My rather bleak conclusion in this column last week Tens of Thousands May Have To Die (desmondswaynemp.com) has prompted some robust emails from both the supporters of a ‘free Palestine’ and those of a ‘greater Israel’. Which rather re-enforces my prejudice that neither side is ready for the level of compromise required to reach a peaceful settlement.
It strikes me that there are four possible scenarios:
First, a continuation of the status quo with occupied territories, the absence of a Palestinian state, together with the consequential economic disadvantages, intermittent terrorist outrages, intifadas and bouts of open warfare.
Second, The rather unlikely triumph of Israel’s sworn enemies, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, resulting in genocide and the complete replacement of Israel by ‘Palestine’.
Third, the equally unlikely possibility of a single secular state embracing both Palestinians and Israelis, as well as the Arab Israelis.
Or fourth, a two state solution, which is the objective of UK, European, and US policy, with Palestine and Israel both enjoying full statehood and living side by side.
These last two possibilities would require historic concessions of enormous magnitude on both sides. Compromises would have to be territorial and economic. They would be painful and neither side could be wholly satisfied. It would require leadership of enormous courage and vision, neither of which has been in evidence for many years.
Hence my bleak conclusion that killing will continue until there is a willingness to compromise and the leadership on both sides to embrace it.