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