Insights

The pursuit of peace must be translated into policies that send clear messages to our neighbors and to the world.

We Israelis should be interested in keeping Sam Bahour and the thousands of others like Sam as our neighbors in the West Bank. The chances for building real peace increase when people like Sam Bahour can be our neighbor. Shame on any government of Israel that would force people like Sam to leave.

The Palestinian public overwhelmingly supports the kidnap of Israeli soldiers – they view it as the one sure way to bring about a prisoner release, quite a vicious circle.

The Commission would be wise to ask additional questions concerning how diplomacy could be used to capitalize on the peaceful relations already established with Egypt and Jordan in reaching out to others in the “neighborhood” in order to reduce and remove strategic threats by converting them into strategic allies.

The current Middle East crisis should be used by decisions makers to create opportunities to bring the region into a new era of regional and bilateral negotiations aimed at dealing with the Israeli-Arab conflict in a comprehensive fashion.

Perception is definitely shaped by geography – and from where I sit, I see how cheap our blood is, and how much more cheap the blood of our enemies. How sad.

The only rational course of action that can save lives – including the life of Gilad Shalit – is to find a way to reach a bilateral cease-fire that would include a prisoner release.

The time has come for us to engrave in the brains of the Palestinians that the State of Israel is capable of “changing disks” and to work is a more conciliatory way instead of always demonstrating our aptitude as warriors.

The alternative is to renew the bilateral political process with the PLO represented by Mahmoud Abbas. While there are no guarantees of an agreement, there is little to lose. And Israel could anyway move ahead with planning for convergence.

Gershon Baskin thinks that Israel should withdraw from territories to the East of the barrier, with the area from which Israel withdraws being placed under the jurisdiction of a United Nations Interim Mission. The Mission’s military arm would replace the Israeli army contingents along the Jordan River, secure Israel’s borders in the West Bank, man all crossing points from Israel to the West Bank, and work directly with Palestinian security forces under a single command.