Part III of BBC TV's Israel and the Arabs was, for me, as riveting as the previous programmes, een if for seeing the personalities close up.

A Meeting with the President

goes into how the programme was made.

Arab-Israeli Conflict: Basic Facts
May be Kosher it may be not, guess it is o.k.

Had a discussion about Israel and the Arabs with someone who had seen most of it but who had fallen asleep through the last part - can't be because it was boring. Luckily we had thrashed this one through for years, so it was easy to fill in the gaps.

If it was only to ask that question everyone has been asking for years: Was Arafat playing a dual (triple, quadruple?) game or was he, in later years, really trying for peace and a state? Although a mistake to see the conflict only in terms of him. The Arab states have stoked it up since 1948.

Going simply by Arfat's face (and those around him)I think there was this element of Palestine and the Palestinian cause being used by Arafat to further his own politial and personal aims and objectives more than those of his people. He was always in fear of loosing his life, but why did he need so many intelligence and security organs all controlled directly by him, which he would not relinquish to his Prime Minister? Becuse he had no intention of stopping the attacks against Israel. And who could blame him? He needed to keep the attention on the Palestinian cause, which if for nothing else he will be remembered for successfully achieving.

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It was fascinating to see the Palestinian interior minister and Israelis Mnister of Defence at the Aqaba conference which was meant to be the start of the road map to peace.

Also head-scratchingly puzzling: the willingness of the Israelis to talk openly, both to the cameras and in the footage from the time, about their decision to kill the Hamas leadership was also quite striking. Is it just me or does this not seem as much like the Godfather as anything Saddam or other gangster-like leaders, even Putin for than matter (I distinctly remember one of his brazen t.v. talks with a general about bumping off the Chechen leader - which they actaully achieved quite soon after).

Crooked Timber mentions the BBC prog, and there is a bit of a discussion.

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Whe you look at a map of the two enclaves which hold the Palestinian population and the surrounding countries {2} it all seems hardly worth fighting for. The Jews will die rather than leave now. Demographics has been a big issue for both sides. It might be easier, (barring the thorny problem of Jerusalem - which could be an international city since it is the home of three religions, not two - for the Palestinians to have a homeland which took in part of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and even Egypt, with ports on the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Apart from the pink city, I have no idea what else there is in the lower half of Jordan the Jordanians would not want to lose. A nice chunk of real esate for a state, if you add an equal amount from the top end of Saudi Arabia. Though whether there is water there is vital.

Perhaps this sort of thinking might be put to the Jordanians and Saudis. Do you really want these people to be left in peace? Why not give them some land?


  ¶ Wednesday, October 26, 2005