What Frightens Them?

[Saudade]

Peace might break out!

What frightens them so much

By Gideon Samet



The narrow world of images and metaphors of those
who despise an agreement with the Palestinians
brought them back to Munich, Chamberlain's
umbrella, blood, land and a knife in the back of
the nation this week. The right and the
pseudo-center went all out against the Beilin-Abed
Rabbo agreement, because they felt it necessary to
hurl some meta-insult to deal with that vigorous
political move.

They were so upset that they
emitted cries of concern for
democracy and fulminated over
the arrogance of "three failed
politicians from the extreme
left" (Tommy Lapid as if he was
making a guest appearance on
"Popolitika"), who "against the
will of the people" formulated
"an eccentric, fictitious
agreement while blood is being spilled" (the
new-old Ehud Barak). And indeed, those
right-wing defenders of the democratic order
and peace were in such a hurry to be shocked,
that it seemed the draft agreement had in their
eyes a pretty good chance of actually making a
change.

....

Look at the weakness of the arguments against
the agreement. They are precise, one-to-one
reflections of those on the Palestinian side
perpetuating rejection: contempt for a
"marginal group" that seeks to "preserve its
status" (Adnan Asfour, of the Hamas
leadership), and the assumption - most solid of
all the negative arguments on both sides - that
the document will fail because of the refusal
of both leaderships to accept it. But just to
be sure, Avigdor Lieberman proposed "things
that need to be weighed clearly, first of all
through legislation," against people ready to
harm the national interest "to win headlines in
the newspapers."

What does the axis of automatic rejectionists
Shalom-Livnat-Landau-Olmert and Co. want? That,
while Sharon's "painful concessions" turn out
once again to be a cunning advertising slogan
for a dubious product, the Palestinian
Authority will stand at attention and recite
the document, singing "Hatikvah"? And why
should some of the Labor Party be so sour - if
not out of sheer green envy over an important
platform that they did not produce?

More: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/349902.html