Are 'we' defeated? The Israel-Palestinian Affair

21st century humanity has yet to see peace in this part of the world. Though we have seen Bosnia be ravaged in a way not seen since the Second World War; it is now at ‘peace’, though losing a generation in the process, whether it was with the cost of their lives or their sanity. There is an old Chinese adage, “may you live in interesting times”; it was meant as a curse.

We certainly continue to live in interesting times.

I have been considering the following:

- Decline in American hegemony
- Israel’s weakening economy
- Israel’s considerable lower birth rate especially in comparison to Palestinian Israelis
- Increase in specifically Jewish criticism of Israeli policies in and out of Palestine
- Growth of anti-Israel sentiment in the political scene among the civilian population
- Israel as only being a state for the Jewish peoples contradicting values of democracy

The last two points are crucial. Though a two-state solution is often put forward, it is a shame serious negotiations do not commence for the sake of the future of Israel. Israel is not a theocracy but it is a state which was engineered on Zionist principles; for the sake of a specific people to the exclusion of another. Though this is not the first time a nation has risen to the detriment of another native people as we all would testify, it is not an excuse for moral laxity. At the end of time we will all be judged.

Palestinians have got nothing to lose; they have the last 100 years as stamina for what they are currently going through. However, the social dynamism among Jewish peoples themselves is changing with far more becoming more sceptical of Israeli policies and with decreasing migration rates into Israel. Should the demography of Israel change, over the next 25 years, could a one-state solution be a possibility with Jews and Palestinians vying for election? Far fetched.

In this instance though the Palestinians maybe suffering a slow death, with little or no food or medicine the very nature of the human need to continue living, to be resilient, doesn’t make them defeated.

In the same instance the government of Israel’s policies though has only alienated itself on the world stage and is contributing to the growing criticism within its own borders has not been defeated.

The hope of millions around the world for peace, people who know that for the sake of the continual existence of a secure Israel and our moral imperatives towards the Palestinians, this hope cannot be defeated; hope which has a strong foundation with a blatant truth, a truth which is the reality of the existence of each other. Yet, peace continues to elude us.

One wonders short of a Palestinian genocide, if a two-state solution is not reached sooner rather than later does Israel risk becoming the 1st ‘developed’ failed state?