Just+a+question,+Helena+Cobban,+Just+World+News


 * February 01, 2006, ‘Just World News’ by Helena Cobban**

=Just a question=

If Zalmay Khalilzad, the US Ambassador to Iraq, is-- with the full backing of President Bush and apparently the US Congress-- engaging in negotiations with leaders of the Sunni Arab insurgency in Iraq, who have been targeting (and killing) US troops continuously for the past three years and in many places continue to do so, who have engaged in some extremely inhumane acts against noncombatants, and whose rhetoric is often extremely anti-US... Then on what basis does the Bush administration, with apparently the full backing of the US Congress, call for "no negotiations with Hamas", an organization that has never in its history targeted US troops or other assets and that with one exception has maintained a ceasefire in its own theater of operations (Palestine/Israel) for the past ten months?

Don't get me wrong. As I have written on several occasions, I think it is excellent that Zal has been reaching out to the (authentically Iraqi) Sunni leaders in Iraq to try-- as I understand it-- to find a peaceful way to ramp down the violence and arrive at an agreed, legitimate political order in that country.

But if he, a US Ambassador, can talk to those insurgent leaders, why on earth should US officials at a high rank not also be talking to leaders and members of a party in Palestine that recently emerged the winner of a democratically contested election-- with a similarly eirenic goal in mind?

I would be "shocked" indeed [irony alert there] to learn that the interventions of a foreign power were dictating US policy in this matter. Just a reminder to everyone here: peace is made between opponents, not between people who already like each other. If we are serious about trying to find a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestine conflict, then talking to all relevant parties is the only way forward. In Palestine, as in Iraq... Please, let the pro-Israel "lobby" be reminded of these essential facts, and sent politely on its way with all its special pleading. It's time to get serious about making peace and averting another generation or two of strife and war.


 * Posted by Helena at February 1, 2006 08:30 PM**


 * From: http://justworldnews.org/archives/001706.html**

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