Israel and Palestine

Today Israel attacked a convoy of peace activists headed to Gaza. These ships were carrying the usual array of peace protesters including a Nobel laureate and a Holocaust survivor.
Israel has blockaded the ports of Gaza for some years now. All aid must pass through their hands before it heads to the Palestinians. A reasonable procedure if you don’t want the people you are fighting with to restock their weapons supply. Also a good strategy if you are trying to bring a reluctant party to the table. A table where presumably you want to come to some lasting terms on a lasting peace. It occurs that this method comes with draw backs. The people you are trying to bring to the negotiating table are usually unaffected by privation and so undeterred. The general population which has less real power to effect a change of mind among their leadership suffers the most. Incidentally they are often left with the option of supporting either the people who have precipitated the blockade or those running it. Bad choices all around but predictable. What get is a stalemate, one that seems to help both sides. Israel gets a intractable opponent that will never seek peace so Israel never has to make a peace it doesn’t like and certain Palestinian parties get a perpetual threat that helps them maintain power without ever having to deliver anything resembling a future to their people.
So what we get is an Israeli attack in international waters on unarmed vessels carrying relief supplies to Gaza. Reports have 4 injured Israeli’s and 10 to 16 dead activists. The usual accusations are made Israel killed unarmed protesters or Israeli soldiers were protecting themselves from violent attack by the blockade runners. I image that both sides will lie about what happened. I expect that the side that did the most damage is inclined to lie the most.
What I see the most clearly is that the interests of Israel and that of my country Canada have parted ways in most places. Keep in mind that when I speak of “interests” I am confined to my on view on this. I can assure any one reading this post that Canada is divided on this the Israel/Palestine issue. Divided along all the usual fault lines political , social ethnic ,religious. It is an issue that has too many hangers on.
It is in Canada’s interest to be pursuing in everyway possible an equitable peace between the warring sides. That is what good countries do, promote peace. Before anyone says but it’s complicated I’ll stipulate that peace between Israel and Palestine is and will be a complicated process and more blood will be split before a concluding chapter is written.
I see the grindstone strategy being employed by both sides continuing for sometime. I believe that each side thinks the other will break. Is that how you begin set upon the road to peace , by first breaking your enemy? Not if you want it to last.
It is clear that the aggrieved parties have other interests at stake than just peace. If people want to stop fighting they find away, just like they find excuses to keep the violence going.
That is the why I write of diverging interests. Canada should not care who has Jerusalem other than that it’s allocation be equitable. Canada should not care about settlements other than the rule of law be applied. Canada should care only that civil and human rights are enshrined in any deal signed and that the parties keep their word. When Canada speaks on the issue of Palestinians it must be a voice for reason. It can not ignore the reality but in acknowledging situation must be prepared to help move that reality in another direction. It is not in Canada’s interest to support without equivocation either Palestine or Israel. We are not directly affected by the rockets and bombs that are routinely traded by these warring parties. But we are affected by terrorists that draw power from this conflict. By ending the violence in creating an equitable peace, Canada’s interests are being served. By allowing the fighting to continue we are placing others countries interests ahead of our own. I can assure you that neither the Palestinians nor Israelis spend much time thinking how to promote our interests.
As long as these two so similar peoples refuse to look past their on noses for a solution, we have to help them. The way we help them is by refusing to take sides, refusing to accept that one party is more aggrieved than the other. I know that this can’t be easy but it’s the only way I see that a bridge towards peace can be built. Let everyone acknowledge that harm has been done and let everyone understand that it should not be a barrier to peace.