Israel/Palestine Dilemma - It seems the entire world has shifted its focus to Israel and Palestine with the recent U.N. resolution and John Kerry’s speech. It’s crazy that such a tiny area in the Middle East garners so much of the world’s attention. In fact, the U.N. General Assembly adopted 20 Israel resolutions this year, while passing just four for the rest of the world – one for North Korea, one for Syria, one for Iran, and one for Russia”. (Source: Fox News) So much attention for such a small area of the world: Obviously Israel/Palestine represents much more to the West and to the Arab world than its size would suggest. Like most Westerners, I am relatively ignorant to the intricacies of the situation. There are heavy emotions and deep religious beliefs on many sides that guide much of the decision making in this area; creating an irrational and very difficult situation. Although it is impossible for me to understand the deep emotions this land represents to the people of Israel/Palestine, I did some research looking into as many perspectives on this issue that I could find (or realistically had time for). I also had the honor of interviewing Shlomo Mirvis, a past Israel intelligence agent and CEO and Co-Founder of Intelligo Group, a global due diligence, business intelligence and risk management firm, for this week’s episode of Business Game Changers. Mr. Mirvis and his company strives to be a neutral, nonpolitical business serving clients all over the world. Nevertheless, his past professional and personal experience sheds incredible light on the real human realities on the ground including the realities of terrorism and human suffering throughout the region. See Shlomo Mirvis’s full bio. Overview Both Israelis and Palestinians want and deserve peace. Both want to be free and have a homeland that is controlled by their people for their people. With this ideal in mind, most politicians and intelligence leaders throughout the world believe that a 2 state solution is the only way to bring peace to the region. Publically, Israel and Palestine share this believe, but what is not said openly is that some leaders on both sides want 100% of the land for their respective countries and are unwilling to compromise under any circumstance. The resulting consequence of this has been long term war, suffering, and ultimately many failed attempts at creating a 2 state solution which would bring peace and long term prosperity to the region. Ultimately Four Views Exist Most people publicly support a 2 state solution based on compromise and good will. Extreme Palestinians want to move to a one state solution which would likely wipe out the Jewish state. The privately stated goal is to increase population and through sheer force of size, control the country and eventually remove the Jewish authority and the Jewish people. Extreme Israelis want to move to a one state solution as well. Their privately stated goal is to control all of the land and force most Palestinians to leave the region. The development of settlements has been seen by many as evidence of this mindset even when the developers goal may not have this intention. A small but growing group, consisting of both Israeli’s and Palestinians, believe a democratic and equal one state solution could work. This idea is very controversial (see here) considering the one state solutions mentioned above, but some believe this is the inevitable outcome anyways and working with this realization is the only path forward. At this point, no solution has been implemented. The current stalemate is causing political outrage and devastation. The plight of the Palestinian people is dire and will continue to be while this conditio...
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