Letter to the Editor: A road map, of sorts, to Mideast peace

The Boston Globe

May 14, 2008

By Deborah Katz, Boston Chapter

JEFF JACOBY ("A triumph of life and hope") and Yousef Munayyer ("For Palestinians, mourning") might seem to speak for the two sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ("Israel at sixty," Op-ed, May 11). But I don't think this is true.

Jacoby argues that there is a zero-sum game in which one side is right; this implies only one side can win. Munayyer argues that both sides must understand the other's narrative and mutually carve out a just peace. There are people on each side who believe in the zero-sum game and think their side can vanquish the other. But the good news is that more and more Israelis, Palestinians, American Jews, and Arab Americans are speaking out to say that understanding, negotiation, and compromise are the best and only ways to achieve a just, lasting peace.

If we don't support Israelis and Palestinians in this quest, setbacks, inertia, continued violence, occupation, and extremism will drive them further apart, not closer to a positive future that so many Jews and Arabs support.