Will Israel's Conflicting Factions Make Peace Impossible?
Today's NY Times suggests that probably settlers committed to the restoration of the original Israel will not use violence to achieve their aims:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/world/middleeast/14settlers.html?th&emc=th
However, let us not forget that Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated for his serious peace-making efforts in 1995. The head of one of Israel's major parties with constituents mainly from the former Soviet Union has proposed expelling Palestinian residents from Israel. Some of Israel's peace-makers have argued converting Israel/Palestine into a single democratic state rather than a Jewish one as demanded by the current government in power.
One is hard pressed to see how peace can be achieved, given the Israeli resistance to it for so many decades. More likely we shall see things dragging on with more and more Israelis moving into the West Bank. It is a good financial deal apparently to move there.
And then there is the powerful Israeli military with nuclear weapons that has been subsidized by the U.S. at more than two billion dollars per year since the peace negotiated with Egypt. A Palestinian 'state' -- if one wants to call it such with no military, no self-rule assured -- does not look to be a deal acceptable to the Palestinians who are frustrated already by the inequities of Israeli justice applied to them and the denial of a Palestinian right of return in the face of any and all Jews being welcomed. It is no surprise that many prefer to visit Israel, but live elsewhere. It looks like a bad situation for any and all there.
What do you think?
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/world/middleeast/14settlers.html?th&emc=th
However, let us not forget that Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated for his serious peace-making efforts in 1995. The head of one of Israel's major parties with constituents mainly from the former Soviet Union has proposed expelling Palestinian residents from Israel. Some of Israel's peace-makers have argued converting Israel/Palestine into a single democratic state rather than a Jewish one as demanded by the current government in power.
One is hard pressed to see how peace can be achieved, given the Israeli resistance to it for so many decades. More likely we shall see things dragging on with more and more Israelis moving into the West Bank. It is a good financial deal apparently to move there.
And then there is the powerful Israeli military with nuclear weapons that has been subsidized by the U.S. at more than two billion dollars per year since the peace negotiated with Egypt. A Palestinian 'state' -- if one wants to call it such with no military, no self-rule assured -- does not look to be a deal acceptable to the Palestinians who are frustrated already by the inequities of Israeli justice applied to them and the denial of a Palestinian right of return in the face of any and all Jews being welcomed. It is no surprise that many prefer to visit Israel, but live elsewhere. It looks like a bad situation for any and all there.
What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
posted by Ed Kent at 11:34 AM
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