Arab leaders, meeting recently in Cairo, meanwhile insisted that the "peace process" must involve creation of a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem as well as a ban on Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
What neither side recognizes-or wishes to acknowledge-is that no leader of a nation-state can make peace with other leaders within the same system. Why? Because peace requires common law between common citizens. No more; no less.
The colossal irony of the so-called Middle East peace process is the two sides' pretension to law and order... within their separate states and via "agreements," "treaties," "understandings," "covenants," "pacts," etc.-everything but agreed-upon law outside their legitimate jurisdiction. The reason is self-evident: national leaders can't make law beyond their national mandate.
Only people can.
Both Moses and Abraham understood that!
So while Prime Minister Netanyahu is hoodwinking his people by promising "peace with security" without advocating law as the essential ingredient of both peace and security, Israel's silent partner, the US, acquiesces in this essentially military gamesmanship.
Further complicating this sordid scenario, while 71% of the American public agree that "the US is playing the role of world policeman more than it should be," the US's military budget for fiscal 1997 is $243 billion with military-related spending, $485 billion, more than twice all other states combined. (Ref.: Center for Defense Information, Vol XXV, No. 4)
World Population - 5,770,840,831.
Years Until Insufficient Land - Northern Diet - 9
Years Until Insufficient Land - Southern Diet - 40
Species Extinctions Per Day - 104
Years Until 1/3 of Species Are Lost - 10
Years Until Half of Crude Oil Is Gone - 24
Percent Antarctic Ozone Depletion - 60
Carbon Dioxide, Years Until Doubling - 61
The debate, however, hides the underlying reality: the UN itself is a stone-age device grounded in and perpetuating world anarchy. By its own Charter. The diplomatic alchemists concocted a smokescreen behind which UN members continue their deadly war game. In the words of Dorothy Thompson, "The UN is nothing behind a facade of illusory security. Its sole purpose is to lull people to sleep in the face of danger."
So what does it matter who is Secretary-General? He or she is the impotent servant of the member-states which retain total sovereign power despite allusions to fundamental human rights in its own Declaration of Human Rights
One of the candidates for the post is Robert Muller, former under-secretary general, who, ironically, is "campaigning" on a world government "ticket"! Does he really believe that if chosen he can remake the Charter into a world constitution deriving its power from the world's people? Then there is diplomatic support for three potential women candidates: Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norway's prime minister, Mary Robinson, President of Ireland, and Sadaka Ogata, head of the UN's refugee organization. If they are as wise as they are politically pragmatic, they will reject the candidacy as incompatible with true governorship, an essential requirement for global peace.
In a recent meeting with President Clinton, PM Hashimoto pledged that Japan would "review" the 18-year-old guidelines limiting cooperation with the United States military in a future war.
"There is less taboo in Japan in discussing security questions, and that's a good thing," said Sadayuki Hayashi, the Vice Foreign Minister.
Such talk provokes nervousness among Japan's neighbors, particularly China and North and South Korea, which have vivid memories of Japanese wartime atrocities.
Have Japanese and US leaders leaders learned nothing from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings? Do they not realize there is still no codified world law to prevent such horrific occurrences today 51 years later? While the International Court of Justice recently condoned the "legitimate" use of nuclear weapons if a state was threatened, Japanese citizens - living in "mondialized" cities - should be enlightened that democratic World government is the only way out of such seemingly insoluble dilemmas.
(Ref., The Defense Monitor, XXV, No. 4)