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A New Peace Mindset Is Needed

(New Republic) Ari Shavit - Despite the personal determination, intellectual commitment, and diplomatic dedication of the extraordinary American peace team, Israelis and Palestinians are as divided as they were a year ago and a decade ago. Jews and Arabs are deeply suspicious of one another and do not agree on the fundamentals that could make peace a reality. Why did the 1993, 2000, 2007-2008, and 2013-2014 peace initiatives not bring about peace? Because as solution-oriented Westerners, we did not wrestle seriously with the fact that the conflict did not begin in 1967 and that it would not necessarily end with the resolution of the problem that 1967 created. We dismissed the possibility that the Palestinians are victims of an anachronistic political culture whose negative ethos makes it especially difficult to offer the concessions required to reach a historic reconciliation in this day and age. A new peace mindset is needed, an enterprise designed to reach peace gradually rather than instantly, an endeavor that replaces the castle in the sky of formal peace with the tent on the ground of a de facto peace. It will focus on fostering the conditions that will allow the two states to evolve and flourish side by side.
2014-04-30 00:00:00
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