. . . the israeli-palestinian conflict.
okay, so . . . i know this subject has been rehashed and rehashed a million times and no one seems to be able to agree to a settlement. i know not everyone will agree with what i think.
but here is my view on the best way to resolve the issue.
the two-state solution has always made the most sense to me. give the palestinians their own sovereign country and they will be far less likely to harass israel. israel, in turn, will also be far less likely to bother the palestinians. the neighboring arab nations would also be happy.
so . . . everybody wins!
except for maybe israel . . . from a certain point of view . . . but even they would have to be happy to have peace after dealing with this for so long.
so basically, in brian's world, the west bank and gaza strip should be made into a palestinian homeland. ideally, the government would not be religiously affiliated. of course, ideally, neither would israel's.
israelis currently occupying the settlements in these two areas would be offered the choice of palestinian citizenship or the chance to move. maybe even given a nice period of time to make this decision. some period of time, say, between 3 months and a whole year.
after this period is over, israel removes military forces from the area and palestine gets its independence. a government, possibly elected during the interim period of israeli decolonization so that they would be prepared, takes over.
poof! two countries! and, while they still may not like each other, at least the likelihood of rocks and missiles flying through the air would diminish.
biggest obstacle to this plan working? jerusalem.
and there are several solutions to that problem. namely, three: split it, share it, or make it independent.
my vote is for the first option, considering the city is already partitioned. as long as tourists and pilgrims could get in and out to visit the various religious sites with ease, this seems the most viable.
sharing the city would never work because i don't see them agreeing on how to run it. and an independent or u.n.-mandated jerusalem would just be a smaller, probably more violent, version of what is going on throughout the whole area at the present time.
so . . . in summary, brian would:
1) give the gaza strip and west bank to the palestinians after a period during which israelis may choose to leave or stay (a new palestinian government would be elected during this period, as well),
and
2) divide jerusalem east/west on the condition that everyone can get across the border with relative ease to visit the temple mount and other religious sites.
does that really seem so hard?
both sides just need to realize that they can't reasonably (or peacefully) have everything they want and learn to compromise. and, considering the palestinians have continuously gotten the short end of the stick since israel's conception, i think they deserve their independence.
anyway, that's my opinion on the subject. take it or leave it.
salaam and shalom,*
bk
*i put these in alphabetical order . . . just so no one can get offended at which came first.
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6 comments:
Yeah... unfortunately the Palestinians and the Israelites probably wouldn't even agree to something reasonable. At least not for long. Anyhow, I have very little interest in this subject, but since you do, you should check out the documentary Death in Gaza if you haven't already. I saw it in my summer class and it was pretty good. It kinda bothered me that they didn't have the chance to film Israelite children like they had planned (which you'll understand why when you see the movie), but other than that it was good.
Anyhow, thank you very much for your comments. I appreciated it, and I think I'll have to agree with you. Sometimes I forget that doing things for God is NOT the basis of my relationship with Him. As I more or less stated, that's the way I tried to do it this last year, and it didn't work so well.
Ok, now I have written you a novel of a comment, ha ha...
so.
i don't know a whole lot about this subject (other that it's been going on forever).
as soon as i started reading, for WHATEVER reason, the song "He's got the whole world in His hands" started playing in my mind, lol.
I want to actually respond to this at some point, but for now I just wanted you to know how proud I am that the "Brian King Kenobi" name I gave you is still living strong. Own it!
Long story short, I disagree. Sorta.
I think that would be a reasonably solution. I'm going to take what Halfpint said a step further with the assertion that neither party will EVER agree to a reasonable solution like that, and that this is both due to their head butting and what Biblical prophecy looks like.
Israel is a bit of a weird case, in that it is SUPPOSED to be a religious government but really isn't. It is probably the only country in the world that I would make the argument in favor of a religious government for. They may CLAIM that is what they are, but they are frankly just as if not more secular than virtually every other government in the world.
And finally ... anyone who thinks that the Palestinians will settle for this is delusional. Give them and inch, they will want the mile. There is virtually no way that they would stop at the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It would be like giving someone a free first hit of drugs, they are going to come back expecting more. Likewise, splitting Jerusalem would do little but anger BOTH sides.
The thing that most people miss out on is that there will NEVER be LASTING peace between Israel and her neighbors. Sure, cease-fires and treaties come and go, but it was ordained LONG ago that she will be in a constant struggle with the nations. Rationality and analysis on our part isn't going to change a God-ordained trial for a nation.
Again, just my thoughts as well. :-)
I think that I agree. Carpet bomb the entire place. Done and done.
hi!!! hows it going?!? yea, i think the theme for VBS is a beach theme. I'm working Trinity's and not Belle Aires. Belle Aires is like some sorta lab thing.
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