No buffer force, IMHO, certainly not foreign forces. look at what happened to the UN "buffer force" in 1967, it was debuffered as soon as the Egyptians felt they are strong enough to try again. For the next 50 years, at least, the only solution is a strong Israeli military, and then a Palestinian state, leading to, IMHO, eventually a local economic federation of one kind or another. On the way to a permanent solution, a massive effort of education (yes, propaganda, after all, the hate was seeded with propaganda, why should not the mutual understanding and respect be seeded in the same fashion?) The only solution long term to the ME problem is the growth of a strong middle class in the region. People on full stomach rarely go on barricades for trivial reasons.
At the time, when thinking how to handle the Golan heights, I came up with a crazy concept, as part of a peace agreement with Syria, Israel should cede the heights to Syria, but lease it back from Syria for 100 years, with well defined goals of mutual cooperation and economic development (the "need" to cede comes as a respect for a still deep feeling of powerlessness in Arab countries that despite their superiority in armament and man power, they have not been able after 50 years to defeat the determined Israeli, personally, I see no difference between the Golan heights and Sakhalin In Japan and Kaliningrad taken from both taken from the defeated Japanese and the Germans by the soviets). The penalty for Syria not executing a given part, meaning the permanent loss of a chunk of that piece of deserted land. There can be arrangements such that Syria gets 50% of all "tax collected" in the heights, gradual resettlement of Druzes and Arabs there and other negotiable terms such as joint economic development zones etc. After 100 years of cooperation, the Israeli and Arabs surely can achieve the type of mutual respect and cooperation the German and French have accomplished between them 20 years after the end of their mutual conflict.
Zeev |
