Israel and the Arab Spring

The Arab Spring is one of the most important developments towards world peace and it has motivated me to think again about the danger posed by the unresolved Israel/Palestine issue.

On the one hand, Israel's Jews have a legitimate fear that they will be treated as second class citizens, if they accept a solution, where they are no longer the majority in their state. And they also have a legitimate fear that they might even be thrown out of the Mid East and forced to migrate to Western countries.

On the other hand, the current situation is also clearly unacceptable. Palestinians are neither citizens of Israel, as they would be with proper annexation of the occupied territories, nor are they allowed to form their own proper state. They are therefore second class citizens, unless they choose to emigrate to Western countries.

For the good of everyone, in Israel, in the wider Middle East and for the world as a whole, much more needs to be done I think to force the parties to come to an equitable deal. In my opinion, this needs to involve more pressure on Israel, especially from Western countries. Arab countries should also emphasise their opposition to violence to resolve the issue and equally importantly, show that Jewish citizens have nothing to fear by enhancing the rights of Jews in the Arab world.

And Israel should offer to withdraw completely to something close to the 1967 borders, make everyone inside the new borders an Israeli citizen, and clearly communicate that the long term aim is freedom of movement and equal rights for all, so that in 50 years it would be perfectly acceptable for Jews no longer to be a majority in Israel.