Author: John Poris While showering this morning (I do a lot of thinking in the shower!), it occurred to me that although “the world” keeps talking about “The Peace Process”, it isn’t really a “Peace Process” as much as it is a demand for Palestinian statehood and a way of kicking Israel in the teeth.
Why do I say that, you might wonder.
Think about it.
In all the demands and proclamations from world leaders, there is very little ever said about “Peace”. There are demands for Palestinian self-rule, for withdrawals by Israel from territories most of the world seems to think should belong to the Palestinians, reports showing that the Palestinians are ready for a state, concern for the citizens of Gaza and demands that Israel not defend itself adequately, but there really isn’t a lot of clear support for “Peace”, which to me means an absence of hostilities, neighbors living side by side, helping one another, cooperating economically and socially, sharing common resources (like water), and generally living “peacefully”.
“Peace” means no rockets and mortars flying into Israel from the Palestinian state, a fact no one seems to be willing to address (or even cares about). If Gaza is part of a Palestinian state, shouldn’t Israel have assurances that the shelling from Gaza will end and the Gazans will be on board with recognizing the peace? I think so, but clearly, that just isn’t going to happen anytime soon, especially considering that Hamas has told Abbas not to even attempt to visit Gaza because A) they have nothing to talk about with him and B) they cannot guarantee his safety.
Unfortunately, I do not believe that the rush by the world to declare and implement a Palestinian state is consistent with my understanding of “peace” as described above, or with the definition of peace below.
How will declaring a Palestinian state ensure peace, especially, as seems likely, it will be done unilaterally without ever sitting down at the table with Israel? The short answer is that it won’t.
Such a Palestinian state, declared unilaterally, will almost certainly, immediately upon its conception, like Gaza, be in a state of war with Israel. Isn’t that the opposite of peace? Why are we, as a world community, so in favor of that?
Definition of “PEACE” (from the Merriam-Webster dictionary)
