Ariel Sharon has declared that the new Road Map For Peace can’t be followed until the Palestinian Authority puts a stop to all those Palestinian terrorists. And, naturally, the latest word from Palestinian militants is that Israeli violence against them must end before their attacks end.

The single most depressing thing about these articles is that if you’d like to read about the history of the conflict, you can simply substitute any era-appropriate Israeli and Arab names for the ones you see there. Including “Arafat” and “Netanyahu,” of course, but also:

“EGYPT (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Moses on Monday ruled out reaching a peace deal with the Egyptians unless they cracked down on slave-drivers behind attacks on Israelis.
“We cannot achieve a political arrangement, and certainly not a peace deal, when terror runs rampant,” he told Israeli lawmakers after a week of violence that has threatened a Yahweh backed peace plan.
“For me, peace means full security for the citizens of Israel. Not declarations, not talk,” Moses said…”

And…

“EGYPT (Reuters) - Egyptian mediators failed on Monday to persuade the Pharoah to call a cease-fire with Israel… Their authority among Egyptians was hard hit last week by a series of Israeli plagues targeting cattle and first-born sons, which had killed 17 people…”

At the heart of this present lack of progress, as I said back in April, is that lame new “road map.” The Israelis and the Palestinians don’t need a road map; they need a ride. And these days, you can’t really count on God’s Yellow Cab Service to be running.

Wait a minute - Am I suggesting that the US and the UN play God!?

Yeah.

Not necessarily the fly-off-the-handle-and-flood-the-world kind of God that rampaged through the desert a few thousand years ago. Even God Himself admitted that that one was a little over-the-top, and subsequently promised never to do it again. [It seems even the retribution-inclined Lord of the Old Testament realized that this sort of under-explained preemptive strike wasn’t morally justifiable. But I digress…]

So, no floods. But something like the tough-love God that issued stern warnings with tangible consequences would fit the bill. The US and the UN have tried everything except actually doing something (at least, ever since they made a complete hash of it in the late 40’s). Today, nobody dares use words like “sanctions” or “peacekeeping.” After all, we’re talking about two sets of completely righteously outraged peoples, neither of which we’d dare risk offending too much. After all, the reasoning goes, some of those people know people who vote. And some of them know people who blow things up.

They need a ride. Back in the day, God the Divine Driver wouldn’t put up with this kind of crap. After a few miles of hearing “Quit it!” and “You quit it” and “you’re on my side!” God would have done something. He’d have pulled over and said, “Listen, if you two don’t stop it, I’m just gonna reach my arm back and smite. I don’t even care who gets smote, I’m just gonna smite. You got it?”

They’d get it.

In terms of whether we’re really a “superpower” or just a country with a glandular disorder, this is where the rubber hits the road.