end and there is no peace, a peace that will enable the members of this generation to turn to the universities, to family, work, and business, a new intifada will surely break out."
To achieve peace, the Palestinians need national unity, much as the Israelis need a consensus for withdrawal. The man who symbolizes the hope for unity among the Palestinians is sitting now in Hasharon jail.
The current situation, in January 2008, is bleak. Just over seven years into the second, al-Aqsa, intifada, Palestinian unity and much of the Israeli peace camp has crumbled. People-civilian and armed forces alike-are exhausted, mistrustful, and angry. Increasingly right-wing governments are being voted into office, even as the same happens in the United States, Israel's sponsor and apologist. The situation is both chronic and acute. The bleeding must be stopped immediately, but that must not preclude immediate action toward treating the malady or the patient will die. Neither Palestinians nor Israelis want the land to die. Perhaps by following Uri Avnery's lead they will recognize what they all have to lose and start the patient on the road to recovery. Whatever form that recovery might take.
Inshallah.-SRP