The Foreign Service Journal, June 2003

dence-building measures at first, then building on them, the two sides can eventually achieve a genuine resolution to the conflict. Naturally, Israel’s security and well-being must be safeguarded for the peace process to advance. But in the long term, a lasting settle- ment with the Palestinians and the rest of Israel’s neighbors will foster prosperity far more effectively than establishing and expanding settle- ments and building security fences, however entrenched and fortified. To quell the violence, Israel needs to decide if it wants to be accepted in the Mideast, or to con- tinue living as an armed camp in a perpetual state of war. Its current tactics are simply sowing the seeds of future hatred and resentment. For example, dynamiting the homes of alleged terrorists’ family mem- bers and expelling them only ensures that another generation will grow up in hate, seeking revenge as suicide bombers and perpetuating the cycle of violence. Similarly, one could well ques- tion the logic of bivouacking thou- sands of heavily armed troops to safeguard 400 settlers in the heart of an Arab city, amid tens of thousands of Arab inhabitants, as is the case in Hebron. In that regard, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s recent com- ment that Israel will probably have to give up some settlements to achieve peace is encouraging. However, many Middle East ana- lysts remain skeptical. They would like to see concrete peace offers from Sharon before accepting that the hawkish warrior-turned-politi- cian is changing his traditional hard- line stance regarding the Pales- tinians. In return, the Palestinians need to demonstrate that they can man- age a state that will not represent a threat to the very existence of Israel. They will have to show that they can control their fringe elements and prevent Hamas, Islamic Jihad and others from carrying out suicide bombings and other attacks. That means convincing the rest of the Arab world that it, too, needs to jump onto the peace train. Syria, J U N E 2 0 0 3 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 55 The failure to advance the peace process was not only a tragedy for the Palestinian people.