Gaza

Israel/Palestine appears to be the most perennially frustrating, tangled and difficult-to-debate issue on the planet. But the way forward is actually quite clear and attainable. Israeli novelist Amos Oz has a good piece in today's Times.

Comments

[Jamie]

Everyone says that Netanyahu is playing into Hamas's hands by further isolating Israel from international opinion, but really that is the strategy of militant Zionists as well as Hamas. Constant, aimless warfare that generates isolation, fear and anger is all either side has to offer its constituents. Both sides willfuly ignore the necessity of a two state/two Jerusalem solution because their power comes from a militarized population. If there were peace for a week in Israel/Palestine, both sides would elect borderline-socialist governments that reflect the values of the population when they aren't worked into a frothy-mouthed frenzy. Hamas and Likud would both be out on their asses and have to fall back on some sort of retail operation in Hoboken.