From the many posts to this message board it’s pretty much been established that the Israelis and Palestinians aren’t exactly getting along. Nearly every topic has included “Israelis are bad because…” or “Palestinians are bad because…” (comments which I’m certainly guilty of). Let’s take a different approach. What could each side reasonably do to ease the pressure in that region.
The following two ideas are obviously not reasonable:
The Israelis end all security patrols and release all restrictions on Palestinians, allowing terrorism to run rampant.
The Palestinians ignore the hardships that they’ve been put through because of the Israelis and unanimously decide to stop all terrorist attacks.
Also, let’s try to keep the posts in this thread easily readable. In other words short, to the point, and short. Did I mention short?
Boyohboy, what are we debating here, exactly? “What could each side reasonably do to ease the pressure in that region?” Isn’t that basically the same question as the OP in the other thread, “What should the Palestinian[s] do?”
I’m sorry. Apparently I wasn’t clear enough. I’m not suggesting that we look for a long term solution. I’m asking what could be done to immediately ease tensions, if only a little bit.
This should answer your question DuckDuckGoose. We’re debating what short term goals both sides should set.
One idea is The Wall. It could provide a buffer zone between Israelis and Palestinians, allowing the two groups to “cool off.” I don’t think that this is the way to go. It would cut off Palestinians from jobs in Israel creating more economic hardships. Also, it would do very little to ensure the safety of Israelis. Many terrorists come into Israel from Syria and Lebanon, areas that are already walled off and patrolled very carefully.
Instead of separating, let’s try integrating. In one respect, the current situation is similar to segregation (the difference: this “segregation” wasn’t forced). How about ensuring that schools are ethnically mixed? Unfortunately, this is much more easily accomplished when both groups are under the same government…
But if the OP is talking about short-term solutions, “integrating schools” doesn’t help, because it takes at least a year or so (I would think) to get that all arranged. You don’t just suddenly start sending your kids to the Israeli school across the border…
And I didn’t notice that “integrating schools” helped a whole lot to defuse ethnic, racial tensions in the U.S.
My suggestion would be economic–get the economies rolling again. For one thing, tourism is way down. If both sides could agree to a moratorium on bombings, shootings, tanks rolling, etc. at least for the summer, maybe if everybody was so busy getting rich off of tour groups, things would chill out a little bit, at least enough for the sensible folks on both sides to sit down at the table and talk.
No matter what I may hope for, I don’t think that an immediate cease-fire is going to happen anytime soon.
Duck Duck Goose, I agree that an economy boost would bring some degree of peace to the region, but an increase in tourism isn’t a solution. The Israeli economy would benefit more from tourism–they already have an infrastructure of hotels, shops, etc. Plus, as you mentioned, tourism won’t start up again until the violence ends.
I think that two things need to occur:
1) Israel should stop arresting terrorists themselves, but instead have Arab police officers who object to the suicide attacks conduct the many searches.
2) Palestinians need to revamp their government so that it actually improves their economy instead of buying weaponry.
“All right, I’m sick of you two fighting over the Holy Land with each other! Israelis, go to Austria, and Palestinians, go to Australia. And both of you stay there until I tell you to come out! I’m putting this whole stupid thing somewhere where neither of you can have it!”
“But, mom–”
“Don’t ‘but, mom’ me, you chowderhead! Since you two won’t play nice, then you don’t get to play at all. And no, I don’t care who started it!”
Duck Duck Goose is correct that integrating schools would probably take a year. In the grand scheme of things, that’s a very small amount of time.
Integrating schools would bring together children and hopefully teach them not to hate each other. The Israelis/Palestinians would no longer be “those enemies over there” but they would become “my friend Avraham/Mohamed.” Many of the people who volunteer for suicide attacks are teenagers. Integrating high schools would allow would-be bombers to think of their would-be victims as human.
Honestly, I wasn’t around during that time period, so I don’t know what “old timers” may have seen. However, I will tell you what I don’t see. I don’t see a great deal of racial hatred.
“What could each side reasonably do to ease the pressure in that region?” Isn’t that basically the same question as the OP in the other thread, “What should the Palestinian[s] do?”