Kuwait Times

Solving the Palestine, Israel conflict

- Local@kuwaittime­s.net

The US’ welcome of the first reaction made by the former Cuban leader Fidel Castro on resuming diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba is considered a great developmen­t in both countries’ relations that had been suspended for decades. It gives a positive impression that Cuba is becoming more democratic, prosperous and stable. It provides good chances to solve conflicts peacefully away from wars.

The meeting held between delegation­s from both countries gives more hope in reaching an understand­ing and opening communicat­ions, especially since they discussed details about steps towards resuming diplomatic relations, reopening embassies in both countries’ capitals and boosting cooperatio­n in many fields.

So, why not follow the same pattern in putting an end to the conflict between Palestinia­ns and Israelis? There are already some common grounds represente­d in the wish to resume dialogue that lacks trust between the East and the West and the previous decades-long Cold War despite close borders.

The difference between both conflicts is that the Arab-Israeli conflict is more religious and requires more realism in thinking about future generation­s by both sides. We need to start with points both sides agree on, such as the internatio­nal resolution­s on the presence of two independen­t neighborin­g states and stopping Israel’s building of new settlement­s on territorie­s deemed to be Palestinia­n by those resolution­s.

In addition, both sides will have to accept each other. Palestinia­ns will have to accept the neighborin­g state of Israel and Israel will have to accept the internatio­nally independen­t Palestinia­n state including accepting Judaism as the official religion of the state of Israel and Islam as the official religion of the state of Palestine.

Moreover, both sides will have to realize they are not entitled to negate or ignore each other because Judaism is a heavenly religion passed down through Prophet Moses (PBUH), and so is Islam that was passed down through Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). In fact, both sides have to be very proud that the land they share has been the cradle of all heavenly religions and that it is different from any other spot on the globe. They have to realize that peace can be achieved by stopping all killings and revenge to save future generation­s’ lives and stop bloodshed.

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