There is no "black and white" solution to this situation. Never has been, and sadly probably never will be. And while we have every right to push for peace, to rally for an end to the violence, to speak of the senselessness of bombing each other, we have NO right, as Americans, to tell them we have a handle on their history, therefore can give them a solution to their situation.
However, I do have a radical proposal. I wish I could take credit for it, but I first came across a version of it in Sheri Tepper's book, The Fresco. Written in 2000, it's about an alien who comes to Earth and begins to solve some big problems for us. Tepper's alien has a brilliant solution to the constant fighting in the "Old City:--Jerusalem:
"In Israel, first light had brought helicopter flights over the city of Jerusalem. The mile-deep hole followed the serrated polygon of the old city walls. Vanished were the Temple Mount, the Dome of the Rock, El Aqsa Mosque, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Via Dolorosa. Gone were the Citadel and the Antonia Fortress, the Zion Gate, the Jaffa Gate. Gone was the entire Old City: Arab Quarter, Jewish Quarter, Armenians, Greek Orthodox, odds and ends of varietal Christians and all.
When the sun got high enough to reflect off the inside lip of the chasm, large gold letters appeared just below the western edge in Hebrew, Latin, Greek, and Arabic. Further examination found other languages, ancient and modern, extending along the north and eastern sides. At mid-morning, former residents of the Old City were seen approaching the city from various directions, on foot, most in their bed clothes. No one was hurt, though many were thirsty and hungry, and all said they'd left others out in the desert or along the roads or in the smaller towns or villages in which they themselves had wakened. The International Red Cross/Red Crescent arrived a few hours later, though the Israeli army had already set up a tent city for the displaced, divided by hastily erected barriers into areas for various religious or ethnic groups who might otherwise be expected to fall upon one another in a frenzy of mutual accusation.
The news was carried by CNN before full light, and was reprised every quarter hour thereafter as the country turned toward the sun, allowing more of the chasm's southern and then eastern faces to be illuminated. As each new language appeared, an appropriate scholar was summoned to the CNN newsroom to pontificate upon the meaning of the words, though in each case the meaning was the same, whether in Latin, Coptic, Armenian, Aramaic, or various forms of ancient or modern Hebrew or Greek: "Jerusalem was to be a city of holy peace. Without peace, it is not to be."
When telescopes were brought and focused far down on the walls, the message was seen to have been augmented with another phrase, also in multiple languages. "Next time, the hole will be bigger."
The message from the wiser, more powerful alien was simple: "Until you can play nice, you can't have it."
And what a very simple, very wise, very peaceful, just solution to the conflicts in the area now. We tell the major world religions, we tell the people who live there, who have ancestors who have lived there, fighting incessantly, the same thing we would tell a toddler: "Until you can learn to share, until you can learn to get along, this place is off-limits. You can visit it, but you can't live here."
This rule, this solution would be enforced by moms. And by as many time-out chairs as are needed.
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