To me, I think action needs to be taken in order for there to be some sort of peace agreement. But it needs to also be recognized that Israel is not in a position where they can give up a lot of land (especially a big portion of habitable area like the West Bank). The Palestinians in my opinion are an established people, but they are not stable regarding peace with Israel. Even if we give them their own state, what is stopping them from trying to start a war with us and the rest of the Middle East? Israel is the center of a lot of political issues in the Middle East which makes them a high priority target, and a Palestinian state would be one to lead the initiative against Eretz Yisrael.
The point I'm trying to get across is that if we want to recognize the Palestinians as a people they have to act like a people who deserve to have their own state. I think they are because they have developed their own way of how they would want to run a state, but at the same time they do not seem to be able handle themselves as a people who can deal with other states. This makes them seem as a group that would not really be mature enough (for lack of a better word) to control their OWN state. The Palestinians are very close to getting their own state, but they have to start acting as if they already have it to officially obtain it.
Palestinians can try to work for their state as much as they want but if they never really recognize the fact that there will still be other states around them then there is no potential for solution. As of now, the Palestinians remain Israelis in the Jewish state that the Jewish people truly worked for.
I don't think the Palestinians can only be recognized as a people if they deserve to be. Regardless of whether they deserve it or not, they have developed as a people over time, just as every other group of people has throughout history. Also, I think by your logic, that if a government is not "mature" enough to deal with others peacefully, then they don't deserve a country, many of the states in the Middle East shouldn't exist. We recognize Iran as a state, though they don't deal with other countries, especially Israel as we think they should.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ben. After all, A people is in many respects like a single person. They have personalities, quirks, and faults. People have bad sides, and things that aren't that great about them. Since that is the case, I think that we should look at the Palestinian people in the same way. After all, the Jewish people have their faults too. In your blog, you stated that you believe the Palestinians are a people, and I agree with that. Like Ben said, they have a history, a culture, and a language that is just as sophisticated and developed as ours is. Since that is the case, is it really our right to say that they don't deserve their own land? They shoot rockets at us anyway. What difference does it make if they are shooting rockets from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip or from Palestine? In fact, I think that if they get their wish, they would let up a little, even if it's only to regroup and start planning. But if they do that, it will give us time to plan a reaction, and since they would be a legitimate state, while it would be illegal to occupy them, we would have every right to fight back without seeming like oppressors.
ReplyDelete