partners for peace

The major population in Israel wants peace. No one argues about the question “is peace necessary?”- We argue about the question “how do we make peace?” Some people in Israel are convinced that seeing Palestinians as partners for peace will solve our conflict. Now, you may wonder and ask yourselves “is it true”? Of course there is no definite answer. It is not like other “solutions” for example killing all our enemies where the answer is defiantly no. We can not use violence on innocent children. Here, I would like to try answering the question:” how we can (the Israelis) see them (the Palestinians) as partners for peace? Peace is “a situation or a period of time in which there is no war or violence in a country or area” (The New Oxford English-English-Hebrew Students Dictionary, 2003). By this definition we can ask ourselves what is partners for peace? Is it working together for making peace, or living in peace after peace is done? Or maybe both of them? I allow myself to add something to the Oxford definition: a situation of peace can be created only in two conditions: a) Both sides must understand that they are about to live together on one land. b) Both sides must want peace. Let us begin with the second condition. I, as an Israeli, claim that the people of Israel want peace. I can not claim the same thing about Palestinians. According to interviews which Saliman a Shapi (Channel 2 news reporter in Gaza) made with the Palestinians- I can say that the Palestinian nation does not want peace. They also say that we must get away from this land, so the first condition in also cancelled. In addition to this Palestinians do terror attacks in Israel. They slaughter innocent people in restaurants, buses, weddings, streets, Passover Seder, and they bomb us with Kasam rackets (and they claim we bomb them). Imagine the following situation: after the terror attack in Park hotel, Netania, which killed more then 25 innocent people, a very famous person (I will not say his name because of slumber reasons) appears to the media and says that we must speak to Mr. Arafat about peace, and we may not react for it will hurt the Palestinian nation. In such a condition, how the common Israeli will listen to this man, and think about the Palestinians as partners for peace. I must be very objective and I admit that some times we destroy their houses and kill entire families and because of that they don’t want to see us as partners for peace. There is a wise saying which says that you must respect a person and suspect him at the same time. It is true about our relations with Palestine. We respect their rights to live normal life, but we must defend ourselves. We must stop them on rode blocks to check them, because we are afraid of terror. In conclusion, seeing Palestine as a partner for peace is a very good idea, but for us it is very hard. Only when they will stop making terror attacks- we will discuss about peace.