* Palestinians exist, and shall continue existing. Period. Get used to it.
* If Palestinians shoot at Israelis, Israelis will always shoot back.
* If Israelis shoot at Palestinians, Palestinians will always shoot back.
* Neither side can physically --or from a public relations standpoint -- kill enough folks on the other side to change a damn thing.
Not exactly rocket science, is it?
So when Obama's people sit the two sides down for this little reality chat, here's what they need to tell them:
1. Since Crusader times, Jerusalem has constituted what personal injury lawyers call “an attractive nuisance.” It has sparked murderous religious/tribal/imperialist slaughter for over a thousand years. And it will continue in this vein until it's placed under some form of permanent international conservatorship that maintains the city as an open city for all and any interested parties. If some, say outer Mongolia, decides it wants to declare Jerusalem their “capital,” fine – some landlord will be delighted to rent them all the office space they need. The only rule – no pissing around! Leave everyone else freakin' alone, otherwise you get evicted.
2. If Israel is determined to keep any of the pre-1967 lands on which Jewish settlements now stand, they're going to have to trade it for like-kind Israeli acreage so the Palestinians are made as whole -- or at least as whole as pre-1967 realities allow.
3. The Gaza Strip is another piece of European border-drawing handiwork. And someone has to figure out what to do about it, otherwise this disconnected appendage of it's West Bank parent will remain trouble waiting to happen. A land swap would make good sense, but the exercise of good sense in that part of the world is fiction. Still we can't just allow Gaza to remain a festering hunk of free-floating anxiety. One solution would be to deploy multi-national peacekeeping forces along the Gaza/Israel and Gaza/Egyptian borders. Personally I'd suggest the UN declare Gaza a free-fire economic zone... like Hong Kong used to be. No taxes, no import/export duties, turn Gaza into that region's Hong Kong for commerce, banking and shipping. Because there's nothing like a place where folks can double a buck or shekel overnight to foster peace. After all, war is simply bad for commerce.
4. Finally both Palestinians and Israelis must be told that whatever inward immigration on either side has to be absorbed and supported by their respective governments and within their internationally agreed upon borders. No more biblical/koranic title reports used justify hostile claims to the other guy's hunk of sand.
So, as you can see, I'm not taking sides here at all. Frankly I've had it right up to here with both sides. Getting between them is akin to trying to sort out a spat between your teenage kids;
“I was minding my own business, he started it.”
“ Did not!”
“Did too!”
“Did NOT!”
“DID TOO!”
“Arggggggggh. I've had it with you two. Both of you, to your rooms. You're grounded until further notice. Both of you! NOW!”
And that's precisely what the new Obama team needs to tell them, both of them. And this time, mean it.
Oh, and one more thing. While I'm digging my rhetorical grave on this subject, here's some advice for NATO, the US and Russia: no more geo-political redecorating, okay? Leave the world's borders alone. Your sense of Fung Shui sucks.
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