Israelis and Palestinians Declare Another Cease-Fire

Optimism about peace in the Middle East is the perennial triumph of hope over experience. Yet every so often, the parties try to act as if they were serious about getting along. These bouts of good will usually last about as long as a season of “The Sopranos.” And so, when the Israelis and Palestinians announced their tenth cease-fire in four years, they earned a third of a cheer.

That is not to say that a cease-fire is a bad thing, far from it. In one very important respect, it is the most important thing of all, ending the murders. Since the violence ramped up in the last four years, 1,000 Israelis and 3,000 Palestinians have died violently. While it is hard to say that any of them died in vain, not knowing the precise circumstances of each murder, it is no less true that additional deaths will not improve things. The British government, when dealing with Ulster three decades ago spoke, insensitively, about reducing violence to an acceptable level. That would be progress in the current Israeli-Palestinian mess.

While slowing, if not halting, the killing is a necessary condition for peace, it is not sufficient. After almost 60 years, there remain issues that are still not resolved. For example, what are the borders of Israel? To be honest, one could get a violent brawl going on that matter among the Palestinians themselves. What about Israeli settlements? What is their future status? Again, no need to invite the Palestinians to fight the Israelis over that; a fist-fight among Israeli legislators is feasible. And then there is the problem of Jerusalem and the three western religions. Who controls access to which holy site? Can the city be a capital of Israel and of Palestine?

Were all of those to go away with the wave of a magic wand, there would still be significant issues that could readily result in war or one sort or another. For example, how will the scarce water resources of the Jordan valley be allocated? The western US barely gets along when it comes to using the trickle known as the Colorado River, and Uncle Sam enforces things there.

The real problem, though, remains the unwillingness of some members in both the Israeli and Palestinian polities to yield an inch. To the extent that these people are marginalized and denied the ability to hurt others, they do not matter greatly, and peace has a very good chance. For decades, they have not been on the margins but in the center (indeed, at the top) of both societies. The Israeli government and the Palestinian authority are still at the mercy of the hardliners on both sides. The prospects for peace are not better so much as they are not quite as bleak as they were.



© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.

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