Who Really Holds The Real Keys To Peace In The Middle East?

Most people claim that Israel is the one that holds the keys--after all, so the logic goes, everyone knows what peace is supposed to look like, so let's just get Israel to make the required unilateral concessions and we can all go home.

And yet, after all these years here will still are.

Keeping that in mind, Israel Harel suggests to the US that maybe its the Palestinians who hold the key to peace in the Middle East:

After more than four futile decades of unnecessary pressure on Israel, the Americans should revolutionize their approach and concentrate their efforts on those who hold the key to peace: the Palestinians. True, this is contrary to the opinion of the Israelis that the Americans listen to, but it has traction for most Israelis. Even more important, it is right.


The essence is this: As a first step, the Arabs must be brought to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and as the national home of the Jewish people, in a public and binding way. As part of a peace agreement they must declare, on behalf of all their factions, the end of the conflict between the Jews and the Palestinians and a complete relinquishment of the right of return.

A binding Arab commitment to these three elements will convince many Israelis who today do not believe in the Arabs' desire for peace to reconsider their position. For the Palestinians to accede to the American demand, there must be a revolutionary change of approach in the Israeli "peace camp" as well. As long as the Palestinians know that this camp, which has great media impact in the world, automatically supports them, they will remain entrenched in their refusal. Focusing pressure on the Palestinians will prove that the aim of this camp is indeed what most Israelis have doubts about: peace.

If, as everyone says, Abbas is a moderate who sincerely wants peace--maybe it is time for some evidence for what everyone seems to take as an established fact.

Let Abbas make a move.

After all, as the saying goes: If the mountain will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet must go to the mountain.
Then again, Mohammed did not have to deal with the Palestinian Arabs.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Gaza and Hamas and Operation Cast Lead.