Daniel Katz's 2nd: Conflicting Perspectives- The Peace Process and Gaza

This past week I have seen two different perspectives in regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

One perspective was from a documentary I watched about the current situation in the West Bank and the work of the former Palestinian Prime Minister, Fayyad Salam. With the security barrier and the occupation zones in the West Bank, most Palestinians are discontent and yearn for independence and international recognition, as do many left-wing Israeli factions. These groups want to bring peace and independence via peaceful means, such as building up infrastructure and utilizing media. Many in this camp are optimistic for the future with the recent recognition of Palestine as a non-member observer by the UN. A different perspective can be seen in areas near Gaza, which are far wearier of a fully independent Palestine. Groups such as Hamas have bombarded this region of Israel with rockets from Gaza. The town of Sderot over the past 10+ years has been bombarded by 26,000+ rockets alone, according to the IDF liaisons officer that spoke to our group. This has made people from this area of Israel weary of peace negotiations, which is why many people in towns such as Sderot vote for more “hawkish” political parties that emphasize on a more hardline policy towards Palestine.

These two perspectives create a dichotomy. On one hand, there are people who a highly interested in peace and are using peaceful means to achieve their goal. One the other hand, there are people who show no interest in attempting negotiations, either too weary or believe that the other side has no legitimacy to exist to begin with. How does peace, or even negotiations come about in such a situation?

I see several factors that would play into potential peace. On the Israeli side, a settlement freeze would need to happen. Israel does not need Palestine, for if they annexed it, the country would be just barely a Jewish majority state and perhaps eventually due to birthrates could potentially cease to be one in the future, not to mention the moral qualms I and many others have with annexation. On the Palestinian side, Hamas and other fundamentalist organizations need to go. Israel cannot negotiate with organizations that do not see Israel as valid, to the point were they are potentially encouraging genocide and the use of violence against civilians.

While these changes would not likely result in a solution to the conflict, it would be a major first step in building up trust between Israel and Palestine, which, in my opinion, is much needed.