Mathematics, not Diplomacy will Resolve the Arab-Israeli Conflict
News commentators are parsing every syllable uttered by President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week in regard to jumpstarting peace talks. However, the two leaders' squabbling over the drawing of borders between Israel and a new Palestinian state, make it harder for Americans to see that the greatest impediment to peace has little if anything to do with borders. It is rather the mathematics of the region, which will determine final outcomes.
Ensuring the security of a Jewish state of five million in the heart of the Arab world, which has a population that is more than 65 times as large, is the real problem.
If one adds Muslims with anti-Israel sentiments, the imbalance skyrockets to a number whose zeroes in front of the decimal point I have trouble counting. And the situation is about to get worse. A recent Pew Center Research Poll, taken after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, announced that 54% of Egyptians want to annul the peace treaty with Israel.
What Pres. Obama and PM Netanyahu are shuttlecocking back and forth are details relating to the two state solution, which involves the creation of a Palestinian state on Israel's borders. However, such an arrangement could not be worked out at a time when the Middle East was dominated by U.S. power, and our dictatorial allies were able to suppress anti-Israel sentiments among their Muslim populations. It is certainly not going to happen now.
Israel can indeed become a homeland for Jews as well as Palestinians, with both groups living in peace and security. But this goal will not come about until Israel evolves into a multi-ethnic democracy. This is so, no matter how many more years and lives are lost, while new peace initiatives are hammered out, signed and printed on the toilet paper of failed diplomacy.
RELATED POSTS:
 |
| Flags of Israel and Palestine |
Ensuring the security of a Jewish state of five million in the heart of the Arab world, which has a population that is more than 65 times as large, is the real problem.
If one adds Muslims with anti-Israel sentiments, the imbalance skyrockets to a number whose zeroes in front of the decimal point I have trouble counting. And the situation is about to get worse. A recent Pew Center Research Poll, taken after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, announced that 54% of Egyptians want to annul the peace treaty with Israel.
What Pres. Obama and PM Netanyahu are shuttlecocking back and forth are details relating to the two state solution, which involves the creation of a Palestinian state on Israel's borders. However, such an arrangement could not be worked out at a time when the Middle East was dominated by U.S. power, and our dictatorial allies were able to suppress anti-Israel sentiments among their Muslim populations. It is certainly not going to happen now.
Israel can indeed become a homeland for Jews as well as Palestinians, with both groups living in peace and security. But this goal will not come about until Israel evolves into a multi-ethnic democracy. This is so, no matter how many more years and lives are lost, while new peace initiatives are hammered out, signed and printed on the toilet paper of failed diplomacy.
RELATED POSTS:
Comments