I don’t know what the solution to the Israel/Palestinian problem looks like. No idea. Most folk seem to have an idea of what an agreeable two state deal looks like, although just where borders are drawn will depend greatly on the political/religious outlook of the person drawing the lines. But anyway, getting two sides to agree to squiggles drawn on a map does not a solution make.
Ten years, twenty years, fifty years down the line, what does an independent Palestinian state look like? Utopia-sur-Med? Or does it bear greater resemblence to other regional centres of influence? The Gaza Strip replaced with the Tehran Strip. Perhaps the West Bank will take inspiration from Kabul. Will there be an open border between Israel and this new state? Or will the walls remain, along with the Palestinian genocidal rhetoric.
I don’t have skin in this game. But as I am reasonably certain that the negative parts of that last paragraph will come to pass. If I were an Israeli, I’d probably prefer not to take the risk of an independent Palestine springing up next door. I’d likely keep the status quo, dreadful as it is. If I were a Palestinian? Well, I’d rather not be Palestinian. That’s my starting and ending point to that question.
So no, I really do not know what the solution looks like.
The photo is of a rather lovely mural outside Basingstoke train station by Sian Storey. Whilst I don’t hugely approve of walls being used to divide warring communities, I do think that those that must exist should have murals like this on them. Rather than murals of terrorist ‘heroes’. Just a thought…
The Mexile 
Full citizenship with equal standing in court would be a good start; two seperate states is a fool’s game as far as I can foresee.
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I think the Israelis have long been concerned that that sort of policy will end up with them on the wrong end of demographic changes, leaving the country ruled by an Islamic government. I think that this fear its both understandable and plausible.
I’m also less convinced by this approach having seen how it’s played out in Northern Ireland. It has not been a success.
There’s a third issue, and one that Israel and all of its neighbours have in common. Why won’t Egypt or Saudi take in some folk from the Gaza Strip? Because no one wants to invite Hamas across a border and into their country.
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I understand the demographics, I also understand that having two classes of citizenship is always going to cause the lesser of the two classes to feel and act aggrieved. Basic political science. The fact holds , be it de facto or de jure.
I suspect that Iran is upset over the Saudis playing footsie with Israel and are using their proxy in the area to push the two apart.
There will be no peace in Israel without an equal citizenship agreement within its borders, it is impossible.
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The Saudi position is potentially interesting here. I read a piece a while ago which suggested that Saudi’s peace deal with Iran was spurred by American isolationism. When attacked by Iranian proxies, the Saudi’s expected Trump’s support. They didn’t get it, and made peace instead. The consequences of that could potentially be immense.
I guess I’m just resigned to there being no peace in Israel. Not in my lifetime. Maybe I’m wrong. Let’s hope so.
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Moreover, that mural of the rabbit and flowers is beautiful. Here is San Miguel the authorities seem to have discovered that the surest way to minimize graffiti and vandalism is to let local artists paint murals of blank walls, many of them quite artful and accomplished. So we have lots of murals and less graffiti.
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I’m a huge fan of urban murals. There’s a lot of post war brutalist concrete structures in the UK that would benefit from a lick of multi coloured paint. A monstrosity of a block in Southampton recently got the treatment and it looks a thousand times better for it. I’ll add a photo of that when I next pass.
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To be honest I’ve never really followed the havoc in the Middle East. Having grown up in a paradise lost where rebel songs were played daily from every musical orifice and in pubs throughout the land. Meanwhile atrocities were committed and reported daily from a spot a mere sixty miles from our doorsteps.
To confound that I met and married a girl from the wee North not that that had anything to do with it (we met in the south) but it was not discussed, she lived through it. Army raids for no apparent reason other than following the wrong religion, the school blown up behind their house in the middle of the night. Riding the bus to school while women banged their bin lids.. that sort of thing. Her father going to answer the door with a hammer in his hand.
We didn’t experience that in the south as such, we just went on with our lives, went to school and collected penny’s for black babies in Africa.
From what I’ve read the Gaza Strip is the proverbial fly in the ointment for Israel. Gaza with a population of two million plus since 2016 and with over forty percent of the population unemployed and most of its water supply undrinkable the Strip is in a deplorable state. They rely almost entirely on foreign aid for survival. Their main power supply station only delivers electricity for a few hours a day due to war damage by Israel. To make matters worse Israel has blockaded the Mediterranean Sea restricting their ability to fish outside their waters.
It was just a matter of time for Hamas the main political force in Gaza to ferment and explode! Now of course the fact that Hamas is an Islamic military organization doesn’t help either as they won’t be bribed with a back hander it’s way past that and nothing short of all out war will sort it out now!
Sadly it’s the ordinary man in the street who will suffer most and as usual it will be their women and children who will be at the mercy of unrelenting violence.
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