Avoiding The Real Problem: Avoiding Peace in Syria and Gaza

       When reading the two opposing views on the online debate on Syria intervention, I could not help but relate it to a similar debate regarding a conflict happening not too far away from that country—how to make peace in Israel. As this is where most of my interest gravitates towards, I have been astound at how almost any conflict or topic we have covered in class has been able to be related back to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in some way. After a recent conference in Cairo, many international donors promised to give money to the Palestinian government to help rebuild the Gaza Strip. There has been much debate over whether or not this is a good idea, seeing no period of time longer than ten years has passed without war breaking out in Gaza. The constant tension continues to grow between Israelis and Arabs, and I believe rebuilding Gaza will simply be a waste of time, money, and overall effort. I feel as though by rebuilding Gaza, both parties of this long ongoing conflict are ignoring the bigger problem--that peace has not been found. Because of this, there is no telling just how long it will be until violence breaks out again and destroys all the reconstruction so many other countries plan to help create. The Palestinian government is simply rebuilding something that will very likely be destroyed soon again, like they are trying to cover up a wound without letting it heal.

            This relates directly back to article we read in class about the debate on Syria intervention. In the debate, Ed Husain, Senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies of the Council on Foreign Relations, argues that a ceasefire is the best way to go about fixing the conflict in Syria, and military intervention is not the answer. I completely agree with him, because similar to the Arab-Israeli conflict, he feels as though violence has not been the answer thus far and therefore will not be the answer this time. No more improvements will be able to be made until complete peace is made and complete violence is stopped, and this is the case in both Syria and Gaza. In both conflicts, avoiding full peace, by either imposing military action in Syria, or rebuilding Gaza, would not be solving the real problem, and practically forecasting future violence, in my opinion. As Husain further states, “The immediate priority is to stop the loss of life on both sides in the conflict in Syria. The best guarantee of that is to allow Russian, French and British diplomats to work together to broker a ceasefire with immediate effect” (1). This further illustrates his argument that peace should be the top priority in fully solving this conflict. 

            Many times in politics, both domestically and internationally, people can lose sight of the states best future interests because they get so caught up in wanting immediate results. However, though it may not come as easy, finding true peace now is the only way to ensure both of these conflicts will not get worse in the future before it is too late.

Sources:
(1) http://www.economist.com/debate/days/view/810