27 April 2007

Latest Book

Building on my Dershowitz collection, I'm currently reading his 2005 work, The Case for Peace. The book was written after the death of the greatest barrier to peace in the Arab-Israeli dispute--Yasser Arafat--so it has a sense of renewed optimism that peace via the two-state solution can finally be achieved. I'm only in the early going so far, but I recognize many of the key themes that also appeared in The Case for Israel. This is not entirely surprising, as I've come to notice that what is in the best interest of the Jewish state coincides with what is best for a stable, lasting peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

This subject is one area that I feel I've come to understand much better in the past year or two. I feel comfortable engaging in debates on it (which I did yesterday over at Cherniak's, though a rebuttal post to a commenter advocating a one-state solution was apparently lost to the Blogger gremlins), and I have more confidence that the points I seek to make are valid and well-founded. It is a very controversial topic for some people, and one of perpetual frustration for others. But it is an important issue that needs to be resolved because far too many lives have been lost needlessly when the alternatives to peace appeared to be more in the interests of some parties than to others. It is criminal that the dispute wasn't resolved in 2000, and every life lost is a consequence of Arafat's decision to not make peace.

With him gone, and a more moderate Palestinian government in place--Hamas' participation notwithstanding--there should be a renewed push to achieve peace and the two-state solution. The road-map that was introduced in 2003 needs to be picked up again, and both sides will have to make painful concessions in their negotiations in order to fulfill its objectives, but getting half a loaf and peace is much better than seeking more than half a loaf and getting only more conflict.

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