A Lasting Peace Needs Both Sides to Want It

How many lives are we willing to sacrifice and how much money are we willing to waste on two blood thirsty nations, who's only reason to exists appears to be to annihilate each other? I am all for the peace process, but there are other equally important things for President Barack Obama and the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be doing other than wasting their energies keeping a peace process going that the two warring principles are intent on derailing at every turn.

The Israeli's openly taunt the Palestinians, celebrating the end of the halt to construction by releasing 2000 balloons into the air, come on for goodness sake what are you trying to do? There are lives at stake here and this type of celebration is putting them at risk.

Making aggressive, antagonistic statements such as, "Today it's over and we will do everything we can to make sure it never happens again," settler leader Dani Dayan told the crowd. "We return with new energy and a new determination to populate this land." This is what I call openly calling for a negative reaction from the Palestinians.

You can not be seen to bargain in good faith Israel when you put conditions in place that make it possible for both sides to sit down and begin negotiations for peace and the moment the talks begin you remove the condition that made it all possible in the first place. This is unproductive and leaves you with a credibility problem. How can the other side trust you to keep your word?

Then we have the Palestinians who keep threatening to pull out of the peace process, like this is truly an option for them. The world knows that this is not a realistic approach and that this is their last kick at the can. It is in their best interest to get the peace deal now while they have an open-minded president in the White House that does not see Israel as an innocent in the war.

Speaking in Paris Sunday, Abbas said, "There is only one choice in front of Israel: either peace or settlements." These are the kind of statements that are taken as a threat by hardliners and give them the excuse they need to carve out what they call safe zones. Your threats are empty and Israel backed by the United States is not afraid of you and can keep you at bay forever and a day.

"Abbas faces intense internal pressure from his supporters not to relax his conditions. Also, the rival Islamic Hamas, which controls Gaza, opposes peace talks with Israel in principle."

In this statement is found the reason that no one takes your claims, or promises seriously. The Palestinian cause has no leader to speak for it and so treaties are made by one and broken the same day by another. It is difficult to plan for peace when someone in your group keeps shooting at the other side. Any chance at having a Palestinian State will be lost to you for a very long time.

I think it is high time for the rest of the world to put embargos in place and block any new weapons and military help to both sides. All financial aid should be halted to both sides on a governmental level by the rest of the world. I think that it should be made illegal for any company, financial institution, or private citizen to aid either the Palestinian or the Israeli cause privately whether it is financial, medical, humanitarian, or military, until both sides ask for the world's help together and are seriously willing to come to a peaceful solution.