Open Source Everywhere: "Software is just the beginning … open source is doing for mass innovation what the assembly line did for mass production. Get ready for the era when collaboration replaces the corporation."

[elearnspace blog]

7:04:44 PM    

Sharon and Bush furiously oppose new Israeli and Palestinian Peace Plan.

What can happen when people of goodwill, representing the views of the majority of their populations get together without a lot of political baggage?  Quite possibly the basis for a permanent peace in the Middle East.

 

Israel is in an uproar over a secret peace plan, negotiated by former ministers of both Israel and Palestine, who had been active in previous peace negotiations.

 

The plan, which reports say has the backing of Tony Blair, has provoked a furious reaction among right wing Israelis.

 

The gist of the plan is that Israel would incorporate about half the current settler population into the new state of Israel through border adjustments, that control of Jerusalem would be shared, and that the Palestinians would give up the right of return, with the exception of a token number of Palestinians (about 20,000) who would be permitted to settle in Israel.

 

Further, the draft recognizes Israel as the national home of the Jewish people, legally enshrining the Jewish character of the state.

 

Finally, the Palestinian state would be demilitarized, and security at borders would be provided by an international, non-Israeli force.

 

Why does the prospect of peace strike such terror into the hearts of Bush and Sharon?  Because they would lose their political raison d'etre. 

 

Both men govern based on a world view that has them fighting terrorism at all costs.  If the terrorism should fade away, what would they be left with—broken countries, broken economies, broken lives.  So they cannot afford to admit that their might be another way.

 

It is not likely immediately that those who have drafted this accord have the political power to bring it about.  But it squarely puts on the table an alternative to Sharon and Bush’s cry that murder is the only path.   In Europe, it will likely gain huge popular support, and it may gain widespread support in the occupied territories and among the Arab league as well.

 

Then what?  Do the U.S. and Israel continue to circle the wagons in a last grand gesture of defiance against the world?

 

Lets have peace now!

[Toby's Political Diary - 'Let it Begin Here']

7:04:07 PM