The joke goes as follows:
A man lost on an Island comes across an enchanted lamp. He rubs it, and a Jeannie appears. "Oh Master," the Jeannie says "Command one thing from me, anything, and I will make it happen." The man thinks for a little while and says to the Jeannie: "well.. I am quite contempt living on this island. I bother no one and no one bothers me. I do whatever I want whenever I want.. But this is once in a life-time opportunity, so I am not going to pass it. Jeannie, I command you to bring peace to the Middle East. I want you to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." The Gennea replies "well master, I expected you to ask me for gold or silver or things of that sort. These are a lot easier.. I mean the Arabs and the Israelis have been fighting for a long time and the routes of their conflict goes back thousands of years... Is there anything else I can do for you?"
The man thinks and replies "well, you have a point... How about you bring me a nice woman that understand me, and one that I can understand to make me happy and make my life more enjoyable"
To that, the Jeannie replies "tell me about the Middle East thing again."
While the joke is intended as a gender joke, it does highlight that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is indeed the gold standard in unresolvable conflict. In the minds of both groups, the rights and needs of one group means the annihilation and destruction of another.
Both groups, the Palestinians and the Jews lay historical, deep-rooted claim that goes back thousands of years to a small piece of land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean. Both groups have been heavily persecuted in exile and want their own sovereign state on a land where they feel deeply connected. Each group feels superior to the other, and feels have a more rightful claim than the other to that piece of land.
Both groups believe that they are ordained by God to defend this land that not only is their land and the land of their ancestors, but it is the Holy land that is gifted to them by God himself as confirmed by their religious texts and traditions. If there was ever a cause to die defending, they both feel this would be it. To complicate things even more that one group believes that one of the holyest sites in Islam is built on top of what is believed to be one of the holyest sites in by the Jews: The Haram El-Sharif/Temple Mount. Christians, Jews, and Muslims all believe in an apocalyptic war that heralds the destruction of that religion's enemies to pave way for the coming (or return) of the Messiah. Of course, the stories, although similar, the conclusion of each religion puts its people as the victors and the rightful inheritants of God's land.
But is this problem impossible to solve in a way that is satisfactory and fair to all people? After all this conflict between Palestinians and Israelis have been going on for 60 years, with seeds for violence that date back to the foundation of the Abrahamic faiths and the history of both peoples from thousands of years ago. How can you peacefully resolve a problem where all fighting factions believe they have control over this land because this is what God Himself wants? How can one determine how to divide a land among two peoples who believe they have a right to the entirety of that land?
I don't believe that solving this problem is impossible. It is my view that the real issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been avoided or missed by both sides. We have not been looking at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the right angles. Everything that has been tried so far have attempted to deal with the symptoms of the problem, and not its root causes. You can give someone Tylenol to bring their fever down, but unless you give them the right anti-biotic, he will never be cured. It is time that we start giving the Israeli-Palestinian patient some antibiotics to go along with their Tylenol. My view is that the anti-biotic is a single, a joint, secular, liberal democratic Israeli-Palestinian country. This new country would meld Israel and Palestine into a new state of Israelis and Palestinians living side by side and enjoying the same rights under a joint constitution. This new state would merge its Israeli identity with its Arab identity to generate a joint semitic nation that is far greater than either one can be on its own. For the sake of explanation, let's call this land something both sides can agree on. I will refer to this new state as Holiland. I like it because it mentions neither palestine nor Israel. It has a certain Innuendo of a small tolerant, liberal, democratic country in Europe. Yes, I am referring to Holand. In my vision, Israelis and Palestinians are equal citizens of Holiland. They are free to live in Gaza or the Westbank or Telaviv whether they are Arab or Israeli. They have a legislative branch of government that has a senate, or house of lords with equal representation for both palestinians, and a House of Representatives that is based on the populations geographic districts. In Holiland, Israelis and Palestinians have equal rights to housing, education and employment that is enforced by a code a civil rights. All Holilanders have equal rights to practice their faith or practice no faith at all without fear or persecution.
