The complete idiot’s guide to Middle East peace (part2)

War and rumours of war.

The Russians invading/liberating Crimea, Israel earmarking billions for a possible attack on Iranian nuclear assets, the Syrian debacle still ongoing after four terrible years and then, of course, there’s the small matter of that much older conflict between Palestinians and Israelis to throw in for good measure.

It’s as if everyone has been living in a time-warp, an endless cycle that repeats itself over and over again. The mistakes of the past continue to reoccur and never once is anything new revealed, recognised or acted upon.

Now it may be possible to excuse the Russians for their actions; their revolutions tend to be few and far between and, for most of them, it’s often just a case of ‘follow the leader’ in any day-to-day dealings with the outside world.

The Iranians could still be suffering from some kind of inferiority complex. They may be out to prove themselves heavyweights in the region now that American intrigues no longer control their destiny.

The Syrians are caught in the vice-like grip of a civil war with additional pressure from two, maybe three versions of Islamic extremism. I don’t think anyone there knows how to determine what will be the eventual outcome.

So, what about the Palestinians and the Israelis? On the face of it, there doesn’t seem much hope for them either. 66 years is a long time to remain harnessed to any dispute, especially one that has claimed so many lives on both sides. Yet no solution has surfaced, nothing beyond the constant blaming of each other for the situation as it appears to them. Pointing the finger still seems to be the only game in town.

And what about the rest of us?

In every one of the above scenarios, there is this feeling of impotence, an inability to sense what is the right approach, the best course to take, the maximum return for the least amount of interference. Sanctions, threats, appeals for tolerance, financial inducements, military assistance; all these make matters so much worse and compound scenarios already deeply in crisis and desperately looking for a way out.

The question then is this: Could such an escape route ever be created, an exit clause formulated that is sufficiently robust and universally applicable in whatever class of national/international emergency appears upon the scene?

Only one candidate so far.

www.laxiankey.com  – ‘for those of us with better things to do.’

And, if you can think of any other, don’t be shy about coming forward.

In such matters, we human beings will take all the help we can get.