"O happy time, when all the world is free!
The sun of Freedom shines o'er land and sea!
Released front war's alarms
now men lay down their arms,
and all is quiet

(except for an odd Palestinian riot)."

N.Z. poet

ARD. Fairburn

1902-57

With the ink barely dry on the Middle East peace accord, the latest in a string of such agreements, it is time to examine the reasons for the poor prospects of a lasting peace there.

Agreements and decisions over the future of this region in the last half century have been frequent. Initially, they were created to serve the imperial interests of the European powers, but more recently it has become fashionable to add the prefix "peace" to any formulations. But, whether "peace" has been proclaimed or not, the result has been the same, tension, incidents, hostility and on four separate occasions, an outbreak of full-scale war.