My vision might seem distant and too rosi, but I think that is far more pleasant, and even far or realistic than Just Israel or just Palestine as either side initially wanted, and something more than this two-state cluge that leaves neither side satisfied. In my view is that having a Palestinian state next to an Israeli state, living peacefully side by side is as realistic as florescent pink elephants that lavitate and speak Flemmish. The two-state solution was not, cannot, and will never be the right answer to the Israeli Palestinian conflict. It has been tried several times before, and every time it produced unsatisfactory results to all sides. Someone famous said that the definition of insanity is trying the same things over and over again and expecting different results each time. It certainly is true in this iteration of a series of iterations that tried to divide land between Israelis and Palestinians.
Holiland cannot start with politicians and treaties. Holiland does not take land from one and gives it to another and does not accept that one people has to be removed to make room for another. Holiland has to start with the shared belief of Palestinians and Israelis that their are history, culture, land, future of their children is intertwined. They have to want to create a peaceful and promising future for their children in place of the bloody and bleek present they inherited from their parents. The peace between Israelis and Palestinians in my opinion is not about borders and flags. It's not about UN resolutions, Peace Roadmaps, and Quartets. I believe that a lasting peace between the two sides can never be acheived through a a two-state solution that gives neither party what it wants. I don't believe that this peace can be driven by the Arab countries, the United States, the European Union, or Russia; and it certainly cannot be acheived through the current Israeli and Palestinian leadership. All of these groups are involved in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict out of an agenda that has neither groups' interest at heart. Only the will of the Israeli PEOPLE and the Palestinian PEOPLE can make Holiland possible.
Let us eliminate the possibilities of a new holocaust against the people of Israel and let us not repeat the Native American "experience" on the Palestinian people. Let us also keep in mind that You cannot convince a Jew that has worked so hard to get to the biblical promise land that he/she is only restricted to the seaside just west of it. By contrast, you cannot expect a Palestinian who was forced out of his/her seaside Village by Israeli settlers, to just accept his tragedy and forget about his home, his ancestors, and their resting grounds. If, After 4000 years of being in the Diaspora, the Jews didn't forget their homeland, what makes them think that Palestinians will forget theirs??
I think this single-state solution is hard but it is possible. It certainly is at least as acheivable as a two-state solution. This is not just some ideal in my head, but a model that was successfully implemented in South Africa between the Whites and the Blacks. Sure, South Africa today has its share of residual problems, but these problems are the scabs of a wound healing itself. Ever since the fall of Apartheid, the country has been making significant progress in every arena. With some changes in the way that both Palestinians and Israelis think, they can acheive an even greater success.
For Palestinians and Israelis to be able to achieve that kind of piece, both sides have to start thinking of this MUTUAL problem in a totally different way. Both groups have to examine what is at the root of why they cannot resolve their conflict. Surely there are smart people on both sides that can figure out how to coexist on a piece of land together, so why hasn't it happened? The Axiomatic answer to this question is that both groups are uncompromising and have a very deep-seeded hatred of each other... True, but why?? Why do Arabs hate Israelis more than they hate anyone other people in the world? Why do the Israelis disdain Arabs so much and don't place any importance on their lives, liberties, and aspirations? These are the types of questions that really need to be MUTUALLY answered by Palestininas and Israelis in order to acheive peace. Let us stop trying to figure out How to split an unsplittable land and start to figure out what keeps Israelis and Palestinians from becoming two ethnicities sharing a love for their common country. That's the shift I am referring to.
I believe that there are four influences in the Israeli and Palestinian Psyche that have to be shifted in order for each side to see a partner in the other as opposed an enemy, or an inconvenient neighbor. These influences are:
1- Religious indoctrination
2- Post Colonial World Order
3- Historical entitlement
4- Populous mis-engagement
I will explain what I mean with each one these areas, and how to not only see beyond these influences, but be able to use them in positive ways to give Israelis everything they want, give Palestinians everything they want, and begin the healing process between two deeply scarred peoples. Like South Africa, it might take many generations before everything gets sorted out, but I do believe that both sides will be contempt and will be in much better shape in the long run.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment