The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is taking a dangerous turn, given Israel's adoption of a rigid stance that can completely disable the peace process in the region. Israel should not be left to decide alone on the course or the future of peace in the region.
Tel Aviv has taken gradual, yet consistent steps to enforce its own narrow definition of peace which comes as a major setback for the entire process, not least thanks to the current ultra-conservative and extremist government, which is re-defining what it considers appropriate and suitable in terms of how peace should be pursued as a policy. But in so doing, it is only maintaining its own objectives in the bargain.
The latest statements by Israel's vice-prime minister and a number of lawmakers from the ruling Likud party indicate a shift that would bring about dangerous outcomes for the entire region. This group has proposed 'alternatives' to the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. It translates into the annexation of additional parts of the West Bank and placing the Palestinian population living in these areas under Jordanian jurisdiction. Vice-Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said that the "Western way of thinking has proven irrelevant and dangerous to this region".
There is no question that such thinking is as dangerous to the region as it is to the rest of the world. This approach not only erodes all the previous processes for building peace, but creates a fertile environment for instability. It also shatters any hope of bringing about any just or sustainable peace.
The people in the region should not pay the price for extremist positions. It is high time therefore, that all the major powers come to accept the bare truth about Israel's inability to forge peace and change it once and for all.
© Gulf News 2009
