Is There Hope for Middle East Peace?
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| Above: The view of West Jerusalem from Arab East Jerusalem. |
here is an unmistakable "deficit of hope" among the people in the Middle East as a result of the faltering peace process, says Steve Riskin, program officer in the U.S. Institute of Peace's Grant Program. Riskin visited Cairo, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, the Gaza Strip, Hebron, Nablus, Ramallah, and Amman on a fact-finding trip to the Middle East September 15-October 1. "You have to take a long, historical view of the situation generally to find something positive in today's conditions," Riskin says. "I take some solace in the fact that there is more regularized contact between Arabs and Jews, particularly those who support the peace process." Riskin notes that those most supportive of the peace process are calling for more active U.S. involvement in breaking the current impasse.
He met with a number of Institute grantees at research centers in the region to review their progress on peace-related projects. Among these were meetings at the Ibn Khaldun center in Cairo, which is researching the Islamic movement in Egypt, and the Neve Shalom/Wahat El Salaam experimental settlement of Arabs and Jews living together in a rural area between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, whose members are preparing a book on their educational approaches to dealing with the conflict. He also met with Palestinian and Israeli scholars who are evaluating how textbooks have portrayed Israeli-Palestinian history and interaction and will recommend improvements to their respective education ministries, and with former Institute senior fellows in the region, who contributed to his assessment of recent developments.
In Israel, the long-simmering tensions between Orthodox and secular Jews have intensified, and increased conflict between secular and religious elements is visible throughout the Middle East, Riskin says. "As a result, governments and civil and religious groups alike increasingly have recognized the importance of working at the grassroots level to win the hearts and minds of the people."
Following the terrorist bombings in Israel, Israelis have become increasingly concerned for their personal safety, Riskin says. People now avoid popular public gathering places, such as cafes, and speak openly about their unease. Nevertheless, many Israelis seem to believe that the country's physical existence is no longer threatened by outside forces, Riskin says.
On the economic front, the Palestinians, who since 1967 have had limited control over their essentially third-world economy, have not experienced the economic benefits expected from the peace process. Indeed, conditions have worsened. Palestinians have been particularly hard hit by the repeated closures by Israel of areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority, which essentially shut down their economy. Despite the questionable effectiveness of such a policy in curbing violence, Riskin notes, Israel initiates the closures in response to terrorist incidents, thus reinforcing a destructive cycle of repression and violence. The Palestinians Riskin spoke with noted their extreme hardship resulting from the closures, which prevent them from getting to their schools, medical facilities, jobs, and markets where they sell their perishable produce and other goods.
Israel, on the other hand has a more-or-less fully developed Western economy with a European standard of living, and is economically relatively unaffected by the closures.
"There is an asymmetry of power in almost every aspect of life between the two communities," Riskin says. This is an added complexity in the search for peace that outside observers often overlook.
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