Justice

I was reading in the Caplan book and there was a quote that really stuck out to me.  "The more historical justice that each side demands, the less their real national interests get served.  Justice and interests fall into conflict."

This brings puts into better words a concept that I have had for a while.  When I look at the conflict, I see the current situation.  I don't think it matters who has won or lost over the years.  Historical justice is something that can go back years, centuries, or millenia.  Both sides will claim injustice and both sides will demand retribution and/or compensation.  As for their claims, there was a comment on how God promised a vaguely defined holy land to "the children of Abraham" as an everlasting possession.  Considering that Jews claim decendence from Isaac and Muslims claim decendence from Ishmael, the two sons of Abraham, both are technically the "seed of Abraham" and yet nobody addresses this.  I'm sure that Jews would dispute this claim just as Muslims would argue it.  Regardless, they are still saying that an invisible, omnipotent being promised something to you and this doesn't seem to be the best way to divide real estate.  It would be like claiming the North Pole because Santa Clause lives there.  England might dispute that, but they call him Father Christmas and they dress him differently, so they must be wrong and ours is true.

Dwelling on the past will only complicate an already complicated issue further.  People need to look at the current issues and find a way to reach resolutions that are acceptable to both sides.  Overall, I think most people realize that historical issues are not the basis for the argument, but it often comes back to that.  It may be that most of the people in power don't focus as much on the past anymore, but there is always something else to justify the status quo.  While I don't think that historical justice is the most commonly used logic among the governments and other parties in the negotiations, I think that among regular people it is still used to justify the occupation and policies Israel has against the Palestinians.  It is still used as a theme to control public sentiment much like fear of terrorism is used in the US.  The terrorist theme is obviously used in Israel as well, but they are able to use the other narrative to compliment it.