…is the sine qua non of any serious peace agreement in Israel:
The Irish no longer care. They are neither Catholic nor nationalistic. The IRA thugs of 1970 came from four-child families. Today the Irish have fewer than two children on average. Let the matter simmer for another twenty years, and the Palestinian Arabs will look more like the Irish of 1996 than the Irish of 1970. At that point, the “narrative” will change, because no one will care about the old “narrative.”
In the meantime the Israeli settlers have built a garden and a workshop where before there were bare rocks, and thriving communities that are integral parts of Israeli society. It takes longer to get crosstown in Manhattan in traffic than it does to drive from the center of Tel Aviv to Ariel, the largest town in Samaria. This is yet another accomplishment of Jewish ingenuity and industriousness, and it is (or should be) an inspiring example to all who hope for a better life for the peoples of the Middle East. We will know that the Palestinians want peace when they admire rather than abhor this effort.
As science progresses, so also peace will come to that region, funeral by funeral.
[Update a while later]
Related: The daily lies about Israel.
Yeah – we Jews were pretty dumb after the ’67 war. That war miraculously gave us a chance at real security. The Israelis should have done what every other nation in the world does after winning a war: decide what they need and enforce it. In this case, that meant immediately annexing whichever parts of the West Bank that they felt were essential to their security. Palestinians in those areas should have been given a choice: Become citizens now, swearing loyalty to the new government, or leave. [Of course, traditionally most nations would not offer the first choice at all; India and Pakistan just tossed tens of millions of people of the wrong religion out of the areas they annexed.]
Instead, Israel decided that they represented the United Nations. Instead of annexing land that didn’t belong to them, they decided to occupy it, and hope the Palestinians would become nice. That worked about as well as anyone with a brain would expect: they became trapped in a situation that has no possible exit plan. Everyone suffered, most of all the Palestinians. “Those who are kind when they should be cruel…”
Sorry – according to Wikipedia, it was five million people moving each way in India and Pakistan.
Peace would come even faster by means of a few million cremations. Simultaneously.
Speaking as the child of persons displaced to settle the last really big war, I find that remark offensive on many different levels.
By common-law inheritance from my German-speaking maternal grandparents, I have a claim to a parcel of land and its improvements in Vojvodina, Serbia. Are you prepared to help me press my claim for title to the property or for compensation?