Another No Man's Land

The historic conflict over the Gaza strip hardly stirs anybody anymore, except of course the Jewish lobby in the US Congress. There is a decent amount of media coverage of the new developments and the ongoing outbreaks of violence, but the international public does seem to be too concerned with the issue.

This is what happens with historic conflicts: people are either fed up with constant reminders by the media about the problem or they are so frustrated by the fact that no one has come up with a viable solution that they choose to ignore the problem altogether. Still, during the past four years there were a number of decent attempts to resolve the issue.

Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan offered some light in the tunnel. Despite the controversy of the measure, the large majority of the Israeli electorate supported it. Unfortunately, as it usually happens with democracies that are far from being fully-fledged, there was no one to execute the popular will after Sharon’s dead.

The road map that the international community so eagerly proposed was another viable and much needed solution. However, as time passes it becomes more and more clear that both sides are anything but prepared to make the hard-core commitments that the road map requires. Naturally then, all the proposals for the establishment a single state or dual state remain unfeasible. The ongoing violent incidents during the Oslo Peace process made it all the more clear that the idea of mutual compromises is very far-fetched one.

I want to end this post by a quote by Bruce Barton, which vary much refers to the meaninglessness of the fights for the Gaza Strip,” What a curious phenomenon it is that you can get men to die for the liberty of the world who will not make the little sacrifice that is needed to free themselves from their own individual bondage.”