On air: Will Middle East peace talks fail as long as God's involved?
| 14:00 UK time, Thursday, 2 September 2010
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is changing - that's according to the 91Èȱ¬'s Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen. In his latest radio bulletin, Jeremy says,
'A religious war is now being grafted on what used to be fundamentally a competition for territory between two national movements. You can make deals with nationalists. It's much harder with people who believe they're doing God's work.'
With God at the negotiating table, Obama's call to may fall to deaf ears.
Giant fans on the
'Religion is the most dangerous energy source known to humankind. The moment a person (or government or religion or organization) is convinced that God is either ordering or sanctioning a cause or project, anything goes.
Washington-based columnist feels that it's God making make peace for Israelis difficult,
'You can't negotiate with someone who wants all of your land, believes their god demands your death and has commissioned you to do the job....Israel, as usual, will be pressured to make more concessions of land for a peace that will not be offered. There will be no two-state solution, because the Palestinians want only one state: theirs. They say this. Why should they not be believed?'
And earlier this week,  condemned the radical anti-Islamic comments made by the well-known Rabbi Yosef,
'There's no shortage of Israeli politicians and Jewish organizations quick to condemn Muslim leaders for failing to denounce Islamic extremists, but when the incitement comes from a prominent rabbi, they're suddenly struck dumb. '
writes that it's about getting real -God has already spoken and He needs to be addressed promptly.
'As direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are launched this week, it will be critical that the talks address the religious dimension of the conflict. This has been given only scant attention thus far, despite the fact that it has, and will continue to have, a tremendous impact on the ultimate outcome of the negotiations. Religious radicals - both Jewish and Muslim - seek to transform the Israeli-Palestinian dispute from a territorial and national conflict to a religious one, fueled by the conviction that God bequeathed the land exclusively to one faith. It is a view that prevents rational discourse between the sides and leads to the conclusion that agreeing to a two-state solution to the conflict would be tantamount to defying God's will.'
Some remain insisting that these Middle-East peace talks. And maybe rightly so. If these peace talks fail, the US may be in for a . But how do you come to a compromise when God's involved? Does religion make the negotiating process irrational?
