Spiral of terror

THE REMAINING pieces of the Middle East peace accord, negotiated over several years, continue to get blown into smaller bits. There is now a tragic predictability to events in the region. Palestinian terror attacks invite Israeli reprisals, which prompt a desperate people - what but desperation can drive people to suicide attacks? - to further terrorism, and so on in a deepening spiral.

Although both sides appear to believe there is a threshold of violence beyond which their opponent will capitulate, the more likely fact is that this is a situation in which violence will merely beget more violence. As Israel tightens the screws on Palestine, Palestinians will be driven to more desperate measures. And these more desperate measures, taking as they do the lives of innocents and children, will understandably stoke the hatred of Israeli Jews for their Arab neighbours.

There is little of a middle ground left. If things continue the way they are going, it is likely that hundreds if not thousands more will die, and a resolution will become ever more elusive.

The Israeli diplomat, Abba Eban, once said that men and nations behave wisely only when have they exhausted all other alternatives. It would seem that Israel and Palestine have decided to try all the options they can find before accepting that, in the end, they will both have to find a way to live with one another.

If this happens, lives will be lost senselessly. Yet again, we will stand in witness to the seemingly limitless human capacity for folly.

Back to Commentary