One of the reasons I started / I maintain this site is that I think too much. Every so often an oddball thought pops into my head, and it’s nice to express it, either in the hopes that it’s either a good thought worthy of being shared…or that it will serve as evidence for one day when I’m committed to the funny farm.
One of the mailing lists I subscribe to is for folks who have a fascination with borders, tripoints, and the like. A recent discussion on the de facto border between Israel and Palestinian Authority territory on that list has turned nasty, for the usual reasons.
The subject of “what to do” about the Middle East is a nasty one, as there’s plenty of blame to spread around, a lot of history behind the current situation, not to mention the conflicting claims of entitlement to the region.
It’s that “conflicting claims of entitlement” that stimulated my nutty idea of the day.
I wonder, what would happen if, by international consensus, everyone were kicked out of the country, at least temporarily, and sovereignty were transferred to a theoretically neutral party with no prior claims to the region – the Dalai Lama, for instance.
The conflicting parties could be resettled elsewhere…or even be granted readmission to the region, provided they accepted governance by the new powers-that-be.
I know, it’ll never happen, and it would only aggravate the conflicting claims of title on property in the region. But given the ugliness of Middle Eastern politics, sometimes you wonder if the situation is messy enough that if the parties involved can’t just learn to table past conflicts and quit antagonizing the other side (the only practical solution, unfair though it may be), the next best answer is to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch.
