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E-mail a friendYOUNG VOICES
Once Upon A Peace Process
Dr. Sari Nusseibeh
Sari Nusseibeh's mixed feelings about Israeli-Palestinian relations say much about the future of the region.
On last Friday's program, the Palestinian Authority's Harvard-educated former Jerusalem representative voiced serious concerns for the feasibility of a true Palestinian state emerging anytime in the near future. The title of his new book, Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life, suggests, the author says, “that the country may no longer exist in real life… it exists in the dream world [as] part of the past, no longer a possibility for the future.”
It is saddening to hear these words from someone as intimately involved in the fate of the Palestinian people as Mr Nusseibeh. It is even more depressing, however, to hear the expediency of his ideas of what must be done to rectify the situation. People as intelligent and forward thinking as him, it seems, have little place in the current reconciliatory process, if it can be said to exist at all.
“At the end of the day,” he says, “there's no solution really through violence or through conflict…[the] only way to reach a solution is to put our heads together, see what works out for both of us and then work together in order to bring it about.”
It is a simple solution, perhaps overly so, to an infinitely complex problem. But, as Nusseibeh says, it's just a matter of trying something new. As Americans, we have our own role to play in this process, one which has been neglected in recent years, but whose beneficial ramifications would surely be widespread.
To solve their differences, Israelis and Palestinians, as well as their Arab neighbors, need to sit down and agree that, yes, they all want the same things: stability, prosperity, and a bright future for their children. These are simple, universal goals, but as Mr. Nusseibeh's book suggests, they may fare better in fairy tales than politics.