Long Term Peace

While attending university, I paid witness to many demonstrations. Some were effective while others resembled parties. The most divisive issue always concerned Israel and Palestine. The Palestinian people have suffered for generations under occupations administered by Israel, Egypt, and Jordan.

Aside from my personal opinions about Palestinian leadership, lets focus on their real problem, that being the lack of a single political party capable of controlling military operations within their territory. In modern IR, a sovereign state must control the lines drawn on the map (as it relates to other states. Internal struggles are not in question here). If it can not, responses to military provocation are the subject of international scorn while rogues prowl the unattended grounds of 'gray territory'.

Palestine is actually in a relatively strong position; Hezbollah has recently reminded the world of its capability to create havoc while undermining democratic Lebanese leaders, although this may backfire by reminding Americans of the puppeteer. The Lebanese government is democratically elected, but like many other 'democracies', is not a representative democracy. Demagogues, fire-spitters, and hate-mongers reign supreme in much of the Middle East and that has caused some to state 'peace is impossible, the region doesn't want it, the people aren't ready'... Boloney.

Asked: Would you support endorsing a Palestinian constitution before the creation of the State of Palestine? Of 286 polled, 80.41% said yes, 14.68% no, and 4.895% didn't know. Even if elections would be held under Israeli occupation, 56.25% answered in the affirmative. Aljazeera wrote, "With hours to go before the start of the Palestinian legislative elections (in January), voters and candidates are hoping that the polls will be fair, free, and above all peaceful." - Palestine prays for peaceful polls.

Recent fissures in Palestinian politics have been apparent for some time now and without a functional government, there cannot be a two-state solution. Mr. Bush is the first U.S. President to explicitly call for a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians must support peaceful politicians in order to attain that state. Statehood is their surest path to peace.

The borders of a possible Palestinian state are tricky and I worry about repeating the history of East Prussia; from 1919 to 1939, it was separated from the rest of Germany by the Polish Corridor. If Gaza remains disconnected from the West Bank, will it foment more long-term animosity?