The Beginnings Of A Real Middle East Peace-- Written One Year Ago Today

 A mutual friend of mine and Martha recently asked what our thoughts were about how to resolve the issues of the Palestinian people. We discussed it, and she asked me to write up what we discussed. It's not comprehensive, but hopefully at least coherent, and represents our thinking. Comments, suggestions, questions are all welcome. 

[It's a very complex issue as you know. My perspective would be immediately junk the entirety of the Trump/Kushner/Saudi/UAE train wreck of secret agreements, as well as moving the US Embassy back to Tel Aviv. Start from square one.  

We need to put the "Two State" solution back in play. If it were possible to undo the entirety of the ugly legacy of Likud and Netanyahu, that's where I think we need to start. I would immediately demand a halt to new Israeli settlements and begin gradual withdrawal from the West Bank as a first step. Palestinians would be asked to reciprocate the Israelis with security guarantees. (its unclear though what Agency could effectively represent the Palestinian people at this point due to factional division. They would have to resolve that on their side) 

I would like to see a return to the approach of the Rabin-Arafat Oslo accord. The Palestinians cannot be treated as a vanquished people and given "take it or leave it" ultimatums as they were by Kushner and Trump. Remember also that Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated by Israeli religious fanatics who were incited by ultra religious Rabbis and Netanyahu himself. This problem of the Israeli ultra religious parties, is as big a threat to peace in the region as Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, etc. 

Ultimately, negotiated peace agreements based on divisions of land and power sharing won't hold up, unless coupled with real large scale economic development in the region. As JFK once said, "a rising tide lifts all boats". The biggest requirements in the region are water, power, and decent housing. Instead of IDF tanks demolishing houses and schools, they should be doing the opposite.

I believe that making a durable peace should not be contingent on resolving the status of Jerusalem. We should get our embassy out and go back to the status quo for a long while, until a generation of trust building enables all parties to discuss it rationally, free of the religious fundamentalist insanity. 

Finally, I urge you to look outside the box at the history of the region, and see the evil role of the British Empire and its "Great Game". What most people see as an Israeli-Arab conflict is actually historically a manipulated religious and ethnic conflict, in which the British used their well known assets and methods to do what they did to divide India, China, South Africa, Ireland, and yes, the USA through their backing of the Confederacy. (see the post WW I "Balfour Declaration)

The British Empire's drive throughout the 20th Century  to control Oil, the Naval choke points, the overland trade routes through Khyber Pass into the Indian subcontinent, the Suez Canal, have been one big geopolitical chess game in which they orchestrated conflict in order to grab resources and fuel their Navy. Israelis and Palestinians have been used as pawns in that game.

Once you think that through, then you can begin to design an equitable plan for war avoidance and development in the region which breaks the geopolitical great power game. That Great Game is still the operating policy matrix, except it is now under the rubric of Samuel P. Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations", a blueprint for global religious conflict in the tradition of the evil H. G. Wells. (about which I'm currently writing)

However, If you listen to Biblical Archeologists, Pastors Imams and Rabbis arguing over theology and scripture and let them determine the region's future, that is a prescription for war and devolution. 

There is a lot of material on YouTube you will find outlining long standing plans for a kind of super TVA project in the region, which would massively expand fresh water for consumption, irrigation which would create vast new potential for arable land from the deserts, electrical power, housing, schools and hospital clinics. The only thing holding it back is credit, technology, and fanaticism. The potential is phenomenal, once we clean out the Trump/Netanyahu-Likud/ Saudi Axis of Evil.

Let the Europeans manage the Iran situation, don't walk into the trap. And most of all, kick the chess Board off the table, put an end to the British Empire Great Game. Then, the Palestinians can partake of the progress which they have been denied for so long.]