The Middle East needs a new vision

The strong opposition shown by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the Israeli assault in Gaza has drawn mixed reactions. For some radicals in Israel, it seemed to be a move bringing Turkey closer to the Iran-Hezbullah-Hamas fold.

For others, especially in the Arab world, it was fresh proof of Turkey asserting itself as an alternative regional power to Iran.

However, the motivation behind Erdoğan's actions was something much simpler, as was clear in his proposed two-stage plan: to bring forth a quick cease-fire to end the brutal carnage against Palestinian civilians trapped in Gaza, followed immediately by a laying of the political groundwork for a lasting Arab-Israeli peace settlement.

In our wider region, there is no other issue that would result in such a relaxing of tensions if resolved as the Arab-Israeli conflict. An equitable peace would, above all, drain off the most significant source of instability and motivation for international terrorism.

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give up in order to give their children a world without war?

And I, personally, think it's real simple: no settlement in the Holy Land, by anyone. Visitation for up to 1 week, only. No fly zone. Enforced by UN. If no one can share, no one gets any.

Only God is holy, if such a thing exists at all.

Let's keep religion where it belongs, in the closet!

I personally can't rationalize dying, generation after generation, over venerated earth. But I can empathize with them, both of them; they both want what the other claims.

Fundamentally, it's God vs. God. "My God gave me this!" "No, *my* God gave *me* this!" It's a perpetual cycle, since the fundamental question -- whose God made it for whom -- can never be resolved. (Even if you argue the Holocaust scenario -- total elimination of one side by systematic or tactical means -- we humans resolved it, not God.)

If this were two tribes warring in the Burma jungle, the world probably wouldn't -- and shouldn't -- bat an eye. But this is a global, destabilizing war over a single resource, manifested by a war over philosophy, that can only be resolved by a global response. And how do you resolve such critical element problems as these? Simple: you bar all access to both parties except under strict supervision and control.

To point, this is about religion and it is about land. We can't resolve the former, but we can do something about the later. This particular problem has been around for at least 50 years and has cost countless lives, directly and indirectly. It is time we do something about it. Revoke all territorial claims to the land -- like the moon, it is owned by all humankind, for all humankind.

There is so much conflict among the nations, they couldn't even agree to meet in a single spot or come up with a unified response.

Meanwhile, Hamas and Fatah are killing each other.

Until all of this lack of unity is taken care of, there is no point to even think of "solving" the Arab-Israeli conflict.

They have to solve the Arab conflict first.