These negotiations ended when Israel refused to continue a limited curb on the building of settlements in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel. This created a set back for negotiations because Israel refused to back down even though the international community deemed it illegal. Since Palestinians want to make these areas their state, they want to end negotiations to stop what they see as a land grab. Now separations is more difficult than ever with half a million Israelis living in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
As an alternative to more negotiations, Palestinians may go to the UN and the security council to try to make the UN recognize a Palestinian state in their three desired territories. Unfortunately for them, the US would probably veto the move and end that option. Basically, the fate of Palestinians (and Israelis) is in American hands.
Do you think that it is good or bad for Americans to have such a huge amount of responsibility for a conflict that is honestly really none of our business. On on hand, the US could benefit from more friendly foreign relations, but on the other hand, a bad outcome would reflect badly.
Also, in this case, what would you do to solve this ongoing problem that has lasted for years. Is war going to be necessary in the end, or can these two peoples find a way to coexist in peace? If you believe peace is not possible, which side is more justified?
3 comments:
This is always a difficult topic to debate about. In my opinion, war is not necessary in this case. It's difficult to say it never is. There's that cliche quote: "war doesn't solve anything"...although there is already enough debate about that. In fact, war was what got a good deal of this conflict started in the first place. After the 6 day war, the Israelis had captured more land that the Arab states could have anticipated. And alas, we have our conflict. I wouldn't say the fate of the Palestinians and Israelis is completely in the United States' hands. However, we are very involved. The US has interests in Israel and its location and there is doubt that the US would be uneasy to allow the Palestinians to have a spot in the United Nations if Israel does not agree whatsoever. So of course, it is bad for Americans to have such a huge amount of responsibility. Then again, it has become our business. One could say it did not use to be, but the US is hardly an isolationist nation at this point in time, so we could have a potentially good, bad, or nonexistent effect in this conflict (the latter, however, is unlikely). Peace is possible, just difficult to attain. Neither side is more justified, although, it is quite aggravating that Israel continues to build despite disapproval from the international community. I'm stuck on this one.
To me, it seems like the U.S. is once again biting off more than it can chew. The U.S. isn't in the best of shape right now, so I think government should focus on solving its internal problems before trying to tackle those of another country. But addressing the Israeli/Pakistani conflict, I agree with Conor in that peace between these two groups will be very difficult to attain. I personally don't believe a full-scale war will be needed to achieve peace, but I feel that this conflict will continue on for years to come.
Like Conor and Tiffany, I also believe that peace between the Israelis and Palestinians is possible, but "very difficult to attain." I don't think either group is more justified, and war is definitely not the answer. Throughout history, war has been constantly used as a mechanism to settle disputes, but nobody really wins in a war. I don't remember when I heard this last year, but both sides lose in a war. The "winner" is just based on who loses the least. Especially in this case, no matter which side "wins" the war between the two groups, both groups would have lost lives, and neither would be satisfied. Disputes and wars between the Israelis and Palestinians has been going on for what seems like ages, and, as Conor pointed out, "war was what got a good deal of this conflict started." War won't be the answer because the side that loses the most would not yield, especially after all these years of fighting. Although I do think that the alternative to war, negotiation, is the solution to this conflict, negotiations are going to be extremely difficult. The distribution of Israelis and Palestinians will make the negotiation of any possible land distribution very complicated.
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