Jonathan Freedland rarely sticks his neck out on an issue but he gets pretty close to doing so in a thoughtful piece on Israel-Palestine.
This week the Guardian hosted a meeting of ten Israeli and Palestinian editors and Freedland found some signs of hope from the perspectives raised. His conclusion is:
Britain, the US and others cannot wait for progress before they step in. There will be no progress until they do. If the evidence I saw this week is anything to go by, these two nations are ready to do a deal – but they cannot do it themselves. The world has to act – and it must not wait another 10 years to do it.
Indeed. Treaties, agreements, ‘processes’ and roadmaps have all been tried and failed.
The lack of leadership on both sides, the inability to put a lasting end to terrorism and the reaction it provokes, leads surely to the conclusion that peace can only be enforced from outside?
