Victor Davis Hanson: A Modest Proposal for Middle East Peace. U.N. need only take five simple steps

NRO ^ | January 29, 2008 | Victor Davis Hanson

[Tolik]

There seems to be a growing renewed animus against Israel lately. Arun Gandhi, grandson of the purported humanist Mahatma Gandhi, thinks Israel and Jews in general are prone to, and singularly responsible for, most of the world’s violence. The Oxford Union is taking up the question of whether Israel even has a right to continue to exist. Our generation no longer speaks of a “Palestinian problem,” but rather of an “Israeli problem.” So perhaps it is time for a new global approach to deal with Israel and its occupation.

Perhaps we ought to broaden our multinational and multicultural horizons by transcending the old comprehensive settlements, roadmaps, and Quartet when dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, a dispute which originated with the creation of Israel.

Why not simply hold an international conference on all of these issues — albeit in a far more global context, outside the Middle East?

The ensuing general accords and principles could be applied to Israel and the West Bank, where the number of people involved, the casualties incurred, and the number of refugees affected are far smaller and far more manageable.

Perhaps there could be five U.N. sessions: disputed capitals; the right of return for refugees; land under occupation; the creation of artificial post-World War II states; and the use of inordinate force against suspected Islamic terrorists.

In the first session, we should try to solve the status of Nicosia, which is currently divided into Greek and Turkish sectors by a U.N. Greek Line. Perhaps European Union investigators could adjudicate Turkish claims that the division originated from unwarranted threats to the Turkish Muslim population on Cyprus. Some sort of big power or U.N. roadmap then might be imposed on the two parties, in hopes that the Nicosia solution would work for Jerusalem as well.

In the second discussion, diplomats might find common ground about displaced populations, many from the post-war, late 1940s. Perhaps it would be best to start with the millions of Germans who were expelled from East Prussia in 1945, or Indians who were uprooted from ancestral homes in what is now Pakistan, or over half-a-million Jews that were ethnically cleansed from Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Syria following the 1967 war. Where are these refugees now? Were they ever adequately compensated for lost property and damages? Can they be given promises of the right to return to their ancestral homes under protection of their host countries? The ensuring solutions might shed light on the Palestinian aspirations to return to land lost sixty years ago to Israel.

A third panel would take up the delicate issue of returning territory lost by defeat in war. Ten percent of historic Germany is now part of Poland. The Russians still occupy many of the Kurile Islands, and Greek Cyprus lost sizable territory in 1974 after the invasion by Turkey. The Western Sahara is still annexed by Morocco, while over 15 percent of disputed Azerbaijan has been controlled by Armenia since 1994. Additionally, all of independent Tibet has been under Chinese occupation since 1950-1. Surely if some general framework concerning these occupations could first be worked out comprehensively, the results might then be applied to the much smaller West Bank and Golan Heights.

In a fourth panel, the international conference should take up the thorny issue of recently artificially created states. Given the tension over Kashmir, was Pakistan a mistake — particularly the notion of a homeland for Indian Muslims? North Korea was only created after the stalemate of 1950-3; so should we debate whether this rogue nation still needs to exist, given its violent history and threats to world peace?

Fifth, and finally, is there a global propensity to use inordinate force against Muslim terrorists that results in indiscriminate collateral damage? The Russians during the second Chechnyan War of 1999-2000 reportedly sent tactical missiles into the very core of Grozny, and may have killed tens of thousands of civilians in their hunt for Chechnyan terrorists — explaining why the United Nations later called that city the most destroyed city on earth. Syria has never admitted to the complete destruction of Hama, once home to Muslim Brotherhood terrorists. The city suffered the fate of Carthage and was completely obliterated in 1982 by the al-Assad government, with over 30,000 missing or killed. Did the Indian government look the other way in 2002 when hundreds of Muslim civilians in Gujarat were killed in reprisal for Islamic violence against Hindus? The lessons learned in this final session might reassure a world still furious over the 52 Palestinians lost in Jenin.

In other words, after a half-century of failed attempts to solve the Middle East crisis in isolation, isn’t it time we look for guidance in a far more global fashion, and in contexts where more lives have been lost, more territory annexed, and more people made refugees in places as diverse as China, Russia, and the broader Middle East?

The solutions that these countries have worked out to deal with similar problems apparently have proven successful — at least if the inattention of the world, the apparent inaction of the United Nations, and the relative silence of European governments are any indication.

So let the international community begin its humanitarian work!

Greek Cypriots can advise Israel about concessions necessary to Muslims involving a divided Jerusalem. Russians and Syrians can advise the IDF on how to deal properly and humanely with Islamic terrorists. Poland, Russia, China, and Armenia might offer the proper blueprint for giving back land to the defeated that they once gained by force. A North Korea or Pakistan can offer Israel humanitarian lessons that might blunt criticisms that such a recently created country has no right to exist. Iraq and Egypt would lend insight about proper reparation and the rights of return, given its own successful solutions to the problems of their own fleeing Jewish communities.

But why limit the agenda to such a small array of issues? The world has much to teach Israel about humility and concessions, on issues ranging from how other countries in the past have dealt with missiles sent into their homeland, to cross-border incursions by bellicose neighbors.

No doubt, Middle East humanitarians such as Jimmy Carter, Arun Gandhi, and Tariq Ramadan could preside, drawing on and offering their collective past wisdom in solving such global problems to those of a lesser magnitude along the West Bank.

 — Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and author, most recently, of A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War.

[Tolik]

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[Freee-dame]

bump

[Louis Foxwell]

sarcasm off (or should we leave it on?)

[ZeitgeistSurfer]

The world still needs scapegoats and Jews fill that role perfectly. Nothing ever changes.

[3AngelaD]

That is one of the most incredible works of sustained sarcasm I have ever seen. Too bad its targets have no sense of irony.

[Tolik]

“sarcasm off (or should we leave it on?)”

I don’t know. Too many otherwise good people in Europe and here succumbed to anti-Israel propaganda and take seriously UN and Arabs’ claims. When in reality the U.N. is a joke, and the whole “Palestinian” problem is a cruel joke played on them by their Arab “brothers”. They were consciously sacrificed as pawns in the larger game, and their lives are a tragedy of human waste. With brainwashing that intensified since Oslo joke, a generation has grown believing any vile lie about Jooos, and mothers are claiming happiness when their kids are blowing up other kids. Its surreal.

[A_perfect_lady]

I have a solution and it’s way simpler. Israel should declare a Palestinian state. Then declare war on it and bomb it to pieces, with the remark: there’s more where that came from.

[RKV]

Vic has forgotten completely about events in Africa in this piece. What’s happened in Sudan, Rwanda and Zimbabwe should be included, as well as others.

[quant5]

I believe the dozens of biblical prophecies relating to Israel regarding the last days.

In general Israel is prophecied to be gatherered from all the nations and will stop being trampled on in 1948 (it happened according to Daniels calculations in 1947). Israel gets attacked by a massive ME army supported by the Chief of Russia. This is the war of Gog and Magog in Ezekial. God says He puts a hook in the mouth of these nations to attack Israel so that when Israel defeats this army all the nations will know that God exists and that the people of Israel are blessed.

Nothing we do under the sun will change what will occur for this particular event. It is stated to occur and God further mentions that nations that get involved will be like having a millstone around their necks. That those whom bless Israel shall be blessed and those that curse Israel shall be cursed.

I have learned over the years that much of prophecy is statistical probability based on septillians of variables. When enough variables occur like a sequence of numbers on a vault, the event will occur. Prophecy with a specific warning to take action occured a few times in the bible. Those that heeded survived although many went through some difficulties. For end times prophecy, Christ said to keep awake, pay attention and prepare ourselves like a waiting bride. I assume they dressed in white in those days as well.

[SJackson]

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[RobbyS]

I am sure the irony is lost on the sophisticates of England and America who are so strongly devoted to evenhandedness. /s

[The Pack Knight]

Any country in Europe would do the same if they were made to suffer from their neighbors what Israel has to deal with on a daily basis.

[RobbyS]

Jews have not helped themselves by their divisions. Israel has never come to terms on the crucial issue of religion. Zionism was basically a form of national socialism, in the sense that the Labor Party is very much like the Labour Party in Britain. In Israel religion has played a much greater role than the founders anticipated in large part because of the non-European immigrants, but the country is ambivalent on the ancient faith of Israel. Some religious leading even wonder if the foundation of the state was inopportune. One thing that might save Israel is for it to become a member of the EU, maybe as part of a package that would bring in Turkey. Maybe Islamism is now too powerful a force for that to happen.

[Iron Munro]

[wizr]

Thanks for the pings. Please, keep me on your list.

It is difficult for me to respond to VDH’s articles. While I understand his thoughts, his intellect is difficult for me to comment on.

In this case, the the United Nations, as well as the MSM, treat Israel as the cause for the woes of the Middle East.

Actually, hatred, anger and envy rule countries where God has been reviled. I mean the true God, not men who have attained power through their “wisdom”. The God that embraces love, truth, and freedom to chose. Not those that rule through fear and obsessive laws.

Hope I haven’t rambled too much. You got my comment, and my support.

Thanks

[MARTIAL MONK]

Middle East peace in five simple steps.

1) Nuke Iran
2) Nuke Syria
3) Nuke Pakistan
4) Nuke Saudi Arabia
5) Nuke the Emerates

See, it's easy.

[norton]

"That is one of the most incredible works of sustained sarcasm I have ever seen. Too bad its targets have no sense of irony."

....or shame.

[Billthedrill]

The sad part is that the UN has taken up many of these questions with the results that VDH cites - in effect, none. What is curious is that people still believe in the value of international consensus and negotiation at all in the face of its unimpressive track record.

It seems fairly clear to me that the desired solution on the part of the most ardent internationalists is one that would seem unthinkable twenty years ago, and that is the Final one. I say this with no intention to exaggerate. The problem all along was that the blood happened elsewhere - in a ditch in a forest, in a camp behind barbed wire - that same insulation is no further away than one's television off button. A world that looked on while 900,000 people were butchered in Rwanda may not be able to ignore the death of 11 million but it can certainly comfort itself with the rationalization that they had it coming.

This is a very disturbing thing to state publicly and I am most uncomfortable doing so. But the drumbeat of propaganda that created an atmosphere in 1930's Europe of a blanket of Jewish oppression stifling that continent seems to me difficult to distinguish from the current one with respect to the Middle East. That sort of skewed, comforting fantasy world tends to have drastic consequences for those who embrace it as reality and worse for those who aren't to be allowed to exist within it.

[evets]