Eureka! We are saved! Graham Freeman from grudnuk.com has solved the Middle Eastern Crisis all by himself. Listen to this brilliance!
How to stop this whole mess:
- Send UN Peacekeepers into the occupied territories.
- Hold a conference, with a view to the Arab neighbours (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt) acknowledging Israel's right to exist, and correspondingly with Israel acknowledging Palestine's right to exist.
- Guaranteeing the various faiths right of access to their particular holy sites. And perhaps, at worst, demarcate an international zone around the city of Jerusalem, removing it from the jurisdiction from any existing state.
Also, given that Israel have had Arafat holed up so that he gets out less often than your average warblogger, it's churlish and stupid to suggest that he still has any control over your average Palestinean. And don't even imagine that aggravated violence against a party in this conflict will suddenly make retaliatory actions evaporate.
Way to go Graham, we're all proud of you. I guess we can all sit back and relax now. All we have to do is get Israel and Palestine to recognize each others right to exist, expropriate the one of the holiest sites from both parties, and send in the blue hats to make sure they play nice.
Of course, UN Peacekeeping forces have a marginal success record, to put it kindly. But maybe they'll get it right this time. After all, the sight of those powder blue helmets will certainly ease any lingering tensions between the Palestinians and Israelis.
Now, about this conference, exactly what is in it for Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, et al? What are they going to get for their reversal of a decades old policy of refusing to recognize Israel as a legitimate state? Are we to suppose that they will do this out of some hitherto untapped generousity? Or will we bribe them? And how will they make such an about-face palatable to theri populace, who have been trained for decades to hate Israel and the Jews? Could be a bit tricky. The second half is already accomplished. Israel has conceded that Palestine has a right to exist, and in her last aatempt to prevent war, offered the PA almost everything they asked for, with the major exception of the right of return. How does your plan address this issue, which is a deal breaker on both sides? How many palestinian refugees can return to Israel? What kind of compensation should they get, if any? Should they be accepted as full citizens of Israel, or as permanent residents?
This also brings up the larger issue of the settlements. How will you handle the issue of settlements on the wrong side of the border? Not to mention the tricky question of drawing the border in the first place. How about water rights? Can you draw a border which ensures both states will have adequate access to the Jordan river?
Your third suggestion is allowing each group access to its particular holy sites. Unfortunatey, Judeism and Islam share many holy sites, and neither group is going to be willing to give up access to any religious site. This is another well established stumbling block. How do you propose to resolve it? This problem also encompasses Jerusalem. Both sides want unfettered access. Arafat was offered a portion of the city in the last Israeli proposal, and he refused it and launched the Intifadah. How are you planning on getting Arafat to agree to a compromise he already rejected violently? How are you going to get both sides to agree to cede Jerusalem to international control?
Finally, your last statement is self contradictory. If Arafat has no control over his people, then why should Israel negotiate with him? Is Palestine an anarchy? The escalating violence, and the pattern of attacks speaks of co-ordination and planning. If Arafat is not in charge, then who is? Either he is calling the shots, and is therefore guilty of terrorism, continuing his old ways, or he is not in control, and isn't worth speaking to. By the way, documents found when the Israelis raided Arafat's headquarters implicate him in the ordering, planning and funding of terrorist operations.
So Graham, while the broad strokes of your plan sound eminently reasonable, the devil is in the details, and unless you have some radical new answers that nobady else has thought of over the last 60 years or so, I'm afraid your suggestion is a pipe dream.
Posted by Rich at April 12, 2002 5:47 AM