Why two perpetually hostile states?

Submitted by Brad Cox (United States), Jun 10, 2003 at 11:40

What I fail to understand is why everyone assumes that the only imaginable "solution" is dividing into two mutually hostile states. Unless the underlying grievances are addressed, I simply cannot see how this would avoid future conflict, this time with modern weapons instead of Palestinian rocks versus Israeli tanks.

Notice that there is no objective reason, no physical law of nature, that says Israelis and Palestinians couldn't obtain 100% of what each side wants by simply coexisting as blacks and white coexist in the U.S. The only loss is that both sides would have to suppress the urge to discriminate against the other, the very urge that has fueled this conflict until now.

For a more complete discussion of this approach, see http://virtualschool.edu/mideast. Comments are welcome, especially constructive ideas for how to move either/both sides to even considering this approach.

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