What can be done to create peace between Israel and Palestine?

Question

How can Westerners help to bring about a peaceful solution, since we are the ones who determined the military policy and settlements, it is time we went beyond and helped these people on both sides by creating a peaceful solution to their problems.

Answer 1

First, read Jimmy Carter's book. Despite all the vituperous criticism of him ("antisemitic"), he knows what he's talking about, and has been courageous in publishing a book for which he surely knew beforehand that he'd be vigorously attacked.

Second, make U.S. policy more balanced in the Middle East. For 60 years, the United States has been a rubber stamp for Israeli policies. Arguably, if U.S. policy had been more balanced, the Arab & Muslim world wouldn't hate us as much as they do. And maybe the world would be a safer place.

Third, make Israel pull out of the West Bank, which is Palestinian land. Implement a two-state solution based on secure pre-1967 boundaries. This may require some fine-tuning, particularly with respect to the Golan Heights.

Fourth, make all Arab/Muslim countries acknowledge Israel's right to exist in peace. Make all Palestinian factions (Hamas, Fatah, Hezbollah) do the same.

Fifth, make Israel come to terms with its own history. Israeli history has been sanitized, much in the same way that Japan refused to acknowledge its role in Chinese atrocities in the 1937-45 period.

Israel tries to position itself as peace-loving victims and underdogs, always on the defensive, and this is very far from the truth. That mentality needs to be corrected.

Sixth, difficult problems remain, including the status of East Jerusalem and the Palestinian refugee right of return. Neighboring countries -- Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia -- need to be involved in the solution to the refugee problem.

Seventh, the United States should take the lead in this, but it would require a sea change in U.S. policy. Unfortunately, I see no American political leader willing to initiate this change in direction, for domestic political reasons.

Answer 2

Get rid of all terrorists and anyone who promotes their ideology.

And then, promote an ideology of mutual respect and understanding along with recognizing the facts on the ground.

The facts on the groud are that there is an Israel and its around to stay. Many Palestinian Arabs do not accept this basic fact. Another basic fact on the ground is that there is no such thing as Palestine in the sense of an independant state, nor was there ever such a thing. Most Palestinian Arabs do not recognize this basic fatc, as do many other people as well. (As a historical counter reference, the Zionists did not pretend that the State of Israel existed before it existed.)

Another key part of the ideology must be that democracy is paramount and that peace will never be achived if a future Palestinian state is not a genuine democracy.

However, as a recognizer of the "facts on the groud", I personally realize that the above "solution" is purely theoretical, as the reality is that groups like the PLO and Hamas have promoted a ideology of Jihad that has been pushed on the younger generation and will be extremely difficult to root out.

Answer 3

I think first of all to see the reality of the situation ---to see it from all sides not just what is convenient to see. We must accept that there can be no peace in the Middle East until we deal with the Israeli/Palestinian issue. Also, we need to call out and to address the duplicitous behaviour the current politicians use. Like what Ohlmert did this past week in extending a possible chance at peace to the Palestinians and saying they will abandon some settlements one day and then annouce on Israeli TV that he has approved the building of new settlements (in disputed areas) a few hours later when the international cameras werent rolling.

We must educate ourselves and stop the hateful rhetoric and realize that we must act soon as the situation has DETERIORATED this past year: "According to an annual B'Tselem report, from the beginning of 2006 to December 27, Israeli security forces have killed 660 Palestinians, a figure more than three times the number of Palestinians killed in 2005, which was 197....According to the report, about half of the Palestinians killed, 322, did not take part in the hostilities at the time they were killed. 22 of those killed were targets of assassinations, and 141 were minors...According to the report, the IDF demolished 292 Palestinian houses, 95 percent of them in the Gaza Strip. These were home to 1,769 people."

Answer 4

Nothing.

In order for there to be peace you need TWO sides that are willing to stop fighting. Most Palestinians simply are NOT interested in peace or a peaceful co-existance, otherwise they would not have elected Hamas to be their leaders.

If they were interested a solution could have been reached long ago, but their objective is the total destruction of Israel, nothing less. The level of hatred in the Arab world is totally irrational, and most Westerners literally can't comprehend it, but think for a moment. These are people who are recruiting teenagers to go into Israeli resturants and blow themselves up, just so they can kill some innocent Israeli kids. When they build the suicide belts they rap the explosives in nails so that more people will be killed, and they even coat the nails in rat poison in the hopes that people will bleed to death before the doctors in the Israeli Emergency Rooms can save them... and they think this is a GOOD thing!

There is no peace because the Palistinians don't want peace, they just want to kill all the Jews.

Answer 5

first i'd like to ask u a question:if ur country (God forbid) was invaded by another country , would u let go a piece of land of urcountry that easily and even work on a peaceful coexistence between the colonists and the natives,or between the invaders and the victims? well i can guess ur answer to be absolutely not that's if u r a real patriot, any other answer would only come of the mouth of an outrageous traitor..right?! now let's apply this to Palestinian issue.if we are fair and able to read the true history of this land we should see that the land belonged,belongs and will belong(God's willing) to the Palestinian people ONLY,and any other oppressive decietful people has no right to claim the possession of this Plestinian land. Hence, no compromise over one's land is liable to negotiations. unfortunately, the whole world seem to turn a blind eye to this fact,and back up Isreal in their aggression against the real victims,and dare to ask for peaceful settlement rather than helping the natives in restoring their land. Accordingly, the Palestinian has no other alternatives but taking revenge by their own hands. blood brings blood, they are forced to fall into the endless vicious cycle of blood to bring what belongs to them back.this is my word to the whole world: plz stop the distortion of truth, back them up against the real enemy(ISRAEL), that's all what they want. stop giving the Palestinians aid with one hand and stab them in their backs with the other. this is what i call world hypocrisy

Answer 6

As long as Israel KEEPS refusing the two state with Jerusalem shared(Israel is actually walling off Arab East Jerusalem from the West Bank), to stop killing Arab Palestinians, and to stop stealing their land, there will be no peace and in 2-3 years, the world will pay for it with WW III-NO ONE WINS.Peace is possible, but Israel does NOT want it until she annexes the West Bank and Gaza strips.

Answer 7

There is no peaceful solution between Israel and Palestine. The only real solution can not and should not be implemented and that would be to completely destroy one side utterly and totally. They ahve been fighting over that same stretch of land for thousands of years and they are not about to stop just because some outsiders want them to.

Answer 8

The Knesset must include Muslims Palestinians in the government. Rather than two autonomous states there needs to be one governing body comprised of Muslims and Jews working together to create a better life for their children.

Answer 9

A peace between the Jew and Arabs.
Isolate/destroy jews who think israel is wherever jews live.
Isolate/destroy arabs who won't rest unless all of israel is under arab domination.
these two sub-groups cause all the trouble for everyone else.

Answer 10

For starters, we need to stop supporting Israel if they continue to attack Palestine, and we need to station troops at the borders to ensure that Palestinians can't provoke attacks from Israel. It amazes me that in this modern world, two countries cannot make peace with each other because of religion.