Crazy Idea I

As in many aspects of life, also when contemplating peace, or the lack of it, you come across ideas so crazy that there is no chance even contemplating them... This idea is so crazy, that even I wouldn't consider it seriously. Here it is anyway. Beware.

What seems to be the most problematic issue between the Israelis and the Palestinians? Jerusalem.
It doesn't matter that it was one of the most neglected cities in the Kingdom of Jordan when it ruled Jerusalem. However, ever since it was occupied by Israel in 1967 it became the most desired city for all Arabs around the world. But lets keep the reasons aside, lets consider this desire a fact.
Same goes for the Jews all around the world. Ever since there are Jews outside the Promised Land, they have prayed to be back in Jerusalem, build it and build it Temple. But again, lets keep the reasons aside, lets consider this desire a fact.

Since this is such an important and problematic place, not only politically but also theologically for three of the major religions of the world (do not forget the Christians which consider Jerusalem holy as well. Yes, another fact...). Lets all have it. Lets none have it...
What can be the structural mechanism for making Jerusalem shared by all, be taken cared by all, in a peaceful and constructing manner? How can it belong to all, yet not to none?
Make it the center of the world, not just in spiritual contemplation for half or more the population of the world. Make it the real center of the world, make it the center of the international interaction between nations. Make it the center of the establishment responsible for world peace and prosperity. Make it the home-town of the UN.

Think about it. It does sound crazy. But in a weird way it does make scence.
All countries will be equally interested in Jerusalem, not only as a spiritual, theological, theoretical place, not as the time-bomb of world peace, but as an actual place where the things that happen are more important than the place itself. It will belong to all, but none will be able to claim it as its own.
Build the assemblies between the historical buildings, the Mosques, Churches, Synagogues and other thousands-years-old archeological findings, and you will ensure no extremist from any religion will blow it up... at least not without harming part of his own heritage.
Make Jerusalem the center of the international political doing, and the focus will no longer be a place of contradiction and war, but will become a place in which things happens, where contradictions are disputed and war considered or prevented. Not a place of war. Not a place of contradiction.

Who knows, perhaps this renewed institution, with genuine interest in world peace and prosperity is the 3rd Temple awaited so much by the Jewish people.
Who knows, probably I am just crazy.

Interest without Proportion

Haven't you ever contemplated the extreme focus the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict gets in the media all around the world? And I am not talking only in the Western and Islamic regions: It also includes the post Soviet area, it also includes the far east (yes, also in China: people don't understand English there, but they've heard about Israel and it conflict with the Palestinians)
How come that at the edge of the western world (actually, a little further than that), at the edge of the Islamic world, in an extremely small area, with a relatively small population - one on-going conflict, one century old, is considered the conflict that needs most attending, most focus, drives most emotions than any other conflict in the world?...

It does not matter that eventually the area of the conflict is smaller than most countries in the world, heck, it is even smaller than wastelands in most countries in the world...
It does not matter that the size of the population involved in the conflict is smaller than most populations currently involved in conflicts, warfare or that are "simple" negated of any human right.
It does not matter that the casualties and damage are countless in comparison to latest wars conducted by Russia in the last decade, by the casualties in Afghanistan, by the violence and despair in numerous conflicts and massacres in Africa, by the number of deaths inflicted by Tyrannies or religious governments refusing their own people from freedom, rights and prosperity.

All that doesn't matter.
What matters is how wrong the Israeli government conducts itself and its people regarding the Palestinians. How they suffer.
What matters is how wrong the Terrorist groups sent by the name of Islam are in their approach toward the Western world and Israel in specific. How they suffer.

The truth is: it does matter...
But try to imagine, perhaps there is a small, tiny chance that if this conflict didn't have such a "great" rating around the world, if not so many emotions were forced on it by hundreds of media covering stories every day worldwide, perhaps, just perhaps, it would have been possible long ago to settle this thing?...

Origins of Hatred

There is no way to come around it. There is hatred on both sides. And a lot.
Perhaps not all of us feel it, perhaps not all of them feel it, but enough people on both sides feel it, enough to keep the confrontation going, enough to keep a high level of anti-peace atmosphere in too-big circles of the population.
Where does this hatred come from? Is it the same on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
I believe that hatred has two main origins. Both are found in all people. Both are found in both sides of the conflict. Each side has a more dominant reason for his hatred.
These reasons are known as Fear and Revenge.

