IQ2 debate — Paths to Peace: proposals to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
In at the deep end.
In at the deep end. That’s how Intelligence Squared likes to kick off, and the first debate of the new season plunged straight into the perilous waters of the Israel–Palestine conflict. David Lindley, the chair, asked each speaker to present ideas for a workable peace.
Dan Gillerman, a former Israeli ambassador to the UN, opened on a note of gloomy optimism. There were dark signs on the horizon, yet he was encouraged because ‘never have so many parties been so desperate for a settlement’. Tehran is the key problem. And if we doubted his word, ‘just listen to Ahmadinejad denying the Holocaust while planning the next one’. He deplored the ‘eerie silence’ of the moderate Muslim world and regretted that oil-rich sheikhs had the cash to buy Manchester City football club but not to invest in Palestine. The solution lay with those Muslim states who had expressed their enthusiasm for peace at last year’s Annapolis Conference. ‘Let them tell Mahmoud Abbas to go for it and Israel will be a willing partner for peace in a land we are destined one day to share.’ A heartening, idealistic speech but light on detail. By contrast Dr Hanan Ashrawi, of the Palestinian Legislative Council, settled straight into a list of specific demands. A kerb on Israeli settlements, suspension of all checkpoints, demolition of the wall, a halt to further incursions by the IDF. Placing her faith in ‘a triple-tier approach’, (the third layer being the international community), Dr Ashrawi called for a peace conference based on international law. She warned that if the Occupied Territories were not liberated ‘within months’, Palestine would ask for a protectorate to be established.
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September 18th, 2008 8:30pmSounds good and lovely, but do you really think peace will ensue? I think that if you give the Palestinians what they want:
"A kerb on Israeli settlements, suspension of all checkpoints, demolition of the wall, a halt to further incursions by the IDF." they are just going to ask for more. Metaphorically speaking, do you really think the Palestinians will be happy with a handful of coins, when the creation of Israel (and it's existence) took a whole treasure chest away from them? I don't. The Palestinians want the wall taken down, the wall was put up because the Israelis were getting bombed by, guess who? The Palestinians. So whose to say if the wall comes down the bombings won't resume?
Mr Grumpy
September 19th, 2008 12:47pmPedants' Corner: a kerb would have limited effect in stopping Israeli settlements. What Dr Ashrawi wants is a curb. Good article otherwise.
Yaakov Watkins
September 21st, 2008 6:10pmI am 57. All of my adult life the headlines out of the middle east have been interchangeable with headlines from a different year.
Palestinians and Israeli don't agree on what peace is. Israelis don't agree on what peace is. For instance, from the Jewish perspective, the Dome of the Rock is illegitimately trespassing on the holiest place in the world. From the Moslem perspective, allowing non-Moslems into the Dome of the Rock is heresy. From a non-reigious perspective, the argument is stupid. The dispute between the religious groups is over a thousand years old. The newcomer, the non-religious view, has relatively few proponents. The original Zionists in the early 20th century proposed creating a Jewish homeland in Uganda. It was a viable option but Jews ignored them. Moving to Uganda wouldn't solve their problem.
Moslems were not interested in making their land productive. It was mostly empty until Jews started moving there in the 1800s. They were not willing to allow Jews near the Temple Mount. The Western Wall, the center of Jewish spirituality for 2,000 years, was converted into a garbage dump.
Those three viewpoints don't leave any room for compromise.
The two state solution is not new. Nor will it be viable until everyone is willing to live in peace. It was what happened after 1948 when there was an armistice. But the Arabs weren't willing to live in peace.