Verily, It Shall Be Done!

The older brother, the avuncular father figure, the one who wields power and influence and funding has the final word. Underlings, those dependent upon the good will and support of that alpha figure heed the word of the wise.

Alas, not always so wise. For does the father figure, having lived its life in a world far different from that of the dependent have full cognizance of the ebb and flow, demands and consequences for decisions made by the young, emerging figure?

That great arbiter of issues has as its head from time to time those who seek to leave their legacy. The manner in which history records their office, the popularity of opinion in which the public advances its view of that same office holder means much to the departing figure. Power and hubris are fond brothers, but still susceptible to acclaim or lack of it.

And so, we have President George W. Bush forwarding his own personal opinion that he best knows what a client state requires. In this instance, the favoured little brother must knuckle under, accede to the strenuous "advice" of the superior. Swallow not only pride in self and self-determination, but wipe clean the slate of considered future plans identified as untimely and most inconvenient.

Back to the basics of the "road map", that outline handed down from above with the intention of resolving the unsolvable. The Palestinian Authority, instructed to "declare an unequivocal end to violence and terrorism and undertake visible efforts on the ground to arrest, disrupt, and restrain individuals and groups conducting and planning violent attacks on Israelis anywhere" has blithely gone stone deaf, forgotten how to read, but not yet how to raise its own stridently unequivocal demands.

For that very same "road map" stipulates that Israel must concern itself rigidly with maintaining a halt to construction: freeze that frame. Settlement activity? Out of the question, and with good reason admittedly. Without the appropriate authority of fixed ownership no one can, observing laws, build where they don't belong. So settle the issue of boundaries and borders, then proceed.

But which should have precedence? Incommoding trivial expectations, or inconveniencing people with the imposition of the permanence of death? Terrorism at the hands of malevolently-inclined Hamas agents, those of Islamic Jihad as well as Fatah militias continue unabated - the Palestinian Authority's intentions half-heartedly undertaken for international view.

Yet now Israel has agreed to a halt to all Jewish construction in the West Bank, along with Jerusalem's suburbs, submitting to U.S. pressure.

There are apples and there are oranges; it was carefully explained during the Annapolis conference that construction required to accommodate the needs of the Jewish presence in an integrally Jewish part of south-east Jerusalem be excluded. Two and a half thousand Jewish families currently reside in Har Homa, in Jewish possession for the last four decades.

The urban enclave includes two synagogues, children's nurseries and three religious youth groups. It is on track to grow, as a vital Zionist presence by an additional four thousand families, all requiring accommodation. Not to be. For PA and American administration pressure has persuaded Prime Minister Olmert to stand down, the project in abeyance.

Fair enough, now when does the international community, and more specifically, the Bush administration begin to clamour for the PA to put its boots where its mouth is? The PA receives satisfaction in its (not entirely unreasonable) demands, yet the Israeli public continues to be traumatized and targeted by jihadist forces.

Ah, all is now revealed; all is being done, it would appear, according to the wishes of an informed and patriotic citizen of Israel, none other than the respected Haaretz newspaper's chief editor. Who in his despair and angst has invited U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to ensure that the United States "rape" Israel. Mission on its way to being accomplished.

But perhaps all is not as it would appear. Mr. Landau, the editor, considers his message not to have been rather indelicate, but delivered with sophisticated nuance. "I did say that in general, Israel wants to be raped - I did use that word - by the U.S., and I myself have long felt Israel needed more vigorous U.S. intervention in the affairs of the Middle East."

Self determination evidently - in the face of insurmountable obstacles to existence and the establishment of peace between geographic solitudes - should be placed high up on some inaccessible shelf, for the option of having an unaffected onlooker determine procedures and outcomes.

And with the opposite side perceiving affirmation, what need for it to make an effort to restrain its violent impulses?

So much for national need to engage in stringent introspection and itself arrive at an avenue whereby it can manage to persuade opponents that it has legal and lawful, moral and ethical rights in the region, and that the dilemma being faced by both sides require both to be up front and responsible, reliable partners for peace.

Let's hear it for the democratic process. Let us all now cheer loudly for friends, confidants and prospects for the future.