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However, it seems that the main question now is not if but when will a Palestinian State be created, and how many innocent lives must be lost before both parties accept this division. The Palestinians need to realize that their audience is not the Israeli government, or the Muslim world, but the USA which wields the most power in the region, and need to find a way to initiate effective pro-Palestinian lobbying in the USA. If in this way Americans become convinced that the plight and grievances of the Palestinian people are so tremendous, they will inevitably respond with compassion and resolve to fully advocate a Palestinian state. Unfortunately, many Palestinians have taken the opposite approach and have failed to grasp their audience. Those few who believe they can achieve anything in killing Israeli children in malls or teenagers in discotheques, are only acting in their own detriment, by cementing the belief of several politicians in the West (and particularly the USA) that Palestinians are terrorists and that all Palestinians want violence and all Israelis want security. Whilst the Palestinians have no voice to in the USA, glossy and slick American-accented Israeli spokesmen pound their views into the American media that it has become American policy that “they won’t condemn the terrorism”, “they aren’t doing enough” and he “walked away from the deal of a life time”. All are lies or half-truths, but they have worked. It is important that all Palestinians realize how to achieve their goals without further inducing a gap between themselves and the USA. They have to gain the moral high ground. When a group are found to be participating in manifestly evil acts such as suicide bombings, they should all, including the politicians, move against those in their number who perpetrate and support them, because failure to do so would be heavily criticise and is simply wrong. The Palestinians politicians and people would then have to present unambiguous messages on television would have to be used to show the Western World that almost all the Palestinians are against this type of violence. Then if a foreign reporter caught pictures of Israeli gunfire resulting in scores of dead unarmed men, women and children, the USA would be compelled to withdraw its unilateral support of Israel and press more strongly for the two-state solution. Unfortunately, in the Islam-misinterpretation that some Palestinians subscribe to, such an action on their part would violate their subconsciously established taboos of submission and acquiescence.
However, I personally believe there is hope for the future. As long as more and more of the ordinary people of the Israeli and Palestinian factions start doubting their respective government’s policies, eventually the two groups will make peace. There is evidence that Sharon’s popularity and that of his expansionist “greater Israel” agenda is rapidly going down, as moderate Israelis are getting tired of the constant suicide bombings, and of hearing so many sterile descriptions of the atrocities being inflicted on the Palestinians to the extent that they view their own army with abject disgust. There is evidence of the Palestinian people wanting desperately for the corruption to end, the suicide bombings to end, the occupation to end, want to fully recognize Israel’s right to exist and to achieve peace and attempt to rebuild their lives.
And now to bring in a cliché which nevertheless makes a point that so many choose to forget. At the end of the day, we are all human – and are all fundamentally the same. We have our own little quirks and nuances but we share so many dreams, hopes and fears. If you have a one-sided viewpoint in this argument then you are forgetting this fact. As humans, we have a responsibility to determine whether something is wrong or not, and saying that one evil justifies another makes us inhumane.
I ask you please to make any comments you wish to make. If you gently feel I have been wrong in my assessment, have stated something which is not true or if you simply wish to shout at me please feel free to. This was a quickly written, first version of this essay and I wish to modify it extensively depending on further developments and on people’s opinions. If you feel I have been biased, rest assured that I have no allegiance to either side and if you feel that I have concentrated too much one side of the argument, mention this to me and I shall try to make amends, or preferably please advise me on what needs to be added.
The Middle East conflict has been one of the most controversial issues over the last fifty years. It has particularly dominated the newspapers and television screens of the whole world since the launch of the Palestinian Intifada. I have spoken to a tremendous number of people where I live in the United Kingdom and have consistently been taken aback by the partiality of the people I have spoken to. Almost everyone seems to be either pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian, with so few having a balanced argument. My aim in this essay is to provide a balanced argument which looks at both sides of the issue. The comments I make are not each and every one my personal opinion, but collectively they represent my stance, that only when discussing and understanding both viewpoints can we begin to claim to have a balanced argument. This is a very long article that may be hard (and controversial) reading, but it is primarily intended as a resource and not an essay – and for ease of reading has been split up into four sections: Israeli, Palestinian, media and conclusion.
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N Gadd
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Feedback I have received N Gadd | Jun 5th, 2002
After receiving much feedback from many people about this article, I must say that there are a few striking omissions that I have made and these will be addressed before the second version, because I agree with them completely.
Firstly, it is increasingly evident that the first steps for peace have to be taken by the Palestinian Authority and that only when the terror networks are destroyed can anything positive happen.
Also, a very important issue is that in many Palestinian schools there is substantial hate-mongering, and blaming of all of the Palestinians' problems on the Israelis. Clearly the brainwashing of the Palestinian youths is another huge problem.
Looking at both sides, I have also forgotten to mention the dehumanization which allows either side to not feel guilty when they are committing all sorts of crimes. This is much more pronounced in the case of the Palestinian suicide bombers who think they are serving a just cause by murdering innocent civilians, or carrying out actions which are for the greater good, but we must also mention the prominent Israeli politicians such as Ehud Barak who make statements like "all Arabs are liars", a racist dehumanization which is the pretext of so much discrimination.
Other mistakes N Gadd | Jun 5th, 2002
I have been reliably informed by one of my friends who is a Zionist that Zionism is not expansionism (which is what I have equated it with in my essay) but rather the legitimate desire for a safe Israeli homeland. Hence I must apologize for this error.
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