A letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair, February 2002
It is of course extremely difficult to resolve the conflict between Israel and Palestine. But at the same time, extremely vital it is to resolve it in order to bring stability, not only to the region, but also to the whole world and specifically to the West.
Revenge will only breed revenge, and hostility will cloud all reasoning and induce actions basing on emotional instincts. The coping strategies adopted by warring parties have proved to be fruitless. As the struggle for power, domination and existence have exhausted all available patience, and mutual understanding on the part of the power- holders to resolve the issue; the time has come for the extensive external elements and like-minded victims on both sides to intervene to resolve the crisis.
It should be noted with caution that there are, and there will always be powerful elements within and outside, who benefit in many ways in keeping the conflict protracted. These elements though appear to be sympathetic, have no regards to the causes of the conflict or to the sufferings of victims, but only in pursuing their own interests. As there is consensus in the agreement of acceptance of mutual existence, establishing and maintaining sustainable structure of power sharing mechanism is what is essentially required.
Since Two Nations One State governance is out of the agenda, the establishment of an independent State of Palestine is the only available option. Though animosity, suspicion and conflict between the two nations have biblical history, the history also reveals their brotherhood. Now it is time to bring about change through hearts and minds, realising the fact that, resolve is out of reach of the barrel of the gun. It is again to be well understood, that, suppression of a struggle and oppression of a nation, by exercising of power will only saw seeds to the growth of determined resistance, which would strike unprovoked attacks with a potential to produce heavy damage. Further suppression would only increase the determination for resistance. As such determined minds have the capacity to propagate and spread very fast, it is always advisable to defuse these minds by peaceful means and reconciliation to attain normalcy.
Yet again it is to be noted that, though not an established fact, but there is a growing suspicion of a conspiracy theory, of the intention of the establishment of One-World Government, with a Single Community throughout the world. While the present state of a Global Chaos pointing towards that theory, we have to be optimistic while considering pessimism.
The US and Britain are considered to be the driving forces, which could at least reasonably attain some balance in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But, while US in a warring path to eradicate terrorism by its unilateral military might, and, Britain on a sensitive wall between its own consciousness and the need for being in the corridors of power to maintain its global status, whereas the UN is in a state of paralysis, the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is escalation unhindered. And the world is opting to just watch with no one to intervene to defuse the situation. As it is established with the recent events, only power-holders of the world has any stake in dictating the terms of reference to any events between States or Nations.
In such a critical situation, I feel, only a few people who have the courage to boldly intervene can bring about at least some form of normalcy towards achieving a lasting peace in the region and alleviating the misery of many human beings like you and me and specifically the less fortunate.
Demonising and dehumanising of each other will not help in bringing these biblical brothers closer. Israel trying to influence America and Britain against Palestine and isolate Yasser Arafat will be the biggest mistake Israel makes. If America suspends diplomatic relations with Yasser Arafat, it will lose, the already strained sympathy for its fight against terrorism, and co-operation from many Arab nations, and, even head for a split in European coalition. Visualising a scenario in the region without Yassar Arafat as the head of the Palestinian Authority, with the hard line stance of Ariel Sharon and unilateral approach of George Bush (Jr); the Middle Eastern region especially in Israel and Palestine will be volcanic.
If the international community is genuine in resolving the conflict –as it is a necessity for international security, an amicable solution has to be extracted between Israel and Palestine, with Yasser Arafat in power, as only his moderate stance will be fruitful for a sustainable resolve.
Proposals:
1. As Jerusalem has religious importance for both, which none of the parties in conflict will yield for any negotiation over Jerusalem, and the fact that this protracted conflict is based on religion ideologies, the only viable solution has to be that neither Israel nor Palestine should consider making Jerusalem the capital. On a matter of religion importance, I strongly believe that Jerusalem should not be made a commercial or political centre moving it away from its holiness. As Jerusalem has the potential to invoke friction and conflict, Jerusalem will, be better off and able to preserve its holiness under UN protectorate.
2. Even if a political settlement is drawn, it will be difficult to bring the suspecting nations with bitter experience for generations together. As political masters and military geniuses will have little knowledge of community living at the grass root level, sustainable co-existence with mutual and improved understanding, and value for diversity in spite of fundamental religious ideologies can be achieved only with the involvement and participation of like minded grass root communities of both sides. Community development and community empowerment have to be considered as valuable and vital tasks for maintaining sustainable and harmonious co-existence to bring the communities closer.
3. Extreme right wing and fundamentalist elements on both side have to be excluded in every stage of the process of negotiated settlement and should be contained.
4. As has been visible in the World Conference Against Racism in Durban that Rabbis joined the Palestinians in highlighting their struggle and their cause, it is to be understood that there is avenue for mutual understanding of the need for co-operation and co-existence.
By G.A.Lux.Anandarajah