Israel-Palestine: three options

 We have three options with regard to the tragedy in Israel-Palestine. 

We can be on the side of the Israelis. 

We can be on the side of the Palestinians. 

Or we can be on the side of humanity, which puts us on the side of both (as communities of humans) and neither (as political groupings).

Wars divide public opinion in a binary way. The majority will reject the “humanity” option as naive, and will produce a seemingly endless reel of historical facts and factoids to back the case of one side or the other.

We need to be knowledgeable about the history, to understand the motivations of both sides, especially the intensity of Israeli intention never again to be passive subjects of genocide. 

But we need to focus with great determination on the future. What is the future of the “Holy Land”? 

Is it simply to be laid waste by a never ending series of manifestly unholy wars?

Or is it to be an inspiration to the whole world, as a place where people decided that hatred is not a helpful emotion, and that cooperation is better than conflict in creating a better life for all humans?

When we look at I-P from the latter point of view, the first and most striking feature of the land is that it is semi arid. Water is in short supply, and this limits the amount of food that can be grown. 

Already Friends of the Earth Middle East are working on cross community projects relating to water, especially around Jordan. https://ecopeaceme.org

This approach can be taken further in a water harvesting project, where the EU and UK could supply kit for communities to gather water  https://greenerblog.blogspot.com/search?q=Water+harvesting+Israel

There are numerous organisations which promote cooperation between the two communities. Here is a Chat Gtp link for nine of them https://chat.openai.com/share/92954bae-1ffb-450c-a43c-cf55e66c0291

If we look to the past, there is no solution, just endless war.

If we ask how two peoples can life together in the future, we find that it involves cooperation in constructing adequate amounts of water, food, energy, housing. sanitation, health, education and social care for everyone living in the land.