The complete idiot’s guide to Mideast peace – part 191

While Hamas celebrates, Israel focuses on its security | The Times of Israel  ‘Op-ed: The Islamist killers who rule Gaza unfortunately have many reasons to claim success right now. But what Hamas has to say matters far less than Israel’s imperative to end this conflict dependably safer’

But can this conflict ever be ended, dependably, safely or otherwise?

At the moment, the answer must be a resounding no. Nowhere is there anything like an endgame in sight, not even from a vantage point spanning years, decades and, quite possibly, generations.

No matter what each side does or proposes to do, the result is always the same. More misery, more pain, more destruction and more terrible memories to add to a store already well beyond its maximum capacity.

For the past 66 years, this conflict has swayed back and forth, neither side gaining the final victory and yet both continuing to pay a price far too high in terms of lives lost and futures blighted.

If, as it seems, neither one is ever likely to claim this ‘victory,’ then must the rest of us accept what seems inevitable, absolve ourselves of every   responsibility for closure in this business and simply leave them to it? But hasn’t the true enemy here been common to everyone all along? It’s our very own human nature and the depths to which it may sometimes sink. But, within that same nature, there are heights to which it can also aspire and powers more than sufficient to reach them – but only if enough of these can be summoned up and then released in copious quantity upon the task at hand.

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

‘You have to be in it to win it.’