Gaza is Longing for an Arab-Israeli Spring - By Faheem Younus, MD
Gaza is Longing for an Arab-Israeli Spring
By Faheem Younus, MD
OpEdNews Op Eds 11/25/2012 at 11:09:50
Plato may have inadvertently summed up the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 2,500 years ago when he is thought to have declared: "We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light."
The cyclical bloodshed in the Arab-Israeli conflict is a direct consequence of the rigid postures of the jaded and faded leaders on both sides. On one end, we have the Palestinian codgers -- with thick accents and thin visions -- vowing for the annihilation of the Zionists. They know it's impossible. And on the other are the Israeli sly foxes -- with slick strategies and silly logic -- vouching to "flatten all of Gaza." They, too, know it's impossible.
From my standpoint, all the six key players on both sides - Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas; chief Palestine Liberation Organization negotiator Saeb Erekat; Hamas' leader in exile Khaled Mashal; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Israeli President Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Ehud Barak -- should be retired. These grouchy old men -- with a mean age of 68 -- are incapable of seeing the light of the future without inserting the darkness of the past into the equation. Every compromise to them is a sellout.
That's why I long for an Arab-Israeli Spring. I long to see the streets of Gaza and Tel Aviv pouring with Palestinian and Israeli youth leaders, who value the safety of their grandchildren more than the legacy of their grandfathers.
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