How Do You Solve a Problem Like Abbas

If only life were like a musical. In The Sound of Music the problem of Maria is solved by letting her out of the convent to explore the world. She finds love and happiness. I'm not even sure if Abbas is married. So setting him up is out of the question. And can he sing?

Abbas the man is in some ways Arafat in a suit. He is a terrorist. His big claim to fame is his master minding the Maalot massacre of schoolchildren in the early seventies. He talks peace but continues to let Fatah have a terrorist wing known as the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. When necessary he condemns terrorism with his famous line,drum roll please, "It does not further the Palestinian cause." So like Arafat yet without the unconditional love of his people. Now he has his back to the wall. He has shown a bit of backbone. He called Hamas by their name, terrorists. He is refusing to meet with them and has kicked them out of the government. The only question is how long can he hold out ?

We didn't cause the events in Gaza. We are not responsible for their outcome. If I had a choice I would not deal with Hamas or Fatah. In this insane world I have to make a choice. So I pick Fatah. So we give them money. It belongs to them since it is from taxes collected on their behalf. If the money is used for the people I will be happy . If factories or other job opportunities are created with the money then I will feel a lot better than I do right now. There is so much money floating around the PA now or maybe not floating but rather nesting in the pockets of the corrupt and the pockets of Hamas who is arming itself at the speed of light.

What else do we do? Arm Fatah? No. The last thing the Palestinians need is more arms. The arms given to Fatah are now in the hands of Hamas in Gaza. In the case of a round two happening in the West Bank I think it would be better if the West Bank became a protectorate of Jordan so that their army could deal with Hamas. This comes from an idea floating around that Gaza become a protectorate of Egypt and the West Bank join Jordan. They would have autonomy without being absolutely on their own.It might work as a temporary solution.

The next big ticket item is prisoners. Do we release them to give Abbas a boost? Who here thinks the Palestinians can't see through this? They will know it was because he was weak and had nothing to do with his strength or charisma. Still it is worth looking at. Unfortunately the government is not letting me look at the list. There are all different levels of prisoners. Some are young kids who haven't murdered. Could we give them a second chance? There has to be some people on the list we can dump or in more politically correct terminology we can release them. Only the list keepers can do this properly. Prisoners responsible for murder do not make the cut.

I really believe we must think outside the box. Start with Jenin. Make it a real city with proper housing and roads and all the infrastructure. Get rid of the refugee camp it is now. The Palestinians don't want to be refugees and if Jenin is Palestinian then stop this insanity of keeping them in a camp on their own land. Do it by force if necessary. Make Abbas do it. Give them something they can be proud of.

While I wish life was more like a musical I think maneuvering through this mess is like going through the matrix. Its confusing because so much is not what it seems. Olmert is our leader for now as opposed to Neo in the movie version. I'd rather have Neo! I know that Neo is really Keanu Reeves yet I stick by my choice. Olmert may miss an opportunity and do nothing. He wants to stay prime minister so he doesn't want to make a mistake. As if he will be in this job come election time. He may also go to the other extreme and give away the farm in a last ditch effort to save himself. All we can do is wait and see. Whatever movie genre this is, in the end it will have many sequels.

Submitted by Carol