Jimmy Carter recently took a lot of flak for using the apartheid analogy in describing the Israeli-Palestinian "relationship." Israel/Palestine is one of the thorniest issues on the planet and, frankly, I find it hard to wrap my emotions around any "good guys" among the contending factions - except for a handful of people on both sides who are essentially powerless. But anyone who thinks that "apartheid" is too strong a word to describe the subjugation, occupation and incursion by Israel's army and settlers with their claims on land into the Palestinian territories should read this story in today's New York Times about a road from Ramallah to Bethlehem being constructed in the West Bank - one side for Israelis with numerous exits to allow access to settlement areas and Jerusalem, one side for Palestinians with few exits, and a wall down the middle. This isn't a road - it's a metaphor.
I'm not going to write a long "what is to be done" commentary, because I honestly don't see a solution to a mess that just gets worse as the years pass. It may be past any time for a solution acceptable to both parties. Some problems do indeed get worse. Tragedy and disasters ensue. While there's plenty of "blame" on both sides, if one simply wants to parse failures of leadership, intransigence and violent excesses over the years, there is absolutely no excuse for Israel's West Bank settlement policies or the continuation of this occupation over forty years. Nor is there an excuse for the United States toleration of such. We can't dictate Israel's policies, but long ago we should have made a continuation of aid contingent on negotiation and withdrawal. By now it may well be too late for reasonable, pragmatic people to prevail on either side.
UPDATE: If you're interested in some bleak analysis on the current cul de sac occupied by Palestinian White Hope Mahmoud Abbas, "Rootless Cosmopolitian" Tony Karon offers his depressing and utterly convincing perspective here.
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