(Foreign Policy) Douglas J. Feith - Actually, recognition of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem is unlikely to have a major effect on peace one way or the other. First of all, there has been no serious diplomacy for years. And secondly, the conflict is about much more than Jerusalem. Let's be clear on why there is an Arab-Jewish conflict over Palestine - and why it has lasted for more than a century. At the heart of the matter is the conviction that all of Palestine, like all of the rest of the Middle East, belongs exclusively to the Arabs and it is an unendurable and uncompromisable injustice for Jews to exercise sovereignty on Arab land. Tactically useful peace agreements may be permitted, but permanent peace with Israel is not. This is a philosophical point rooted in both religious and nationalistic principles that are widely held as sacred in the Palestinian community. U.S. officials will be able to help end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict only if they actually grasp what the conflict is about. The writer, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, served as the U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy in 2001-2005.
2017-12-13 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive