The predetermined date for a successful, permanent and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians has come and gone without peace being realized. Most of us didn't even notice.
Here are three reasons why peace negotiations fail:
- A predetermined timeframe for peace to be realized is unrealistic. As the nine-month window for a final status between Israel and Palestine drew to a close, I was reminded of a conversation I had with my Palestinian-Christian friend Daoud Nasser who reflected on peace as a marathon rather than a sprint. He said, "Peace does not happen because powerful men sit around a table, make compromises, and then shake hands. Peace happens as two groups of people who have wounded each other learn to live for the benefit of one another. For us, this will take years."
This exposes the limitations of peace negotiations and the problem of the compromises within: they cause us to memorialize our own pain while ignoring the pain of the other and encouraging us to protect our own assets, even to develop strategies to gain more.
While necessary and viable steps in the right direction, peace between Israel and Palestine will not result from compromises made to exchange prisoners and freeze settlements. Instead, true, lasting peace will come as these two people seek the restoration of each other and, in so doing, find themselves being restored.
As war and negotiations continue to fail, perhaps it's time we shift our strategy.