I always used to assume that with the passing of time would come progress and reconciliation.And it looked that way when Arafat and Rabin seemed to find a way to begin a peace process, so that reaffirmed my assumptions. And then, because of the bitter hearts of a few men, who convinced others that their ‘side’ was going to lose out, it all turned to **** and we now have a scenario where a generation of young Israelis and Palestinians hate each other and see each other as the enemy, because their fathers generation could not bring themselves to compromise and find peace. I don’t know how you even begin to change the hearts and minds of people who think this way, but Palestine needs its own independent state and Israel needs to learn to live with its neighbours, Instead of building a wall around itself. I’m under no illusion that this looks like an insurmountable task right now, but I hope for a time when people are brave enough to fight for it.
I think the likelihood of the brave people you speak about emerging from within the region itself are as close to zero as they've ever been. Both Fatah and Hamas abolished the democratic process years ago, so there simply hasn't been an opportunity for new leadership to emerge. On the other side, the Israeli center-left collapsed a long time ago, while Netanyahu has bullied and manipulated his way to dominating the center-right such that all bow to his will. There is equally a real dearth of leadership emerging there too. Which is why I think the big reset needs huge and multifaceted international involvement. Even leaders like Rabin and Arafat needed huge support from Clinton and other regional allies for those talks to take place, let alone sign an agreement. This remains one of my biggest peeves with Europe especially, they constantly criticise Israel yet do **** all to help them improve. People still talk about the two state solution which itself is still based on the 'Road Map' the Bush administration drew up over two decades ago. It's old, stale and barely relevant anymore. A fresh approach with fresh ideas is needed but those in the region are far too emotionally entangled to be able to come up with it on their own. I think Trump has the guts to at least try, but he isn't trusted by the Arab side. Saudi and Gulf involvement is absolutely critical, at a level we've never seen before. This needs a broad regional effort to move forward.
A two state solution is the only solution for lasting peace. Palestinians absolutely have to have soveriegnty over their own affairs. No annexed territory of Israel managed by an Arab peace keeping force or any other such incarnation of something that waters down a Palestinian state is going to suffice. Although there might have to be a step change approach to it, this is the only outcome that is going to bring equity. The Arab world is right to mistrust Trump. He's probably the worst candidate for a broker in this process, as he will simply give Israel exactly what they want and further enrage the Arab world. At least if he acts on his words that's what will happen.
I'm not sure it's as simple as this. I've pointed out many times that the two state solution presumably requires political and territorial contiguity for the Palestinians. The former needs a complete overhaul of leadership as they are currently governed by two distinct groups who hate each other almost as much as they hate Israel. This is a paradox the world has turned a blind eye to for 18 years under the lazy assumption that the status quo still represents the 'will' of the Palestinian people, yet those same people haven't had a single chance to vote for those 18 years, so no one really knows what their 'will' is anymore. The question of territory requires more engineering ingenuity than anyone appears capable of. When the Bush administration first proposed the Two State solution, common wisdom at the time was that within a few decades, technology and the global economy would have have advanced to such a point that it would be possible to connect Gaza to the West Bank in a way that didn't cut Israel in half, didn't permanently compromise Israel's security, and didn't cost the GDP of a large country. Fast forward two decades, the global economy is knackered and technology hasn't provided any innovative ideas. Imo a huge cause of the Palestinians' current plight is precisely the fact that they are effectively living in three states. The fact that various idiot governments like Norway and Ireland "recognise" the Palestinian state as if it is already one single entity is lazy, categorically false and unbelievably harmful to the Palestinians themselves. There is also the peculiar situation of Israeli Arabs. There are close to two million of these. 1.6million have the status of full citizens of Israel. The other 400k have the status of permanent residents (similar to EU citizens who were living and working in the UK before Brexit). According to the most recent survey (2021), 93% of Israeli Arabs have no interest in living in a Palestinian state and given the choice between a two state solution living in Palestine or a one state solution living in Israel, would choose the latter. That is a colossal amount of people who are all native Palestinian yet utterly reject the two state solution. Their opinion cannot be overlooked so casually.
Unfortunately the two-state solution has been ignored for years, I suspect because ever since the PA was split into two it's just not feasible anymore. New strategy is before everyone's eyes, make Israel such an integral and powerful regional power that their removal is simply impossible bar the use of nuclear weapons. We are talking about a country that can go toe-toe with Iran and Saudi Arabia in the terms of pure military capabilities. The Palestinians are doomed. The fact Saudi speak with Israel now, Jordan have normalized relations, even Egypt has cross border operations with them spells the end of the debate. Israel have basically annexed the Golan Heights and no one batted an eye, I suspect for many of those states the idea of Israel controlling that area instead of Syrian rebels is an improvement. Not to mention Israel is one of the few nations who have sidestepped traditional geopolitics. They're supported by the West, friendly with Russia (many of Putin's buddies are Zionists) and ignored by China. Where does it leave Palestinians? Stuck in a humanitarian disaster.
Not taking sides by this comment, but fed up with seeing kids without limbs, whoever is to blame. Much like the scars of the concert goers, they are going to be around for decades to come, for everyone to see. We should ALL hold our heads in shame.
Isn't it a bit mad to think that there are people walking about who don't give a **** about it? Like there are people in serious positions of power who look at videos like that an think "yeh, well. what can you do."
Sadly it don't surprise me. The scars and horrific memories will be there for absolute decades, I think I've got to the stage with it that I can't even tolerate people's solutions anymore. I was watching something on quantum mechanics the other day, a topic that might seem a bit strange on this thread, but it was about energy, and that for me crossed into religion, about how time is energy, and how the energy of lost ones live on in the future from the past...anyway without getting too deep, I just want to say stop, just stop, to all sides in any war and look around you, all the kids with no arms, no legs, loved ones lost, just stop this destructiveness, because the past is going to haunt the present and the future. Not quite worded how I mean it but it's difficult to explain. Hopefully energy will teach us to never tread this path again, but humans always do, we let the madmen rule the good people.
Make it a pedestrian-free zone? Hand the whole region over to animals and nature? Might work tbf. The Chula valley in the Galilee is already home to one of the most biodiverse collections of migrating birds. Just expand that in all directions, and we're good to go. Israelis can move to Stamford Hill, Palestinians to Manor House, and they can pick up from where they left off.
If we are handing it over to the animals then it’s a done deal. They’ll make a much better go of the area. If we are bringing the Jew vs Muslim battles to the streets of England, I want no part of it. I’ll pop over to Dublin to slap some Irish catholics until it’s calmed down over here.
