The chance for lasting peace is slim
By Letter to the Editor on May 26, 2021.
Editor:
My thesaurus gives five main meanings of madness: (1) insanity, (2) anger, (3) folly, (4) haste, and (5) zeal. All are applicable to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
The present clashes go back to the feud between Abraham’s sons, Isaac and Ishmael, 4,000 years ago. In recent history, this fight restarted in 1948 when Israel declared independence. Hostilities have flared up repeatedly for the past 73 years.
After the Six Day War of 1967, Israel has exercised considerable control over Palestinian territories and checkpoints. To prevent subversive activities into Israel, they declared no-go zones along the Gaza border. This has diminished farmland and caused severe losses and anger for Palestinians.
From 1989 to 2008, Palestinian suicide bombers executed 169 attacks on Israelis, killing 805 and injuring 943. To curb this insanity, Israel built a 708-kilometer-long concrete wall on its border with the West Bank. The suicide attacks have stopped.
Probably out of sheer frustration, Palestinians repeatedly started an uprising, and every time lost the fight. Then they and Arabian nations complained to the world, and rich countries donated generously for rebuilding.
This time, they may be disappointed. All countries have accrued massive debts to keep their economies going during the pandemic, and will run deficits for years to come. They will probably not borrow more money to help Palestinians.
There may be another side benefit in these recurring clashes with Israel. Since the 1970’s, Hezbollah terrorists fired rockets on Israel from Lebanon. Israel overran them with military might a few times. Hezbollah rockets carried the markings of Iran, as do those fired now by Hamas from Gaza.
It gives the impression that Iran uses Israel (with its anti-missile defense system) as a testing ground for its rockets. At the same time, it gives Palestinians an opportunity to vent their fury on their archenemy.
Despite hostilities, Israelis and Palestinians need each other.
High unemployment rates force many Palestinians to work in Israel. Israel needs the workers, and the workers need the income.
The long history of animosity amid unwelcome inter-dependence between Israel and its neighbours makes the chances for lasting peace extremely slim.
Jacob Van Zyl
Lethbridge
-1
You must travel considerably further back in time and realize that humans occupied the area around 180,000 years ago. Their DNA still permeates the region and beyond.
Present day Jews and Palestinians share that DNA today.
Strife and “madness” likely existed long before Abraham and others.
That said, religion has and still does “pit brother against brother” and what was once Palestine is no exception.
There is also the issue of “Blue Gold,” not only a factor in this conflict, but, an also a burgeoning, and concerning issue with open-pit coal mining here in Alberta. This:
“This issue of water shortages-both in the Jordan River basin and beyond-can contribute to instability. Some analysts have posited that severe drought in Syria contributed to that country’s civil war.”
“Coping with Water Security in the Jordan River Basin”
http://www.tcf.org/content/report/coping-water-scarcity-jordan-river-basin/?agreed=1
So the question remains, can these two groups get together to share the water and develop other sources of water, together. Is the water being shared equally now?
“This river, which has nourished the civilizations of the Levant for thousands of years, is under unprecedented strain.” There was also a time when those of the Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths in this area got along, just fine.
It’s a tribal / religious war that has been raging since biblical times and its’ not getting any better regardless of what laws we put in place.
And its not just Jews and Muslims … racism is growing worldwide. Multi-culturalism is an experiment that is blowing up in our face.
your racism is showing, no? multiculturalism is no experiment – it is a long time in the happening. it is the way forward: we absolutely need to let go of the illusions that we identify as race/colour. we are all from the same, and to that same we return when this go-round for each ends. as limiting as it is divisive as it is destructive is the conditioning that we default to our birthday suit. we merely need to understand that our true heritage rests in that central energy to which all “life” is a part.
as for israel, there is no mulitculturalism to speak of. they take in only jews; only jews have full rights; only jews have actual opportunity; only palestinians lose their land; only palestinians represent the poorest of the poor; only palestinians live daily as victims of crimes against humanity. the worst of it is that most of the humans living there are not represented by the long line of terrorist israeli leaders, such as netan-yahoo; most are decent people that want peace and good lives for all.