Tuesday, January 13, 2009

An Israeli Joins Me in Pessimism

Tom Segev's article Peace Is no Longer in Sight is a short piece that is in sync with my own pessimism. I'm not sure when it was that I lost hope for peace in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, but I no longer can see a way to long-term peace.

You give folks enough money and you can overcome economic differences. You give folks enough peace keepers and you can make them feel safer. There is no way around deeply-held religious views that are in direct conflict with each other.

Some Israelis imagine that they can bludgeon the Palestinians into being peaceful, but that is hard for me to imagine. Some Palestinians imagine that if they make the Israelis feel insecure, then the Israelis will give the Palestinians what they want. Both sides are wrong, but I don't have a better answer that can work for both sides.

No comments: