thomas leverett weblog

An elusive Mideast peace

The new war in Israel and Gaza reminds me that I hate to even think about this situation, but that I do have a plan for peace that I'm mulling over, or at least working on.

I hate to think about it because I have enough Jewish relatives that I feel personally attacked as all Jews do, and feel the heinous sting of an invasion into Israel personally and can't help but take the Israeli side. On the other hand, I feel that Israel has been such a bully for so long, bulldozing over Palestinian homes etc., that they surely knew it would come to this. I have a hard time defending Palestinians who invade a military line, of a country that supplies their power no less, and takes prisoners and hostages back to Gaza. But I have a hard time defending much of what Israel has been doing for years, too. They're both guilty.

So here's my plan. Way back in the 1950's they had the only successful Israeli-Palestinian Peace accord ever (forgive a little exaggeration or factual innacuracy - it's a good story). The Americans invited both the Israelis and the Palestinians to a castle in Spain or somewhere, and when they got there, they served them ham. That's right, ham. It was before the days when anyone had a clue about such things. Well, of course, the Israelis and the Palestinians were horrified, and couldn't eat the ham; it's against both of their religions. But, mad at the Americans and having that in common, they struck a peace deal which was known as the only one for many years.

It's kind of an interesting story, and I don't remember exactly where I heard it, so I can't vouch for its accuracy. But I like it as a story and feel that it holds a basic kernel of something that can be used to establish a real peace. We have to find something odious that both of them can hate together.

My original version of a solution was to move the UN to Jerusalem. I still stand behind that one, although I have no earthly concept of how it would be implemented. It would cost millions, obviously, but would put a barrier between the cultures and give them both something to hate. My children would point out that it would remind them of meetings that I'd hold when they became unruly fighting with each other. Under the boring repression of a meeting they would be come united, quickly, and make a deal so that they could go back to their free life of irresponsible play. Nothing like boring process to make you appreciate the value of working together to both get what you want.

What Palestinians want is their own state, not strangled or politically controlled from teh outside. At this point they will be lucky to come out of this with any state at all, but a West Bank full of Gaza refugees will still need a diplomatic solution that the whole world can live with somehow. The sooner the better.

posted by tom @ 2:31 PM