Permanent Truce in Gaza?

I don't even remember how long ago I wrote the email to which this message is responding. Doesn't really say much but at least it didn't include a fundraising appeal, which is more than I can say for some such responses. (I'm looking at YOU Elizabeth Warren!)

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Dear James:
Thank you for writing. There are no easy solutions to the challenges facing the Israelis and the Palestinians, but I want you to know that when you send me an email, I am listening.
We cannot give up on the search for an end to this conflict. Too much is at stake, and it is the right thing to do. Our Nation’s commitment to a just and sustainable resolution is unwavering, and we will continue to offer constructive approaches and encourage the Israelis and the Palestinians to work together to resolve this conflict. To move forward, both parties must face hard choices and make difficult decisions. Only they can accomplish the compromises necessary for two independent states to live side‑by‑side in peace and security.
Again, I appreciate your thoughts. Please know my Administration will keep looking for steps both the Israelis and the Palestinians can take to build the trust and the confidence upon which lasting peace will depend.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama

badbrains said:

josevolution said:

badbrains said:

Not cool, this is very disturbing. Over 1400 children in gaza registered as orphans.

https://twitter.com/gazaglobal/status/506446188305207297

I tell you these kids will never forgive the jews for what happened to their families never just think about when you were a kid shit stays with you for ever and having your whole family killed is something no one can ever forget ......this whole region is fucked and i can say with out a doubt there will never be peace there

100% Jose. How can they expect them to ever forget. I mean, every year were all reminded about the holocaust and how terrible it was. Those survivors will never forget and these kids will never forget either.

A few things.

First, as rr said - it's a very important distinction to make between 'Jews' and 'Israelis'. I'm a Jew, I personally know several holocaust survivors, and I have Jewish friends who have grandparents who were in death camps in Germany, yet still return to Germany without animosity towards 'Germans' - just 'Nazis'. I personally have made some amazing German friends and look forward to visiting Germany one day. Also, I think that a critical component of Jewish-German relation reparations came from the Nuremberg Trials. The themes that were critically displayed here were 'confession', 'accountability', 'remorse', and 'justice'. These will be necessary to be seen from both Israeli and Palestinian parties, and I would expect to see a severe and internationally governed war crime tribunal either when a two-state, or a one-state solution is embraced.

I'd also be curious from anyone who knows better, but after racial segregation in South Africa, what was the aftermath like? Was it bloody? I suspect things will remain bad for Palestinians, but better than the total oppression. Similar to natives here in Canada (though they would have been so much better off had we not shown up at all), similar to African-Americans in the USA, there will be an obvious but disputed class differential, and there will be displays of racial inequalities. The difference as I see it is that there have to be some real questioning of societal indoctrination in order for change to come within Israel and the Palestinian regions, which will leave Jews and Arabs alike ready to question and speak up about the presence of these inequalities when they rear their ugly heads.

And finally, Jose, I'm sorry to be so dismissive of your idea here, and I'm sorry for presenting this so naively, but peace WILL come. There are some things that it's simply inappropriate to take a probabilistic approach to, and peace is one of them - love is another.
In the case of love, the way I see it, is it would be naive to say that every person will have one soul mate in their life - but let's be more naive and say that each person will have three. Then, your odds of meeting your soul mate are approximately 3/7,125,000,000. Or, approximately zero. And yet clearly we haven't given up - for what ever reason, even us in the privileged world who don't rely on children for additional hands to sow the fields, we still seek love. And we still procreate. And we encourage our children to love, all the while knowing the odds are stacked so far against finding true love, and the pains associated with the search are truly devastating sometimes. But we refute the stats, and we move forward regardless.
Peace, in my opinion, actually can be boiled down to a process. You take the insurmountable question of "how do we bring peace", and you break it down into manageable chunks. Here's my timeline towards peace:

1) Condemn societal indoctrinations, while encouraging well-rounded educations. This must be a universal truth, that we need to seek as many versions of the truth as possible.
2) Encourage empathizing for even the people you are accustomed to calling your enemy. We are all self-serving at the end of the day, so it's a delusional notion to think that someone wants you dead because someone wants you dead. What's the reason? What's the end goal?
3) Debate from an empathetic perspective. Ask why. Then ask it again. Insist on an answer. Refuse to believe in murderous nature for murderous nature's sake.
4) Share these opinions. Don't keep them to yourself and bury them. We only have power when we use our voices - and our voices are louder today than ever before: if I posted this on Facebook, I can estimate that at the very least, around 200 people would see it instantly.
5) Recognize fault. Own up. Apologize.
6) Make amends. Work fucking hard at this. Act in ways that are uncomfortable to you, to appease the people that harm has befallen unto.
7) Embrace each other. Love difference - stop hating it.
8) Coexist. Work together, instead of against each other.

I think step one is attainable, so I refuse to stop seeking that. I think if step one is attainable, step two will be. You get the picture. It's not so crazy. It is conceivable.

To simply say that peace is impossible will breed complacency and inaction. Complacency and inaction then become the outcome of the self-fulfilling prophecy that peace is an impossibility - so, frankly, I won't believe that.