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1. ethbr1+(OP)[view] [source] 2025-06-28 14:45:09
The problem with enunciating real positions to domestic audiences are that the extremists on both sides will literally murder anyone who compromises.

Let's not forget Israel's domestic orthodox/right-wing Jewish terrorism and Yitzhak Rabin's assassination.

Ergo, there's even more incentive for leaders to continually espouse positions they know will never happen, but which play well at home.

As a violence in poli sci professor of mine once quipped, this is a 'the only solution is killing the grandmothers' conflict. Because generational narratives of victimization are so ingrained in large parts of both societies that there is no room for compromise.

Silence extremist voices forcefully, wait a generation, and then there might be a path to peace. :(

replies(1): >>dh2022+Wd
2. dh2022+Wd[view] [source] 2025-06-28 16:25:48
>>ethbr1+(OP)
Who will provide the force to silence these extremist voices?

Maybe there are some parallels in this situation and late 1800’s-mid 1900’s Western Europe. The civil war on the European continent between Germanic states on one hand and French/British ended when two powerful outsiders (US and Soviet Russia) invaded and split the continent. During this occupation west Europeans nations learned how to live with themselves and to atone for their mistakes and to not repeat these mistakes. But they only learned this because they were under military occupation.

This scenario will most likely not happen in the Middle East and so I think there will not be peace there for generations.

replies(1): >>ethbr1+lk
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3. ethbr1+lk[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-06-28 17:08:13
>>dh2022+Wd
The greatest chance for this was probably the US-Arab world, but the Shia/Sunni sectarian-political feudalism made that a non-starter, especially in the context of the Cold War.

As a colleague from Bahrain once quipped, 'the countries of the Arab world love to use Palestinians as propaganda for domestic purposes, but none of them actually give enough of a shit to make hard choices to solve the problem.'

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