Seeing the other side's point of view, I

There are two sides to the conflict between the Israeli's and the
Palestinians. It is not simply that one group has all the right on its
side, and the other group has all the wrong on its side. Both group
have some of the right on their side, and both groups have part of the
wrong, and both are to various degrees to blame for the conflict.



Humans tend to have certain shortcomings when responding to a conflict,
particularly if they are close to it - they see in colour, but tend to
think in black and white. Situations are in many cases not so simple as
"good guys versus bad guys", but we often blinker ourselves and refuse
to look at a situation in its full complexity. I do not believe that a
proper solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be found unless
we all take the blinkers off, try to look at the situation from all
angles, understand the arguments on both sides (it is not necessary to
agree with a particular set of viewpoints, but at least make an effort
to understand these views) and engage in discussion.



I will play ``devil's advocate" to some extent on occasion, posting
viewpoints and comments, making comparisons with other situations, to
try to present aspects of the Israeli and Palestinian postions as I see
them in a way that makes it easier for outsiders to understand these
situations. Of course I do not expect everyone to agree with my
pronouncements, so I hope other people will add to our general
understanding by posting their own views as either comments in the
blog, or on the bulletin board. I will also post these statements on
the bulletin board (follow the link below), and the bulletin board may
be the better forum for discussion if a particular post provokes a
large number of responses. To start this off, two comparisons
with imaginary situations in Europe, to try to
present to outsiders the situations of both the
Israelis and the Palestinians as these groups
themselves might see their situation.



Imagine if it were the case with Belgium in Europe that all the other
countries in Europe - Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal,
Holland, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Poland, ... etc etc - wished
to destroy Belgium, had collectively waged a number of wars against
Belgium with exactly the aim of destroying Belgium, and all that
prevented them from succeeding was that Belgium had a powerful
military. This is the situation of Israel in the Arab world - the Arab
world would destroy Israel if it could, has tried to do so in the past,
and all that prevents them succeeding is the might of
the Israeli military. Imagine the life of the people of Belgium,
if they were to look around at all their neighbouring countries and all
of them wanted to destroy Belgium.



On the other hand, imagine if parts of Belgium were occupied by some
militarily powerful neighbouring country, say Germany, that Germany has
annexed parts of Belgium and claims that these parts are actually part
of its own territory, that it has been settling German citizens on
these annexed lands, that its long-term aim is to use military might to
force the people of Belgium to give up this territory to Germany, that
Germany and its allies say that Belgium has no right to resist this
annexation of their lands, that indeed Belgium has no rights whatever
and must accept the situation as laid down by Germany and that any kind
of resistance whatever makes them international criminals. This is the
situation of the Palestinians in relation to Israel.



Of course both these pictures are over-simplifications, but I believe
both accurately reflect to some extent certain aspects of the conflict.
Any opinions and differing views welcome. We probably would all benefit
from a greater understanding of how various people view this situation.



My own opinion is that the only viable solution is likely to be a two-state solution, but also that such a solution has to be fair, balanced and just, and has to treat the rights and freedoms of both the Israelis and Palestinians equally.

If you have comments or suggestions, please post a
comment in the blog, or on the bulletin board - see the link below.

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Remark: The posts relating to Northern Ireland are copies of documents
from the original Cothrom site from the late '90's/early 00's, and are
reproduced just to show what the original Cothrom site was like.