The Gaza Strip continues to serve as an obstacle to peace in Israel, even after the peace accord between Israel's Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat made the two leaders Time magazine's men of the year. The Gaza Strip, a slice of land on the Mediterranean coast between Egypt and Israel, is home to Palestinian Arabs, refugees from the state of Israel. The Palestinian refugees have managed a tentative existence on the strip since 1948, when Israel became a state.
Since the Gaza strip has been under Israeli rule since the Arab and Israeli war of 1967, the Jews have lived alongside their enemies, while hate between the two groups has steadily grown. Jews with strong nationalistic ties have long resented the encroachment of the Palestinians on their holy land; in addition, the Gaza Strip has historically been valuable as a trade route between Arabia and the Mediterranean world, and many have sought to control it. For these reasons, the obstacles to peace are many. However, such obstacles to peace could more certainly be overcome if the Strip were administered by a disinterested third party--one whose arbitrating influence would obligate both sides to peace.
Because this is not the best of all possible political worlds, it is not likely that a third party will intervene. As far as Israel is concerned, the influence of the Palestinians is unwelcome enough. A third influence on their native land would be unthinkable. Accepting the current state of negotiations between Arafat and Rabin as a reality, it is unlikely that violence between the two nations will end. As long as there are Palestinians on the Gaza Strip, it will be the site of discord. The most that the two leaders can hope for is a mutual, peaceful standoff of hatred.
Time magazine reported on Yasser Arafat's new headquarters on the West Bank in February 1994, subsequent to the peace accord. His role, as administered by the Jews, was to oversee Palestinian self-rul...