Safe Democracy Foundation - Safe Democracy

What initially emerged as a regional conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has now achieved status as a dispute of global proportions and repercussions, though after decades the driving faults behind it remain dismally unchanged. While the Palestinian nationalist movement faces the task of mending various historical defects, both sides of the conflict must now confront the responsibility of working towards a status as constructive partners, says the author.

Strung up between radical and polarizing militant forces, a leadership lacking credibility, and a firmly rooted history of antagonism, the Israeli and Palestinian people face a strong and ever-escalating conflict. The author claims that few of those caught in the crossfire allow themselves to hope for an end in the near future. How does a peace so long desired, so diligently debated, find itself receding progressively farther from view?

• Gaza: the consequences of the "Hot Winter"
  por Adrián Mac Liman
• Why must Israel be a civil nation of all its citizens
  por Dan Bavly

Israel’s Declaration of Independence ensures civil equality for all non-Jews, but the way the country is run today says something different. The author argues that Israel is actually a multiethnic state in which (especially secular) Jews are privileged to more rights than any other group. He argues that, especially in view of the demographics of the country, it is imperative that Arabs and other non-Jewish minorities not be treated as second-class citizens, especially if Israel is to be thought of as a democratic state.

• How might we learn to live together?
  por Dan Bavly
• Is a Comprehensive Middle Eastern Peace Possible?
  por Walid Salem

While international support for a Two-State solution seems to be promising following the recent summit in Annapolis, a partition of the land west of the river Jordan is not very practical when one takes into account the Israeli settlement policy of the past 30 years, argues the author; he suggests that the solution might lie down a different path: Jews and Arabs alike should learn to renounce their militant ways and, with an internationally backed effort, create an integrated country in which minorities are granted full rights, complete with an educational system that embraces all of the ethnic groups in the area.

Daniel Bavly takes a look back at the Six Day War, the conflict in which Israel faced a coalition made up by Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Syria exactly 40 years ago. The author, who lived through and took part in the event, believes a key opportunity to reach a concrete peace agreement was lost.