For most humans, being in a state of fear from a known individual, group or thing for a continuous period of time, will eventually invoke hatred for the cause of fear. Fear is a feeling the human body adopted during it evolution in order to avoid dangerous situations, in order to survive. The fear is a sensation we wish to avoid, a sensation that brings extreme uneasiness to the bearer, a sensation of personal failure - since we were not able to control the situation, since it was not obvious to all, especially to us, that we had the upper-hand in the situation.

This fear, this failure, this awful feeling, is a sensation we learn to hate.

This is what happened to the Israelis relating to Arabs as a whole, or facing them as individuals.
For decades, for more than a century, the Arabs tried to "Convince" the Jews that started building their lives in Israel that this is not a place for them. There were uncountable number of incidents in which the Arabs harmed the Jews or their little possessions in this harsh sun-beaten country. In many cases Jews were killed by the Arabs, many times they were Lynched by mobs. Sometimes it was a single person's enterprise. Sometimes it was organized. It peaked most noticeable in the declaration of independence from the state of Israel in 1948, when the just-born state of Israel was attacked simultaneously by all it neighboring countries and more: By the Egyptians, Jordanians, Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis and many of the Arabs living inside and outside the new borders of the new country.
Since this peak of assault on the Jews in Israel, with the fresh, horrible realization of the fate of the Jews in Europe during the Holocaust, due all the wars inflicted upon the state of Israel by Arab nations, Arab nation deeds or Arab terrorist organization, the Jewish people all around the world and especially in Israel learned to fear the Arabs... not a numbing fear, but a fear that naturally became hatred.

Many of the Arabs that lived inside the frontiers of the new state of Israel had fled from their homes. Some will claim that they rightfully fled the approach of the Israeli army during the war of 1948. Others will admit they over-reacted, or vainly refused to take part with the Jews in the state of Israel. The result is the same. Tens or even hundreds of thousands of Arabs that lived in the area that became the Israeli State fled their homes to settle in refugee camps to the south and north of the state of Israel. They had left farms, homes in cities for small, crowded refugee camps with not many conditions to enable prosperity. With little chance for a descent contenting life.
They had fled there knowing this will be a temporary situation. That soon the state of Israel will be whipped out by the strong, numerous Arab armies. But they were wrong. And ever since they were not able to get back to their original lives. Some wouldn't, others couldn't.

Since then they started hating the state of Israel, and the Jews all around the world for taking their land.
Over the years, during the 1967 war, the West Bank and the Gaza Stripe were occupied by Israel. Territories including many of the refugees that fled the state of Israel in 1948. Now they were under Israeli law, but not the civil law as for the rest of the Jews or Arabs that remained in the state of Israel. They lived under martial law. They now lived in the state they had fled from. Worst state than they had fled from, since now they had no possessions they left behind, no farms, no houses in the cities, no stores, no citizenship, no status, but only despair. And they wanted retribution.
They have seen how prosperous the lives of the Israelis became. Both of Jews and Arabs that remained in Israel. And they knew deep in their hearts that they could have those as well. That they should have had those as well. And not the Jews.
Then started the confrontations to throw the conquerors outside the Palestinian territories. To be relieved from the ruling of the Israeli state. To be independent. This confrontation brought many casualties to both sides. But mainly to the Palestinians. And they demanded retribution. Revenge.
This revenge, for their pain during the warfare against Israel. For their lack of prosperity. For their lack of vision for the future. For their homes they have left behind.
All this pain, all this revenge, all became hate.

As stated before, fear and revenge fuel hatred on both sides.
Palestinians also fear Israelis. They fear their soldiers. For most this is the only face of the Israelis they see. They fear the Israeli Air Force flying at nights over their homes. They fortresses. They fear their guns and bombs.
Israelis want to revenge the Palestinians for their dead ones. For hurts inflicted on them, their families, ancestors.
But those are the minor causes for the hatred that is fueling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hatred running so deep that you don't even believe this conflict has an acceptable solution. That causes the talks to start considering maybe talking to one another so hard to get started... So hopeless...