Palestinians V. Israelis

I wrote this article 8 years ago, nothing has changed since that time. see for yourself.


Chicago-July 15,2002.It makes no difference whetheryou are a Palestinian or an Israeli male orfemale ,young or old,rich or poor,Czar or streetvendor of any walk oflife- you always are more than likely bewilling,ready,and able totellingly disclose to any one willing to listen to youany time any where ananimated convincing forensic argument about your longstanding dispute withthe other side.Each side usually contends that they did all that cando to attainrapprochement but the other side is either unwillingor unable toreciprocate.The Palestinians accuse the Israelis of beingrapacious while the Israelisaccuse the Palestinians of being bent on thedestruction of Israel.The Palestinians say that they have given the Israelis78% of what used tobe called historical Palestine and they will be fullysatisfied with gettingthe remaining 22% which in essence consists only ofeverything Israel tookduring the 6-day June 67 Arab Israeli war.Israelis say that they aren't interested in governingthe private affairs ofall of the 3 million Palestinian people and willing togrant them their ownautonomy provided that they don't exploit theirfreedom to launch freshattacks on Israel.The Palestinians say that they aren't interested in noautonomy and wantfull fledged sovereign state with all the perks thatcome with it such asborder control plus independent internal as well asexternal Palestinianself managing state affairs.Israelis say that such a state of affairs would posegreat danger to itsvery own existence since the Palestinians would floodtheir putativelyindependent territories with weapons and people andeventually regroupmulling the re-taking or possibly pulverizing all ofIsrael.The Palestinians dismiss this notion as totally absurdsince Israel has thefifth strongest army in the world,it couldn't beeasily defeated by a newlycreated atrophied state.Israelis say that the Palestinians will not stop shortof annihilating everyliving Israeli all the way to the last one of them,thePalestinians say thatIsrael will keep expropriating land and buildingsettlements on their landuntil there is no land left to negotiate about and thedream of creating aPalestinian state will turn into a mirage.The Israelis say that they gave the Palestinians thebest offer there is togive in camp David II and the Palestinians not onlydidn't offer anycounter proposal they went back instead to violenceand killing which theirleader 'Arafat' vowed in the Oslo accord to neverutilize as an option.The Palestinians say that they were duped into signingan interminableaccord similar to bottomless pit with fire walls builtall around it toprevent any possible satisfactory outcome.The Israelis say that the Palestinians aren'ttrustworthy and thereforecould never be left unchecked & the Palestinians saythat the Israelis wantto transfer them out of their ancestral land so theycould have a Jewishonly state with no one else to share it with.What it all amounts to is that both parties are lockedin a virtualinternecine dueling.The Palestinians aren't going to give up any time soonor perhaps ever,theIsraelis will continue to prevaricate in hope that thePalestinians willwear themselves out and resign to fait accompli.The united nations,the European union,and the UnitedStates combined andseparately have tried with all their negotiatingskills to find a happymedium to satisfy the contending rivals but thus farall their effortsproved to be in vain.The question then become,how do you crack thejuggernaut!! or better yet,howdo you reconcile the irreconcilable differences?Is there anything out there that can be explored butfor one reason oranother it some how unwittingly got overlooked?Will any one of us be around to witness the hope thatwas so much visible inthe early nineties and quickly dashed away before theclosing of themillennium.We hear about the Mitchell,the Tenet plan,The Saudiplan,the Bush visionplan,the convening of international peaceconference,the Mubarak time tableplan,to many other miscellaneous unofficial floatingall over the placeplans.What is so ironic about all these plans is none ofthem proved to besatisfactory enough to be adopted by the parties towhom it supposed tohelp.The Israelis say that the Palestinians have tostop all their violenceand reform all their institutions before Israel willcontemplate any kind ofpolitical movement.The Palestinians say unless you show them some kind oflight at the end ofthe long tunnel they will continue to believe thatthey are resistingoccupation and their resistance is a legitimate rightguaranteed to them bythe international law.The Israelis say that they can't think straight whiletheir citizens arebeing blown away by suicide bombers while riding busesto work or school orwhile having Pizza at a parlor.The problem gets more intricate and heavily compoundedby the presence ofextreme elements on both sides of the fence.There is a minority among the Israelis that believethat all of the landshould be in the hands of the Israelis and all of thePalestinians should bekicked out completely to other parts of the Arab worldand by the same tokenthere are extreme elements among the Palestinians thatbelieve that theIsraelis are foreigners to the land of Palestine andthey must be kicked outat any cost even if takes hundreds of years.The majority however according to ongoing reliablepolling statistics fromboth sides believe that the Palestinians and theIsraelis should be separatebut equal.The Palestinians say that they have extendedolive branches fromtheir side long enough to circulate the entireuniverse time & again,but allthey got in return is fig leaves that give them pseudoimpression about afuture state in the apogee.Circumspection say that one can't lose hope and let godespite the failureof all previous attempts.The United states of America being a friend of thePalestinians and theIsraelis alike can and should impose a de factosolution as prefatory way ofgetting the parties out of the mess that they gotthemselves into,andconcurrently impose a de jure permanent accord basedon all theaforementioned peace plans combined.There is no one fit all type of solution.PresidentBush's vision to themiddle east is a good blue print for moving forwardbut it lacks a road mapthat gives the Palestinians a glimpse of hope that theday to livingoccupation free is nearing any time soon.There is no justification for the current impasse,aconsensus must bereached in order for the Palestinians and the Israelisto get their livesback on track.They have tried war and they tried peace,one needs toask-which one is morepalatable?Do the Israelis & the Palestinians have thewherewithal with thehelp of the United states acting as an honest brokerto get it done?Theanswer is a resounding yes.