Body Aches!

“Elusive Peace” を読み終えた。Abbas (Abu Mazen) が首相に就任してからのArafat は、権限を維持することに必死だったようだ。老害の始まりだ。出版以後、交渉にはさっぱり進展が見られず、今やSharon は昏睡状態が続き、一方Hamas は議席の過半数を占める。

At first, when the march [of hundreds of Lebanese] began, the Israelis attempted to stop the marchers by firing over their heads and into the crowds, killing more than ten.  This stopped the march, but upset international opinion.  The dilemma before Prime Minister Barak, as explained to him by the military, was as follows: ‘Either we start a big military operation to reverse the situation and capture the southern Lebanese army outposts… or we understand that this is the new reality… and [we] carry out the withdrawal quicker than we had planned.’  Realizing that the game was up, Barak picked up the phone to tell American and UN officials that he would be out of Lebanon ‘within twenty hours’.  To the military he said: “Withdraw!’ By 24 May 2000, there were no more Israeli troops in Lebanon.  (P. 76)

… President Clinton went to see the Prime Minister, who had already devised a complete script for the [Camp David] summit a la Barak.  He told Clinton that nothing substantial should happen during the first two days of the summit in order to demonstrate to sceptical Israelis and Palestinians back home that things were not easy, that tough negotiations were under way and that their respective leaders were working hard and not giving up on vital interests.  Was Barak so naïve as to think that, even without wasting two days, the negotiations would not be tough enough?  (p. 87)  

ジムに行った。常にどこかの筋肉が痛い……。「高いカネ出して、何でこんなつらいことをせにゃならんのか？」という誰かの意見ももっともらしいが、多少の達成感が得られるという事実のほうが重要だと今は思う。