What does the movie " ground hog day "  and the piece process in the middle east have in common?

Read on.

Mideast summit is likely to lead to new wave of violence.

The United States secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is heading back to the Mid-East again.  She certainly has her work cut out for her as the differences between the sides seem so extreme that it is difficult to understand why there will be a summit in the first place.

President Bush had announced the summit a few months ago to somehow obtain some progress in this most difficult of conflicts in the world. The exact opposite is likely to happen as the expectations on the Palestinian side are above and beyond any possible deal with the Israelis. In fact the Palestinian side doesn’t seem to be negotiating at all just repeating its traditional stance on resolving the conflict.

 The head negotiator for the Palestinian side has said that there must be a Joint Statement

that includes agreement on the core issues of the conflict. These issues include final borders, refugees, East Jerusalem. To begin with there is not even agreement on whether a joint Statement is crucial to the summit which seems already a major stumbling block.

 Issuing a Joint statement of agreement in Principle makes much sense as redoing a failed summit of 2001 between then Prime minister Ehud Barak and Head of the P.L.O. Yassar Arafat would probably plunge the region into another round of intense violence.

 Many people expect that to happen anyway.

 This is Ehud Olmerts dilemma in the negotiations. To go the summit and come away with nothing that will certainly lead to a new round of violence, that’s completely crazy. On the other hand agreeing to the terms being dictated by the Palestinian side is tantamount to national suicide and has little backing in his government and even less with the Israeli public.

 The question is then why is everybody going thru the motions of an apparent positive step in these upcoming talks. The negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians are reminiscent of the movie “ground hog day “staring Bill Murray. The theme behind this movie is that no matter what happens every day starts the same and is basically the same.

The same can be said about the negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians as they always start the same and always end the same in stalemate and violence.

 This ground hog summit is not a comedy as the movie was and serious violence is sure to ensue when everyone becomes aware of the futility of such summits.

 It almost seems that Ehud Olmert is buying time leading up to the conference. He is enjoying the relative quiet before the storm hoping somehow the storm will not arrive. This storm is brewing as the Hamas and other factions in Gaza and the West bank are preparing for war and waiting for the best time. That should be after the summit ends in stalemate once again.

 This ground hog day has turned out to be a bad movie.