Mid-East Peace is Impossible

September 2002


The Impossibility of a Mid-East Peace

Peace in the Middle East is not a possibility under the current constellation of power in that region of the world. As much as we hate to be such merchants of gloom, any objective assessment of the situation can only conclude that no settlement is possible until the power relationships change.

At the risk of making the situation overly simple, the crux of the problem is an Israeli body politic that wishes a Jewish state in the region and a Palestinian populace that wishes a state of its own in the same general place.

The rest of the discussion, whether it is land for peace or the right of return or God's Covenant with the Twelve Tribes, is merely a distraction. There are two parties to this conflict that want mutually exclusive things. If the Israelis are to secure a state that is Jewish in character, it precludes the demand of the Palestinians to return to villages and farms that their grandparents fled at the birth of Israel and the ensuing Arab attack.

So, that leaves us with what precisely? We are left with a situation in which reduced violence is the only realizable objective. Many say there can be no peace until the killings stop. The fact of the matter is, if the killing stops, the best possible result has been achieved.

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