'Manage the conflict' says... Khaled Abu Toameh
Canada's National Post has a profile of JPost's Arab affairs correspondent Khaled Abu Toameh (pictured). I urge those of you who have never read a profile of this fascinating man to do so. Although I knew most of what was in this article already, I thought Abu Toameh's take on the current state of affairs to be interesting, if not very surprising. Most of the world believes, often with passionate intensity, that Jewish settlements on land claimed by Arabs limits the chances for peace. Abu Toameh disagrees. "I wish the settlements were the problem," he says, because it can be solved by the Israelis. If settlements were the problem, he argues, then Gaza would now be at peace. After all, the Israelis pulled out in 2005. But the result has been war -- war among the Palestinians, war with Israel. "The real obstacle to peace is not a Jew building a settlement but the failure of the Palestinians to have a government. Is there a partner on the Palestinian side for peace talks? No."Indeed.
What is to be done? He thinks Israel should simply wait until the Palestinians stop killing each other and create a credible political entity that can make a deal. Peace will then become possible.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:33 AM
2 Comments:
The Palestinians are different from the South African blacks. The latter had no existential conflict with the whites so peace was possible. The Palestinians deny Jewish nationalism legitimacy. This makes for the foreseeable future, peace impossible between them and the Israelis. That is due to the existential nature of the conflict between the two adversaries. The best that can be done is to prevent their conflict from getting out of hand until the day comes that the Palestinians are ready to finally cross their own Rubicon.
A remarkable guy. I think history will show Khaled Abu Toameh as a very important character. He writes real truth to power. And yet the west hardly knows him.
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