The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    I Resolve the Middle East Crisis and Win the Nobel Peace Prize

    By Aaron Carine on Wed, 04/30/2014 - 8:33pm |

      Now that Mr. Netanyahu has(indefensibly, I think) pulled out of the peace talks, we are back to square one on the Arab-Israeli conflict.  Although we may not know how to get to a peace settlement, many of us have a clear idea of what a just settlement would look like. So to stimulate a little discussion, I will humbly present an outline of what I think would be the most practical terms on which the sixty-six year old feud could be settled--even though nobody asked me.

    1)  Palestinians get an independent state on all of the West Bank and Gaza, and perhaps a corridor connecting the two.

    2) The Palestinians and the Arab states on Israel's borders sign a peace treaty and normalize relations with Israel.

    3) Jewish settlers in the West Bank who wish to remain may do so, but  as citizens of a Palestinian state.

    4) The small number of  Palestinians who became refugees in 1948 are repatriated.

    5) There is some form of compensation for the rest of the Palestinian diaspora, although if all the millions receive compensation, the individual awards can't be very great.

    6) Jerusalem remains a united city, but with joint sovereignty i.e. it will be administered by both Israel and the Palestinian state(I cribbed this idea from Avishai Margalit).

    7) Once a year there will be a ceremony in Jerusalem to mourn the dead on both sides.

     

     

    Comments

    I just read that the Palestinians just recognized Israel and agreed that there was a Holocaust. 

    I do not recall that these admissions have never ever been made before by the Palestinians. 

    Forget everything else, I just do not recall these admissions ever being made before.

     


    by Richard Day on Thu, 05/01/2014 - 2:05am

    How does your plan legislate for muslim absolutists such as hamas, ISIS, etc.?


    by F Callen (not verified) on Sat, 10/25/2014 - 12:03pm

    Sorry, Callen, I didn't see your comment until now. The peace treaty I'm talking about would have to be signed by Hamas too. But I say that Bibi is more intransigent than the Palestinians, since he is refusing to negotiate, and he has backed off from the two state solution, which many in Fatah support.


    by Aaron Carine on Tue, 12/16/2014 - 9:10pm

    what would happen with water resources? http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.574554

    by rmrd0000 on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 10:29am

    Obviously, they have to let the Palestinians have their own water.


    by Aaron Carine on Mon, 03/16/2015 - 8:44pm

    When I said "the small number of Palestinians who became refugees in 1948", I meant to say the small number of those refugees who are still alive today. Certainly the number of Palestinians who became refugees in 1948 wasn't small.


    by Aaron Carine on Mon, 03/16/2015 - 8:48pm