A grab bag of thoughts and observations on the news of the past week or so:

(1) The administration still doesn’t seem to fully grasp the seriousness of the damage done by the revelations of abuse in Iraq. For one thing, Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya have been on the case since last year, while administration spokesmen have been denying that anything bad was happening. These revelations give credibility to news sources we are trying to undermine, quite apart from the direct damage of pushing literally hundreds of millions of muslims further into the arms of the islamists. Bush has finally said the word “sorry” but it’s not clear he’s taking any other effective action to undo the damage.

(2) Sometimes saying the obvious is a bad idea. It’s obvious to anyone who doesn’t harbor fantasies of driving the Jews into the sea that at least some West Bank land will have to be permanently annexed to Israel, for no other reason than that the lowlands around Tel Aviv are not defensible without control of the highlands overlooking them, and those highlands are outside the 1948 borders. Equally obviously, the Jewish State will cease to exist if the Palestinian refugees from 1948 and their descendants are allowed to return. It is apparently not obvious that you’re better off keeping your mouth shut when saying the obvious puts issues on the front page that enable your enemies to portray you as a Zionist puppet. The fact that they’ll make the claim no matter what is irrelevant – don’t give them ammo unless you get something advantageous in return, which we so far have not. There may be some back room deal that makes the accounting work out, but I’m not holding my breath.

(3) This is a war of propaganda and perceptions. Who controls the front page controls the terms in which the conflict is perceived. The dominant issue in the Arab world is a sense of victimization at the hands of colonizers, and in particular at the hands of Zionists. Islamists offer one solution to this “problem,” and secular strongmen another. Getting the Israel/Palestine issue off the front page should be a top administration priority. That may mean making the problem worse in the short term, but the problem cannot be allowed to continue festering. The details of rights and wrongs are complicated enough that there is simply no way to create a perfectly just solution. Both sides are going to have substantial numbers of innocent people who get royally screwed, and quite a few right bastards will get away scot free. The goal should be to compensate the former to whatever degree is practical, and to limit the number of the latter, along with their influence in the post-resolution power structures. If the Israel/Palestine issue can be gotten off the front page, the Arab media will have to find other stories to report, and other people to blame for their problems. The tinpot dictators of the Arab world know this, and it keeps them awake at night, as well it should.

(4) One of the right bastards alluded to above is Ariel Sharon. He’s one of the lesser ones (it’s hard to crack the top 100 considering the competition from the Palestinian side), but he has innocent blood on his hands. Despite this, he is probably the best hope for peace, since he appears to have a very solid grip on reality. The Wall is a necessary first step. Withdrawal from Gaza will limit Israeli casualties and provide a proving ground for the techniques needed to limit the danger from the West Bank once there is a withdrawal of Israeli troops behind the wall. The course of the wall will probably have to be adjusted, but the essential idea is sound. Once the wall is done it will rapidly become obvious to the Palestinian leadership that a permanent resolution of the conflict is being imposed, like it or not, and all they can hope to do is bargain for the best they can get. If they are smart they’ll bargain right of return for compensation, and bargain for a geographically viable state in return for giving up claims to some of the West Bank highlands. Unfortunately there is major opposition from within Likud, which has the potential to derail the whole thing, taking everyone involved back to the same old pattern of atrocity and retaliation.

(5) Finally, a positive note. The Abu Ghraib fiasco has one clear hero, and his name is Army Specialist Joseph Darby. He blew the whistle to superiors, triggering the chain of events that lead to the Taguba report. He did this despite knowing he might suffer retaliation and ostracism. We need more like him.