Getting the act together
‘PA tells Kerry no to framework deal in current form’ Times of Israel: February 14, 2014
https://www.timesofisrael.com/pa-tells-kerry-no-to-framework-deal-in-current-form/#ixzz2tIoZ2DDm
Mr. Kerry does seem to have his hands full with this one.
His real problem with planting the seed of peace firmly within the seemingly barren soil that is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may be this:
To make that seed compatible with what’s already there in the ground, it must first adapt itself to a more specialised diet, feeding off whatever meagre nutrients are still to be found in so impoverished an environment.
The environment:
This has remained essentially unchanged (and unchallenged) since its inception; a land over which decades of violent contention and futile argument have never ceased to rage. Peace, real peace that is, has yet to make any lasting impression upon its blood-stained surface.
The old seed:
This has proved impossible to germinate in conditions dead set against the acceptance of any peace settlement whatsoever. In turn, that factor has led many to relinquish all hope for a successful outcome in a growth medium of such exceptionally poor quality.
But could this be because everyone has been using the wrong kind of seed, opting for types unable to face, let alone endure, the ravages of so hostile a climate?
The new seed:
With enough of this hardy specimen spread throughout the entire length and breadth of this much disputed territory, peace will soon start breaking out all over. Indeed, peace may intrude so much that a certain nostalgia for the ‘good old days’ might develop and linger in small segments of both communities..
Even the most idyllic scenes of harmony, coexistence and communal interaction could conceivably offend the sensibilities of some people, those more familiar with the hatreds and divisions of what, by then, could quickly have become the ‘bad old days’ of former times.
Best to be doing something before it all becomes too late to do anything.