Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Israeli/Palestinian Peace Talks
This article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7252305.stm discusses recent Israeli/Palestinian attempts to formulate a plan for peace regarding Jerusalem and the creation of a Palestinian state. Tension has dominated the peace talks and increased with militant activity in Gaza and the Israeli plan to build a number of homes in East Jerusalem. Both sides hope to reach an agreement soon before negotiations become improbable. Many wonder what a peace settlement between Israelis and Palestinians would look like because Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be their capitol while Israelis claim the entire city. It seems that peace talks like this are ongoing in the Middle East yet never resolved. Does anyone know more about how many attempts have been made to negotiate peace among Israelis and Palestinians?
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2 comments:
All I can say is that I don't see any lasting peace coming any time soon...Jewish extremists have even killed their own leaders when such peace appeared imminent (you can read about it in some of our class readings). A belief that promoting peace through concessions to the Palestinians undermines the promises made by God to Israel is one way to keep the Jewish (at least radical Jews) people from conceding to any demands from Palestinians.
Peaceful coexistence would be great, but both sides are so fundamentally opposed in their goals that it does not currently seem possible...even if certain leaders of the two sides seek lasting peace, factions within each decrease the possibility to achieve peace.
I agree with Luke that the problem to finding peace is due to each side's diametrically opposed goals. It is hard to blame just one side, although Israel certainly has a stronger position from which to negotiate. As far as attempts made to negotiate peace go, to date the UN Resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), the Camp David Peace Accords (1978), Venice Declaration (1980), Madrid Talks (1991), as well as Oslo I (1993) and Oslo II (1995) have all failed to bring peace to the region. The ultimate goal of the Palestinians is to create an independent Palestinian state, which Israel will never allow. So the peace talks continue.
PL SC 474, the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, deals specifically with this subject and is a great class for anyone who's interested.
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