EDITORIAL - Dark prospects for peace

Just when hopes for peace are running high in the traditional areas of conflict in the Middle East, things start going wrong, and big time. Ariel Sharon, who did what for decades seemed unthinkable and drove his own people out of Gaza and parts of the West Bank, allowing the Palestinians to take over the land, suffered a stroke that effectively ended his leadership of Israel.

Then Palestinians, who had expressed concern that the next Israeli prime minister would reverse Sharon’s peace efforts, went to the polls and gave Hamas a stunning victory. The landslide win for a party better known for suicide bomb attacks in Israel rather than politics turned the corruption-tainted Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas into a minority in parliament. Violence that erupted in the streets following Hamas’ victory raised fears of civil war.

Prospects for peace have darkened further with the saber-rattling of Iran, much of it directed toward Israel and its staunchest ally the United States. Iran’s refusal to back down on its nuclear program prompted all five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council last week to agree to refer the matter to the entire council. Washington is hoping that the council will endorse sanctions on Iran by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Tehran insists it is developing nuclear power only for civilian purposes. Recent pronouncements by Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, however, have inevitably fueled concerns that the country plans to harness nuclear power to build weapons of mass destruction — specifically, weapons for the destruction of Israel. Ahmadinejad has been trying to rewrite the history of the Holocaust, insisting that the slaughter of millions of Jews never happened. He has also said Israel must be wiped off the map.

The pronouncements drew the expected reaction from US President George W. Bush, who vowed to defend Israel against external attack. Bush could not have said otherwise, but that commitment further fueled anti-American sentiment in the Middle East. In recent days, tension has gone up amid Muslim outrage over cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper, reproduced in several European publications and the Internet. In this troubled region, peace is a mirage in the desert.