Thursday, August 20, 2009

Conceiving of Peace (Iran & Israel)

Here is a proposition to consider:

The key to resolving the Iranian-Israeli nuclear dispute is to shift from demands for unilateral Iranian concessions to bargaining: namely, a long-term process of joint, low-keyed, incremental steps to discover a mutually-acceptable compromise.


People tend to react with fear (concealed by sneering or pretend outrage) when confronted with new ideas. Breathe slowly, and give the above proposition some thought.

If anyone knows of a time when Israel made a serious effort to negotiate a positive-sum outcome to its dispute with Iran, please inform me. In fact, for a generation Israel seems to have followed a fairly consistent policy of trying to back Iran into a corner from which it would have no choice but to accept a humiliating defeat...without even attempting the obvious alternative approach of trying to cut a mutually beneficial deal.

Do you agree? Do you disagree? Can you cite any evidence?

Second proposition:

Israel has such overwhelming military superiority that at this moment it could attempt to negotiate a deal at no security risk to itself.
So, why not?

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