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The Five Strangest Solutions to the Arab-Israeli Conflict
By Roi Ben-Yehuda / November 15, 2007
In just a few weeks, statesmen from around the world will convene at an international peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The conference will coincide with the sixtieth anniversary of the UN's historic decision to partition Palestine into two states. Yet after six decades of diplomatic failures and fruitless peace plans, the attendees look set to consider only warmed-over versions of the same stale and unimaginative "two-state solution."
It's time to consider daring new ideas and radical new solutions. To that end, I present to you the five strangest proposals to end the Arab-Israeli conflict. Olmert and Abbas, please take note.
Peace of Mind
According to the International Meditation Society of Israel, peace between Israel and her neighbors can be achieved without protracted negotiations or conferences. The key is transcendental meditation (TM). Practitioners of TM—including, famously, the Beatles—believe that by turning inward, one is able to unite with "the Source of all Being" and spread kindness all around. If enough people in a society practice TM, hatred and violence will dissipate.
Alex Kutai, a leader of the TM movement in Israel, has done the math. Kutai has determined that bringing peace to the entire Middle East will require that the square root of one percent of the region's population undertake transcendental meditation.
During Israel's 2006 war with Hizbullah, Kutai dispatched a "squadron" of 65 TM practitioners into the war zone to create a spiritual force shield of invincibility around the north of Israel. Kutai has challenged the government of Israel to demonstrate its commitment to peace by assemble 265 TM practitioners around the country. Two-hundred sixty-five is the square root of one percent of seven million, and thus should be sufficient to bring peace to Israel/Palestine. The government of Israel has yet to finance even a single practitioner of TM.
The No-State Solution
Forget the two-state vs. one-state debate. It is time to consider the anarchist-inspired no-state solution. Conflict between Israel and her neighbors is a result of the divisive and coercive influence of state power, the reasoning goes. Peace will come only when the the people of Israel/Palestine assemble into a non-authoritarian cooperative community of free individuals.
In Israel, political groups like Anarchists Against the Wall, Israeli National Traitor Anarchists, and Amoria have been at the forefront in advocating for this solution. According to Amoria, "AMORIA is the intentional community that we wish to create in Kna'an, the land that is called Israel by some and Palestine by others. We are anarchists, so we are opposed to the state system that oppresses all peoples on the planet and the planet itself. We sidestep this semantic political conflict by advocating not a one-state solution, or two-state solution, but a NO-state solution in the Land of Canaan."
Weed for Peace
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I really enjoyed this lucid and proficient article pertaining to one of the world's most notoriously controversial conflicts. It is high time someone put on the table some of the more radical and revolutionary remedies to the Arab-Israeli conflict. While the anarchist approach might seem remote in an era typified by a ferocious upsurge of nationalism and ethnocentirsm, all the proposed remedies are refreshing, and also contain a humorous touch. Roi's mastery of the subtleties of Middle Eastern history, and his passion for the written word pays handsome dividends again.  Â
Thank you for a refreshing article. Enjoyed reading it and think that humor can solve a lot in our world today and the middle east conflict. Its time for both, Israelis and Palestinians to unite and stop letting all the "big" people controlling all this getting bigger. Its time to hold hands and remember the unity that once exsisted between those two cultures. It was not alwyas like this. We learned and still learning a lot from each other, and how about just creating :"ISRAELESTINE". This peace of land can become heaven if people will put their minds into it. (first solution is simply briliant). Good work.
 Very good article . We all need some new way of thinking, for sure some sense of humor can help us all.
Instead of flouride in the water how about some birth control. Fanatics seem to be heavy into breeding. Its a long term solution, but its already taken this long….
My solution would be to create large middle classes on both sides – higher standards of living and education – mean that people have more to loose – if they want war. Giving people increased wealth, education and greater standard of living – bothin in Israel and Palastine – would – in my mind – stop the social inequality which fuels the political elements of the conflict.
I would say that the last solution is the strangest one. It is not an eternal conflict because both populations beleive that the same piece of land is sacred and their property by right ?
smart article! I go for the first solution. one by one, we could be millions spreading kindness all around.
…And when the broken hearted people
Living in the world agree,
There will be an answer, let it be.
For though they may be parted there is
Still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer, let it be…
Why not reclaim land from the Meditteranean to have a replica of Jerusalem and all the disputed lands? – cvj
Nice one Roi!
Funny, smart and well-written!
Only  sense of humor may help them to overcome the difficult task they have in front of them. Even beter all should  they should try the third solution Â
http://amoria.dvarim.com/
Nice article, but I think that your omission of the one-state solution is telling – after all, it is one of the strangest, dumbest, and most suicidal proposals out there. Why was it not included?Â
Mobius, what's the right addy for them, I'll give them a link.
i was a member of amoria (and am currently their webhoster).
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