We learn from history

ThinkProgess ran a piece on what the U. S. should learn from the recent beating of an American citizen in Jerusalem, outlining the recent violence that began with the deaths of three kidnapped Israeli teens.  For what it's worth, the piece is fair and tries to find a balance between the desires of each state.

Frankly, though, I've been following politics since 1976 and I stopped paying attention to the Israeli-Palestinian feud in the late 1990s.  It just seemed that both sides would always find a way to make a bad situation worse, no matter the best intentions of third parties.  Nothing has changed in the past fifteen years or so to make me feel any different.  It still seems a good waste of dollars and diplomacy.

I know there are sincere people who believe the two sides can be reconciled, much like the equally violence-prone sides eventually were in Northern Ireland.  Myself, I think the rest of the world should just let them be--maybe once no one other than the Israelis and Palestinians has a stake in their battles, they'll realize just how meaningless the hatred and the violence have become.

Peace,
emaycee