Sunday, February 03, 2002

Chicago Tribune | BEYOND GOVERNMENTS
The State Department continues to fiddle while Rome burns. It sends delegations and diplomats to the region who have little if any chance of succeeding in crisis management as long as the structural underpinnings of the conflict--which originate in Washington, not Tel Aviv or Ramallah--do not change.

The result is that the knot of conflict is pulled ever tighter.

For decades the United States has supplied inordinate quantities of advanced weaponry and other types of aid to the stronger party to the conflict. The U.S. has exercised a policy of strong-arm, exclusionary diplomacy in order to shield the stronger party from international censure over its political and military actions toward the weaker.

Almost as frequently as acts of abominable violence against innocents are played out on the streets of Gaza and Jerusalem, acts of intellectual inquiry into the conflict are played out in this country. Panel discussions, lectures and conferences on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict regularly fill church basements, community halls and college auditoriums.

Perhaps within civil society lies the key.
http://chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/perspective/chi-0202030049feb03.story?coll=chi%2Dnewsopinionperspective%2DhedNTS

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