Making Peace in the Middle East
In Five Unthinkable Steps
On the Upper West Side of Manhattan, at the UN and in the Middle East, it has become impolitic to talk of Peace. Nobody wants it — it would just get in the way of the new Mother of All Battles, the bloodbath underway between Hamas and Israel. Round Two is due to begin after Israel flattens most of Gaza, in preparation for a suicidal mission to “uproot” and “eliminate” Hamas. That’s the same Hamas that has been allowed and encouraged to flourish for years by Israeli prime minister Bibi Netanyahu, because it shares his distaste for Peace.
Hamas thinks it can reclaim the entire land of Israel and Palestine. Israel thinks it can occupy that land forever, or steal what remains in such small increments that no one will fight back.
Forget it, people. It hasn’t worked and it never will.
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Here’s a Peace Plan for Israel and Palestine.
Netanyahu, resign. Your downfall in disgrace is already written into Israeli history. Don’t make it worse with a slaughter of innocents.
United States, stop vetoing cease-fire resolutions. Instead offer US troops to a robust UN peacekeeping mission that will enforce an open-ended truce.
Both sides, release your prisoners.
Big Powers — Russia, Europe, China and the US: Be the grownups. Convene an Arab-Israeli peace conference. Mediate, or impose, a two-state solution. Keep the peace until the two sides have learned to live together.
Impractical, you say? Under present conditions, certainly. But at least it’s not insane. These are international norms of politics and diplomacy, the things that make for peace.
There, I said it.
Brothers and Sisters, Peace.
— Copyright 2023 bv Tom Phillips
