Sunday, December 20, 2009

2009: A Fine Year

Once the operation in Gaza was over, and Hamas spent another few weeks shooting off rockets merely to prove it was still able to do so, 2009 has been one of the most peaceful years Israel has had in decades. Avi Issacharof tells that in the West Bank it may have been the best year since all the way back to 1948:
The current situation in the West Bank is one of the best, if not the best, since 1948. Quiet prevails in the streets of every city there, the economy is starting to take off, the civilian police are maintaining law and order, and even the courts, despite their tremendous caseload, are upgrading their activity with every passing week.

Of course, this will never be mentioned by the anti-Israel brigade. It's no coincidence they've switched their attention to Gaza with a near-total neglect of the West Bank: the reality in which Israel and the PA are stingily figuring out how to live and let live even without peace, and actually, even without much high-level peace negotiations, simply doesn't fit the usual templates for explaining the conflict, so it's not noticed, and certainly not elaborated upon.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder, if the West Bank has done so comparably well BECAUSE the media wasn't that interested and therefore opportunities to complain and present one's grievances as loudly as possible have been few.

As only bad news sell, journalists wanting to make a living have to look for them and if need is dire coax them into being by clever questioning.

rgds,
Silke

NormanF said...

There will not be a signed peace in this generation but the status quo is not too bad. Its workable and the big mystery is why Western diplomats spend all their time and energy seeking to bring about a change that no one wants.