A Case In Point

A couple of posts ago I made the comment (and I'm paraphrasing here) that peace will not come to the Middle East anytime soon because too many people are willing to place something else above peace on their priorities list. This is exactly what I'm referring to. Here's the money quote from the article, which describes why Hamas, against all available logic, thinks it's a good idea to fire rockets at Israeli civilians:

"It's the Palestinians' right to defend themselves," [radical Hamas leader Khaled] Mashaal said, adding the attacks came in revenge for the killings of nine Hamas supporters by Israel. "These are violations that needed a retaliation." (emphasis mine)

As long as people continue to value something as counterproductive and ultimately unfulfilling as revenge over peace - or until the will of the revenge-seekers is suppressed by the greater will of the people - there's nothing anyone can do to force peace. Depressing, perhaps, but this ought to be a reality check to those who wish to broker a peace: in doing so, breaking the cult of revenge and the cult of justifiable homicide must be our first priority.