounded Egypt's Third Army, forcing Sadat to face the reality of Israel's indestructibility.

The U.S. administration was not the initiator of peace between Egypt and Israel, but it provided the parties with the tools and formulas to solve the bundle of problems that came with moving from a state of war to peace. It is no accident that the Nobel Prize committee awarded the peace prize to Begin and Sadat but skipped over President Jimmy Carter.

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Olmert will arrive at Annapolis after being criticized by the Winograd Committee for his decisions and questionable judgment. Israel's power of deterrence has been eroded. The IDF has launched a campaign to shore up the home front after Hezbollah beat this front to a pulp, from the northern border towns to the outskirts of Netanya. The army is still trying to get back on its feet as the specter of another flare-up continues to loom.

With the same haste that characterized his decision to embark on the Second Lebanon War, Olmert declared at the Saban Forum that he is going to Annapolis with no lesser goal than solving all the fundamental historic problems of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - borders, refugees, Jerusalem, the whole kit and caboodle - maybe even before President George W. Bush's term ends at the beginning of 2009.

He is leaving open the question of how he will get to these core issues, considering that he and his government have yet to figure out a solution to two such "marginal" matters as getting our three kidnapped soldiers released and ending the rocket fire on Sderot, which has been going on nonstop for the last seven years and has prompted a mass exodus of residents unprecedented in scope.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has rightly warned of the dangers that lie ahead in Annapolis and advised Olmert and other top ministers to look before they leap. It may be worthwhile to check out the option of an agreement with Syria beforehand, he says. Barak does not need a Military Intelligence report proclaiming that the chances for success at Annapolis are near zero to alert us to the fact that hopes for an agreement with the Palestinians are baseless at the moment.

No Israeli prime minister has ever pretended that he could work out all the snags in our struggle with the Palestinians. For now, there is no one to talk to, and nothing to talk about. One after another, their leaders have turned out to be bloodthirsty extremists or too weak to reach an agreement, of which compromise is a central component.

In the Palestinian camp, there is a sense that they have nothing to lose, while Olmert will find himself at Annapolis in a situation where he cannot say no to Condoleezza Rice, who will be flexing all her muscles to bring home at least one achievement, at our expense, before Bush leaves the White House.

At most, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will quit and Hamas will grab the reins - a scenario that is not so far-fetched even without Annapolis. President Shimon Peres is on the ball when he says that failure is not an alternative, but a catastrophe.

Rice will go back to Stanford University and write her memoirs, and Bush will build his library, ride horses at his ranch and play golf. But we will still be here after the Bush administration is gone, as Hezbollah, Hamas and other terror organizations, together with volunteers from the Islamic fundamentalist camp, gear up for the third intifada.

That's the Palestinians for you: The United Nations-approved Partition Plan gave them a state and they did not take it. They signed the Oslo Accords on the White House lawn with the whole world looking on, but opted for jihad rather than building themselves a state. At Camp David, they were offered the 1967 borders and the division of Jerusalem, but they preferred a second intifada.

Olmert will leave for Annapolis with the worst possible opening conditions. A more experienced statesman would never think of making the trip at such a time, and presuming to solve all the core issues, without making sure he has majority support in the government and political system.

Former prime minister Ariel Sharon's evacuation of Gush Katif, which turned Gaza into an escalating terror front against Israel, has strengthened the far right and the settlers. Annapolis is nothing but a journey to la-la land.

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1.	Marcus misses what`s obvious :Olmert is going to agree to pal "re	13:09	\|	Absolute Sweden	10/11/07

2.	OLMERT,KATSAV: INTO THE RUBBISH BIN OF HISTORY	13:26	\|	C.Leanup	10/11/07

3.	#1 - Olmert, like Abbas is powerless !	14:09	\|	redmike	10/11/07

4.	mr. bush and mrs. rice	14:34	\|	saul a. readner	10/11/07

5.	Mirror, mirror on the wall...	16:13	\|	Fortuna Benmayor	10/11/07

6.	A Job to do	16:14	\|	GPWS1	10/11/07

7.	For Cleanup # 2	16:15	\|	Fortuna Benmayor	10/11/07

8.	This Is So Obvious That Even Marcus Gets It	18:46	\|	Tod Zuckerman	10/11/07

9.	Mental mass	18:54	\|	Mexi	10/11/07

10.	To Fortuna Menmayor # 7 - Who`s blocking the elections	19:53	\|	Dagma	10/11/07

11.	Message to Saul Readner	23:19	\|	Tod Zuckerman	10/11/07

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