Peace at last

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed he is willing to start peace negotiations with the Palestinians “at any time and at any place.”

He’s not the only one — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is trying to sell peace to the Palestinians, and the U.S. is helping with the talks.

And yet, for all the positives — Netanyahu stopped building projects in the West Bank while the Arab League is endorsing talks — I can’t help but look at this skeptically.

How many times have we been close to peace between Israel and Palestine? Oslo Accords, anyone? What about the turmoil after the Camp David Accords? And yet, Yasser Arafat continued to allow guerilla attacks, Menachem Begin started housing projects in the West Bank and Yitzhak Rabin and Anwar Sadat were both assassinated.

Every time peace talks happen, agreements are signed, or leaders take the step of shaking each others’ hands, and then something goes wrong. No peace has ever lasted.

Even if Netanyahu and Abbas want peace, even if they’re generally supported by the Knesset and the Arab League, there are powerful groups that are definitely against it. Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist group that took control of the Gaza Strip in summer 2007, regularly sends bombs over the border and insists that peace talks are only a “cover” for Israel to commit crimes against the Palestinians. The right-wing Jewish group Shas makes up an important part of Netanyahu’s support in the Knesset — it was a Shas official who announced the East Jerusalem building project without Netanyahu’s knowledge during U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s visit in March. These two groups, at least, don’t trust the other side enough to condone peace talks.

It would be nice if Netanyahu and Abbas were able to work out their issues and come to some agreement, if they made the decision to stop antagonizing each other and making unrealistic demands, if they could forge a peace despite religious extremist opponents on both sides.

But every time peace talks are attempted, something goes wrong. Every American president for decades has hoped to help create a lasting peace, and none of them have done it. It has been predicted that World War III will start in the Middle East.

Pre-World War I Balkans was the “Powder Keg of Europe.” Now, the Middle East is that powder keg — ready to blow at any second. One wrong move by any group — the Israelis, the Palestinians, Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria — and all hell will break loose.

I try to be an optimist and hope with all my heart that this time, at least, there will be peace. But there are so many things that can go wrong, so many factions that have an abiding hate for each other, that it’s hard to believe that peace will come this time.

Even if the governments are willing to work together, there are still the Israelis and Palestinians, many of whom will oppose the compromises that the other side demands.

After all, Rabin and Sadat were assassinated by their own people.


E-mail: hanns@indiana.edu