I woke up today to news I feared the most, Israel started another full offensive to Palestinian areas, provoked of course by growing de facto Hamas government. What concerns me as a Finn, of course beyond the threat to World peace, is what contribution to this our famous Peace Nobelist might have had. Ironically he said, “Peace is a question of will”, and that peace in the Middle East should be made priority for Obama government foreign policy. Well, I hope this didn’t contribute to the current state of affairs. Everyone knows the bitterest fighting are done just before inevitable peace negotiations. This because each side of the conflict seeks to find the best leverage possible for the negotiations.
I truly hope that Israel didn’t react to this increased pressure for peace negotiations by means of war. If the Americans really are now interested settling the decade long crisis once and for all, why couldn’t they start peace negotiations behind closed doors and without Ahtisaari announcing now it’s time.
Makes no sense to me.
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Peace is a question of will
”The most challenging peace-building project ahead of us is finding a solution to the conflicts in the Middle East, which have continued for decades. The tensions and wars in the region have been going on for so long that many have come to believe that the Middle East knot can never be untied. I do not share this belief. All crises, including the one in the Middle East, can be resolved."
President Martti Ahtisaari at Nobel ceremony in Oslo, 10 December 2008
Read the entire speech here >>
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2008/ahtisaari-lecture.html
