Retrospective

It must be the end of the year, putting me in a retrospective mood. (And, fair warning, I've dug up some stuff going back to the 1930s that I'm hoping to get up soon.) This one goes back to February, 2005, and my original "Is it Peace Yet?" post, which sounds so suspiciously like something that could have been written last month (if you replace Ariel Sharon with Ehud Olmert and Sharm-e-Sheikh with Annapolis) that I just had to reproduce part of it here.

Is it peace yet?

What do you think?

Israeli and Palestinian Authority representatives are meeting Saturday night to patch up differences regarding the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails ahead of Tuesday's Israel-PA summit in Sharm e-Sheikh, Egypt.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's top aide, Dov Weisglass, who is heading the meeting, is expected to arrive in Cairo on Sunday to finalize arrangements for the summit.

PA officials warned that without the release of thousands of prisoners, the summit would not succeed. "If Israeli intransigence on this issue continues, the summit will fail," said Minister of Communications Azzam al- Ahmed. "If the prisoners aren't released, we will return to the cycle of violence."

That sounds a lot more like a threat than a prediction.

Yes, indeed. Although now, almost three years later, we've become pretty much numb to that refrain. If the prisoners aren't released, we will return to the cycle of violence. And if they are released, we will return to the cycle of violence anyway, meanwhile demanding the release of yet more prisoners. So it goes.