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Originally Posted by 2Stonedbirds
Yeah, its a giant mess. If anything with long term in mind, such as a new, expanded Palestinian border and international enforcement wont work or the political capital just isn't there, then I really don't know. Business as usual I suspect.
Seems like outcry for either side to do the right thing isnt working and neither side apparently can be trusted to do the right thing.
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I'd say it's even harder in that it's not always clear what the right thing to do is.
Israel wants security. They have warred with essentially all of their immediate neighbors (sometimes more than once) since 1948. The Palestinians, via Hamas, are being used as pawns by Iran to destabilize, and if possible, destroy Israel. So how do Israeli's find security? They can try to make peace with Palestinians as they did with Egypt and Jordan but Iran, via Hamas, does not want peace with Israel. The other alternative is to fortify their defenses, which often applies as being offensive as we've seen in this latest attack and in the Settlements that are being used as a buffer zone.
Palestinians want autonomy. They have been victims of more powerful forces for decades. From the Ottomans, to the British, to the Israelis and Hamas. The corruption of the PLO and subsequent influence of Hamas and other thugs would prevent anyone actually interested in peace with Israel from trying to step up and run the 'country'. They can't leave as they're treated as second-class citizens in other parts of the ME, often with even fewer rights than in Israel. They're stuck in poor conditions, under the thumb of a powerful neighbor.
So what's the right thing?
Israel/Palestine is just the focal point for the Middle East in general. It's where the proxies fight their wars without firing a shot. It's where global superpowers flex their muscle without getting their hands dirty. Until there is a larger stability in the region peace will not be attainable. To reach a level of stability would mean the fall of regimes that thrive on instability: Syria and Iran. The world has tried to do that on a number of occasions via Desert Storm and subsequent wars and it's just made the situation more volatile. Another option is to wait until the region organically turns away from the more militant style of Islam. I don't know the stats for orthodox Islam but Islam in general is the fastest growing religion in the world. I think we can assume that the number of radical Muslims is growing at roughly the same rate. Another option is to flood the region with money, jobs, infrastructure and a general increase in quality of life. Perhaps this will turn the Yemen's into something a little closer to a UAE and there will be less chance of radicalization.
It's a mess and will be for a long time.