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Sunday, May 27, 2007

40 years after Israel's victory in the Six Day War, no sign of peace

The Economist memorializes Israel's victory in the Six Day War of 1967 with this story in which the headline reads: "Israel's Wasted Victory; Six days of war followed by 40 years of misery. How can it ever end?" From the Economist:

Is there a way out? Yes: but making peace will take courage, and too much of the energy that should have gone into peacemaking has been squandered on the blame game. There is, admittedly, plenty of blame to go round. What right had the British, in 1917, to promise the Jews a national home in Palestine? Why did the Palestinians reject partition in 1947? Why did Israel colonise the territories after 1967? Why did the Americans let Israel get away with it? Why did the Arab states leave the refugees to fester in camps? The Palestinians are terrorists, Zionism is racism, Israel's enemies are anti-Semites. Yasser Arafat should have accepted Israel's “generous offer” at Camp David in 2000. But, hang on, Israel's offer was not so generous...

So what to do? You should read the article to find out how the magazine comes to this conclusion, but here it is:
For peace to come, Israel must give up the West Bank and share Jerusalem; the Palestinians must give up the dream of return and make Israel feel secure as a Jewish state. All the rest is detail.