What's in a Word: "a Continuous State"
The Iranian issue has captured the headlines recently because its the most high profile case at the moment. This is probably good news for some people like Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad who recently decided to talk to interrogators on the issue of the Hariri matter. It is also bad news to people like the terrorists who blew the Sinai for the 3rd time in a year, hurting no one but the common people, for their reprehinsible news caught exactly 2 seconds on the news before it faded into dim memory. And so interest of getting back to routine, I will continue with my semi-regular corner of "What's in a Word" offering different perspectives on issues currently dividing the Middle East, particularly the Arab\Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Today's term is: "a continuous state".
In his recent report to the EU, the EU's foreign relations coordinator Javier Solana noted that he sees no possibility for progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process that would lead to a viable solution due to Hamas' recent election and Israel's determination to continue considering the possibility of an additional unilateral move. His idea of a viable solution is the State of Israel living peacefully next to a continuous indpendent Palestinian state. He did not elaborate on that last sentence; particularly what does he mean by "continuous".
It so happens that the occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank are not islands. They are not separated by a sea that would cause the debate to simply focus on territorial waters. What separates the occupoed territories is the State of Israel. This makes the term "a continuous state" quite a frightening one for both sides. For Israelis a continuous Palestinian state means a split Israel and vise versa for the Palestinians.
Israelis might rightfully claim that the two areas were never united except during the Ottoman empire; and that from its break till 67' those areas belonged to two different countries, namely Jordan and Egypt. While this is true, it does not change the situation we are now facing. That situation is that the two areas will become the Palestinian state; and that a solution that would satisfy both must now be found. And just like a solution for the Tample Mount can surely be found, this too can be solved.
Now there might be a lot of good ideas out there; I'll just one example in the hope of provoking discussion. The idea I was thinking of is to simply build an underground tunnel for a train line that would connect the two areas; and that this train would be the PA's responsibility. Now you might all be thinking this is a horrible degrading idea or whatever but stop a minute and think about it: Israel's continuity is kept and the Palestinian as well. What's more, when thinking about this solution, try to ignore its conflict context. It is much like the Euro-tunnel, only instead of the train passing under water; it would pass underground. Now that is only one solution. If you have any more, this would be a great place to sound them up and have others scrutinize it as I hope you will mine.
Tags:
Israel, Palestinians, Peace, EU, Middle East.
In his recent report to the EU, the EU's foreign relations coordinator Javier Solana noted that he sees no possibility for progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process that would lead to a viable solution due to Hamas' recent election and Israel's determination to continue considering the possibility of an additional unilateral move. His idea of a viable solution is the State of Israel living peacefully next to a continuous indpendent Palestinian state. He did not elaborate on that last sentence; particularly what does he mean by "continuous".
It so happens that the occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank are not islands. They are not separated by a sea that would cause the debate to simply focus on territorial waters. What separates the occupoed territories is the State of Israel. This makes the term "a continuous state" quite a frightening one for both sides. For Israelis a continuous Palestinian state means a split Israel and vise versa for the Palestinians.
Israelis might rightfully claim that the two areas were never united except during the Ottoman empire; and that from its break till 67' those areas belonged to two different countries, namely Jordan and Egypt. While this is true, it does not change the situation we are now facing. That situation is that the two areas will become the Palestinian state; and that a solution that would satisfy both must now be found. And just like a solution for the Tample Mount can surely be found, this too can be solved.
Now there might be a lot of good ideas out there; I'll just one example in the hope of provoking discussion. The idea I was thinking of is to simply build an underground tunnel for a train line that would connect the two areas; and that this train would be the PA's responsibility. Now you might all be thinking this is a horrible degrading idea or whatever but stop a minute and think about it: Israel's continuity is kept and the Palestinian as well. What's more, when thinking about this solution, try to ignore its conflict context. It is much like the Euro-tunnel, only instead of the train passing under water; it would pass underground. Now that is only one solution. If you have any more, this would be a great place to sound them up and have others scrutinize it as I hope you will mine.
Tags:
Israel, Palestinians, Peace, EU, Middle East.
posted by The Middle East News Addict at 10:17 PM
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