An Editorial
“Nothing to be done.”
So says Estragon, beginning Samuel Beckett’s post modern magnum opus which simply sums up the state of human kind. He might as well have been speaking of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; a story of two neighbors perennially awaiting salvation in their existential flux.
Since 1948 the conflict in the region has supplied academics, policy makers, arms manufacturers and even journalists with their livelihood. With displays of support and rationalizations filling numerous libraries since then, the solution is nowhere at hand. Lost in the myriad history of diplomacy and military conflict, all that is left now are semantics and power plays.
But the hopes of the people (on both sides) that live and function daily are not lost. Each side had faith in some Greater Power (not Arafat or Sharon) to lead them into peace if not conquest. However the lesser powers leading the two nations have never held any such faith. Be it the pre-emptive attack in 1965 by Israel which annexed Gaza, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem or the Camp David meet in 2000 where even a Nobel Peace Prize proved insufficient to persuade Arafat to be reasonable and fair. The people of both nations, in however so ever varied degrees of duress, have had to accept fear and anxiety as a way of life.
With further reaching conflicts tracing back to biblical history one thing is for certain, that this spectacle of stubborn and conceited righteousness on both sides of the border does no favors for the many innocents that die under it. A true theatre of the absurd; wherein on both sides the people are but waiting for some sign of peace and stability – however one wonders if at all it serves any purpose.
Is Godot ever coming to Gaza?
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