Sometimes peace between the Israelis and Palestinians seems impossible. It is wonderful to read of people working for a peace which will bring about a two state solution. There was a new 424 page blueprint for peace presented yesterday. It includes a sunken four lane highway built through Israel, connecting Gaza and the West Bank. It also allows some of East Jerusalem to be part of the Palestinian state while allowing the neighborhoods of the 200,000 Israelis who have moved into Jerusalem since the 1967 war to remain in Israel. Both groups would have access to the Old City and its religious shrines, but from separate gates. It is complex, complicated and creative. What is best is that there are people who have not given up hope that peace can be established.
Do you think peace is possible?
To read more on the plan, go to the following site from The Philadelphia Inquirer.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/59430457.html
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While this plan sounds viable, I think that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict goes a lot deeper than land. Just because Palestinians recieve a state, does not mean there will be peace. There is still a lot of resentment from both sides.
ReplyDeleteIt's cute....
ReplyDeleteDear mnpfdsp,
ReplyDeleteSarcasm will never aid the cause of peace. I admire the people who are still hanging in there, despite all the odds, trying to find a way these two groups can escape their history with each other and find a way to live together.
Plans like this are a great way to tackle the issues themselves (which are very convoluted and need to be treated in depth)...
ReplyDeleteBut plans are just plans. There also needs to be (and perhaps already is) an undiscussed but accepted political strategy for how to actually get both sides from point A to point B.
As you know, I tend to think it will be easier to get the Israelis to accept concessions (they have historically as a population and as a government been willing to do so for peace). I also happen to think that a majority of Palestinians will accept a two-state solution without right of return (which is in many ways the real deal-breaker in a lot of past proposals.)
So the real challenge in my mind is: how to empower Palestinian moderates in the government who will accept a reasonable plan and enact it successfully. This is where the real plan is needed.
--Michael Segal