Learning to deal with the many faces of terrorism

This is both why the Economist, in my view, is the best news source in the world, and an affirmation of my belief in strong argument and understanding rather than ideology or sanctimonious policy prescriptions to resolve our most critical and difficult issues.

Hamas won't go away

This is a very solid analysis, I believe, borne of much good experience that the British government has had with a similar situation of entrenched terrorism with claims of self-determination at stake, in the case of both Palestine and Northern Ireland, and of the persistent failures of Israel to root out terrorism - particularly in the Gaza Strip, home of Hamas, their most deadly enemy - by military force.

I just read yet another article in the Jerusalem Post, last night, about the discussions by Defense Minister Ehud Barak to carry out yet another military operation in the Gaza Strip to seal up the border and destabilize the Hamas government there. It is indescribably frustrating to watch a government and a people perpetually rationalize a policy strategy that has and continues to result in many unnecessary deaths that lead in no particular positive direction.

Too many Israelis are so wrapped up in their anguish at being the lone liberal democracy of any salt in the Middle East and the number of their civilians who have died in her name that they just cannot imagine that there might be a more constructive route, one that the British government and representatives of Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists - with the help of Bill Clinton, you will remember - that might finally put Israel and Palestine on a path of self-determination and mutual respect.

The Economist points the way, here, in a way that is refreshing amidst a time of rationalization of aggression and force, by whatever means necessary, as Minister Malcolm here in the States use to preach, to end this and every bitter struggle.

But it will not ever end that way. More than 80 years of violence, bloodshed, and escalating hostilities and animus should convince any objective observer of that fact.

But politics is not only played out in the objective world of fact, unfortunately. It is also played out in the hearts of those who cannot forgive the bitter struggles and deaths of loved ones.

And it is that unresolved grief, and the hostility it animates, which is responsible for the failure to achieve what to any other and objective observer would seem to be a much more realistic and sustainable peace and relationship between Israel and her Arab neighbors, especially her Palestinian neighbors.

If there were ever a history that bore out the failures of force as a governing philosophy, it may be the history of Israel and Palestine (although the history of Nazism and Communism should do).

Let's hope that particular history finds an end, sooner rather than later, in a decent and sustainable peace.