Try-partite solution will not work

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Feb 3, 2017 at 22:30

Dear Dr Pipes,

The fourth solution suggested by Moshe Ya'alon's is a pipe dream that will never work. What makes anyone think that we can bring Arab states to work to bring peace between the (so called) Palestinians and Israel? If that solution were possible, why no one tried it during the last several decades? If Palestinian people and Arab states were interested in peace and economic growth there are hundreds of ways in which they could have achieved that (consider the case of Sindhi Hindus and Punjabi Sikhs/Hindus who established themselves as astute businessmen all over the world after India's partition left them homeless).

Islam is a political movement (in addition to being a religion). One of the primary interests --if not the foremost interest-- of Islamic politics is to increase its influence and grab land. The primary interest of Palestinians and their backers is to permanently destroy Israel. Islamic theocracies of the word have not recognized Israel till today. Iran has even declared openly that it wants to push Israel into the ocean. Is there any reason to believe that Arab states do not want to eliminate Israel completely?

So what is the solution? No one knows if the US was rich or poor (compared to other nations of that time) when it won its independence. Still US chose the inconvenient path of democracy and separation of church and state. India obviously was (and still is) poor at the time of her independence. But India also chose the inconvenient path and declared herself a secular democracy. Palestinian problem is not that of poverty or economic development. It is a problem of resolve! Muslims will also have to choose the inconvenient path. Muslims will have to declare that they care for freedom of thought, democracy and they respect all religions including Judaism. That declaration should be our goal. And that declaration will solve the Israel-Palestine problem and it will also solve tens of other problems in the world. Which Muslim in the world will stand up and make that declaration? Which Muslim will become Islam's George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King?

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