In my honest opinion, nothing anyone does will return any sort of peace to that region. Kicking out the Jews and restoring Palestine would be a crime against the Jewish who have been living there for 70 years; not restoring Palestine would be a crime against the Palestinians who lived there before that. Israel is unwilling to compromise at the current time, and the Palestinian people are controlled by a pseudo-terrorist group. Anti-Semitism abounds in the surrounding countries. The US supports Israel in all of this. Thousands, possibly millions have died because of this.


Too bad politics doesn't have a "reset button," eh? Oh wait, they do, it's the red one that launches missiles.


So what solutions do you see? I proposed a secular state roughly where Israel/Gaza are now, with a religious city of Jerusalem ruled by a joint Muslim-Jewish-Christian council, but no one seemed to be very enthusiastic. Does anyone have any other solutions? 'Cause aside from what I just said, the only other solution I see is the nuclear reset button, and I'm not sure if using it will just restart the program or wipe the hardrive. So please, does anyone have any compromises that might be feasible?

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An' it harm none, do as ye' will.


Never argue with an idiot. He'll just drag you down to his level of intelligence and beat you with experience.

I have nothing, but I really expected a picture of a bomb going off.

I considered it, but I decided a serious topic was in order. However...




Happy now?

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An' it harm none, do as ye' will.


Never argue with an idiot. He'll just drag you down to his level of intelligence and beat you with experience.

Much better.

A good start would be ending the US's unconditional support for Israel.

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"Have you no decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
-Joseph Welch

But I'm serious. What can be done? I want your opinions, and I'm not looking for radical "Israel must be abolished!" or "Muslims are evil!" responses.

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An' it harm none, do as ye' will.


Never argue with an idiot. He'll just drag you down to his level of intelligence and beat you with experience.

I was being serious.


(seriously, can we get a :p smilie that's not dead?)

__________________
"Have you no decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
-Joseph Welch

You posted while I was posting. (I agree)

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An' it harm none, do as ye' will.


Never argue with an idiot. He'll just drag you down to his level of intelligence and beat you with experience.

Peace is possible.

On the Palestinian front, the average Palestinian voter is largely supportive of a two state solution. While Hamas is currently closed to holding political talks with Israel, Abbas is certainly willing to talk. Hamas' actions since the 2006 elections have caused a huge split in the party and a large change in Palestinian attitudes towards the political party in general. the radical portions of Hamas have been largely marginalized within the new unity govenrment and radical politicians have little sway within the West Bank. While Gaza may be off limits for now Israel certainly has a partner for peace in the West Bank.

Now is the time for peace to occur. With Hamas broken like it is if Israel was to hold productive talks with Abbas that resulted in a free West Bank the radical parts of Hamas would be marginalized in any future unity government and the secular Fatah would have a huge boost in support and Hamas would lose support in Gaza as conditions improved dramatically in the West Bank.

The problem now is Israel, and Israel's willingness to talk about the issues. As I showed in my private debate thread Israel purposely halted the Road Map with the Gaza Pullout Plan.

The beauty of this though is that western pressure on Israel to comply with the Geneva Conventions and to hold talks with the Palestinians forced Israel to act. While it wasn't in the direction that we wanted, international pressure forced them to act none the less.

It is in this pressure that I place my hope for peace in the Middle East. This pressure and the moderate Palestinian voter is what I am counting on. The chance may be small, but the seeds for change are there.

Don't discount the moderate Israeli voters. Israel is hardly internally unified in this regards.

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"Have you no decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
-Joseph Welch