Will there be peace?

[jegs2]

...in the Middle East, that is. With the recent wave of violence between Israel and Hamas, peace now seems less possible than ever. So, I want to hear your opinion.

[Enforcer Talen]

when god makes up his mind on who to help.

[theski]

They only thing that will change this, is either the Iron fist of communisum (RE: the Balkans) or they fight untill somebody wins...

[Enforcer Talen]

I think the isrealis have a tendency to win.

shall we just back off and let them go at it?

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

When I get laid. In other words, it isn't likely.

At worst, they'll fight until one side if forced out of the area. At best, both sides will learn to settle their differences, join hands, and sing love songs.

[RedImperator]

Sure there will be peace. Graveyards are peaceful, aren't they?

[The Albino Raven]

peace will come, maybe, in a few centuries, with the success of capitalism, and the gradual death of religion

[HemlockGrey]

Yes, in my lifetime, but not for decades, I think.

[Sea Skimmer]

Not as the situation stands or is likely to change to, at best there might be a few years of relative calm.

[Enforcer Talen]

-considers- what stopped the crusades?

[thecreech]

There will be peace but not for a long time

[Alyrium Denryle]

I think so. But probably not in my lifetime.

[Crazy_Vasey]

I'll believe it's possible when I see it at this point. Right now they seem all too content to butcher each other.

[Colonel Olrik]

You guys are all expecting to have very short lifespans. Notice that all the huge changes in the region (even before Israel was created) are all well within a lifetime. The situation now is nothing compared to what it was thirty years ago.

There's huge international pressure and it is likely that the majority of the population in both sides desire peace. The situation will improve. In thirty years, we may well see both Israel and the independant Palestinian state applying to get into the E.U.

[Sea Skimmer]

There's huge international pressure and it is likely that the majority of the population in both sides desire peace. The situation will improve. In thirty years, we may well see both Israel and the independant Palestinian state applying to get into the E.U.

Or our kids might be learning about the second and far larger use of nuclear weapons in warfare.

[Colonel Olrik]

Or our kids might be learning about the second and far larger use of nuclear weapons in warfare.

That's another solution. There's no way the problem would still exist nuclear war. The survivors would have plenty of desert space to build radiation protected colonats.

[Colonel Olrik]

Or our kids might be learning about the second and far larger use of nuclear weapons in warfare.

That's another solution. There's no way the problem would still exist after a good nuclear war. The survivors would have plenty of radioactive desert space to share.

[Montcalm]

There will be peace when the dominant species become extinct.

[Wicked Pilot]

There will be peace when two things are realized:

Race is skin deep, and holy books are loads of shit.

[AdmiralKanos]

If the Israelis could have their wishes granted, the Occupied Territories would be converted into a powerless vassal state whose purpose is to house the Palestinian undesirables that they don't want coming back to the lands they were evicted from during Israel's creation. Its airspace, water, and internal population movements would all be controlled by their Israeli overlords: in other words, a slave state (that's what their offers of statehood have always meant once you look at the fine print).

If the Palestinians could have their wishes granted, the Israelis would be scattered all around the Earth so that they could have the entire land to themselves, as it was originally promised to them by the pre-WW2 British (who also simultaneously promised it to the Jews; no offense to the Brits on the board, but the whole festering cesspool situation in Israel/Palestine is arguably of British manufacture).

These are not only incompatible goals, but they do not even brook compromise or negotiation. The Americans can present their peace plan, but in the end, both parties are hopelessly mired in their own fanaticism; historically, leaders who try to move toward compromise are often assassinated by their own side's extremists.

[Sea Skimmer]

That's another solution. There's no way the problem would still exist after a good nuclear war. The survivors would have plenty of radioactive desert space to share.

Well its more that only one side would have survivors, while being totally intact, only Isreal has nuclear weapons. After the bombs take care of the main population centers and bordering nations militaries conventional weaponry can mop up the west bank and gaza as needed.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

...in the Middle East, that is. With the recent wave of violence between Israel and Hamas, peace now seems less possible than ever. So, I want to hear your opinion.

The people in that region have repeatedly demonstrated that the word "peace" makes it into their vocabulary about as often as the word "snow." About the only way for peace to come about in the middle east is if it were either turned into a glass-paved parking lot that glows in the dark, or if all the national governments there were replaced by some regional superauthority that'd bomb anybody who gets out of line . . . eventually turning the entire region into a glass-paved parking lot that glows in the dark.