John, let me respond to the first part of your post --- my contention about "forcing" peace on the Israelis/Palestinians.
As I see it, the State of Israel is a "phenomenon" which arose out of the Second World War in response to the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis and the lobbying pressure of Zionists in various countries, especially the US and Britain, which had preceded that for many years on account of anti-semitism in Europe. It is necessary to recognize that Israel is not a religious but a political event, in fact, the religious Jews are totally opposed to its existence. Indeed, and as we have seen, if Israel has one function, apart from it being a "national home for Jews", it is to maintain US hegemony in the region.
As we know, Israel was "created" by the UN de-novo, in 1948, on land which was once part of the Ottoman Empire and which was, at the time, settled by Arabs known as Palestinians. At the time the region was under British "mandate". For this reason, I contend the responsibility for what should be Israel and what is to become Palestine does not rest with the desires of the Israelis and/or the Palestinians but with the UN. It is also clear that, after more than 50 years, the parties themselves are unable to come to a solution, whether by conflict, peace process, suicide bombs or whatever.
So, it's my view that the UN has to determine and insist on the boundaries and terms of co-existence for the Israelis and Palestinians which was the basis for the creation of the State of Israel in the first place. It's also perfectly clear that despite violations of numerous UN resolutions by Israel, the UN is unable to enforce these resolutions. That's where and why I see force was and is needed. The basis for its use is already there.
Anyway, it's now also clear, firstly, following Israel's contempt for the UN resolutions and, secondly, following the US' contempt for the Security Council over Iraq, that the UN is effectively defunct. We have seen that unless the US is prepared to back up the UN resolutions with force no-one else is prepared to do it. And, it's also perfectly clear that the US will never use force to compel Israel to abide by any UN resolution.
So, we are left with the impasse where the UN can't, the US won't --- and Israel is showing the finger.
I trust you can see I was not being "idealistic" --- in fact, I was pragmatic, as I said. In a nutshell, I expect the UN to put its "money (or whatever) where its mouth is". |
