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The Middle East Peace Industry

(American Interest) Walter Russell Mead - The Middle East peace process is the longest running piece of diplomatic theater on the world stage. The outside powers want the conflict to end but aren't wedded to any particular ending. There is no line between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea that the EU and the U.S. couldn't accept as the border provided only that the Israelis and Palestinians both agree. Most outsiders truly don't care how the two combatants divide responsibility for the Noble Sanctuary and the Western Wall so long as they just stop fighting over it. We can live with 0 Israeli settlements or 5 or 5,000 on the West Bank as long as both the West Bankers and the Israelis buy in. That isn't and can't be the way the two parties think. Israelis and Palestinians both care, passionately, about where the boundaries are, who gets what water, and what happens to the holy places. The Middle East peace industry isn't going away. The Americans want peace so this whole distracting and annoying headache will just stop. The major Arab countries want to deprive Iran of the opportunity to play the Palestinian card as Iran struggles to gain street credibility in the Sunni world. The EU hates all the noise and the brawling in the neighborhood, and with a growing Muslim population at home the Europeans want to reduce friction between the West and the Islamic world. China, India and Japan would like to see less chaos and trouble in the part of the world that sends them so much oil. The writer is Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
2010-05-12 08:45:18
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