Calling for an International Peace Conference on the Middle East

Syrian refugee families who came from Kobani district living in refugee tents in Surac district in Turkey in October 2015. Photo credit: Orlok / Shutterstock.com.

By Odile Hugonot Haber
for the Middle East Issue Committee

Now that President Trump has declared that ISIS is gone, perhaps it’s time to take a break from wars and urge our representatives to use diplomacy again instead of bombs.

Since 9/11, wars have been raging in the Middle East. First Afghanistan, then Iraq, Syria, and now Yemen. All these countries have been devastated by huge coalitions led by the US declaring a war on terrorism and bombing them. Huge amounts of bombs, and an army of drone strikes have hit many, many times, killing and maiming millions of people, destroying the infrastructure, pouring toxic materials all over the ground, and contaminating the water.

These conflicts have amounted to nothing less than an Armageddon of sorts for the people who lived there. The populations who have been attacked are some of the poorest on earth without access to political or military power. Ancient towns and communities have been ravaged, and entire peoples have been exterminated or forced to flee. A huge amount of refugees have been created from these wars that have gone where they could to save their lives: Jordan, Iran, Europe, Greece, Turkey, Italy, England, Germany, and the Nordic countries.

These endless wars have cost our whole generation more than we can tell in human costs. They have also cost trillions of dollars, which benefits the arms makers and their industry, but means devastation for everyone else, including US military families and taxpayers, since this is money that could be spent on health care, infrastructure, green initiatives, and other needs.

Whether the causes for going to war were fictional or real, the results have been calamitous for human beings on all sides of these conflicts. Common sense morality has been the first casualty in the West, as murder is being discussed on radio daily, sometimes as a terrible thing, but sometimes as a good thing, depending on the actors.

The US army is broken, and many veterans have taken their own lives, leaving their families mourning in despair. More than 6,000 veterans have killed themselves each year since 2008, at a rate 1.5 times higher than adults who never served in the military, and the suicide rate among female veterans is even higher—1.8 times that of non-veteran women. (These numbers are from a 2018 Guardian article).

Israeli/Palestinian Conflict Still Important

In the midst of these catastrophic happenings, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict seemed small and disappeared from the news, while Palestinian human rights have continued to be disrespected, and their land has been taken more and more by the Israelis, such that many no longer consider the two state solution to be viable.

Photo: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919.

The United Nations (UN) needs to look at the situation on the ground and call the many parties to peace, with negotiations for rebuilding, creating stability again, and thinking in terms of establishing a long and secure peace. This can be accomplished through measures such as a Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone, safe zones, safe cities, no man’s land. We need to build safe and verifiable mechanisms to ensure real peace on the ground. It is possible. The science is there, what is lacking is the will.

But how many more wars can we afford humanly speaking?

Our planet is on the brink of disaster, water is contaminated, fires are raging, and total depletion is coming fast. Climate change also calls for our involvement and for our money to be moved to providing concrete solutions rather than waging wars. As Greta Thunberg says, “We must act.” Our children are appealing for reason and peace, for actions that are restorative, healing, considerate, and will build a reasonable future for them.

To call for a comprehensive peace conference on the Middle East, one that is thoughtful about the whole earth, seems to be not only urgent but necessary.

There have been smaller efforts that we can build on. A small Middle East peace conference for Israel and Palestine was started in Paris on June 3, 2016, and met again in January 2017, in which the participants reiterated all the previous resolutions, such as 338 and 242, insisting on the importance of “two states ...living side by side in peace and security to achieve an enduring peace.” They supported all the recommendations of the Quartet (released on July 1, 2016) and noted the dire humanitarian and security situation in Gaza.

The participants underscored the importance of the Arab Peace initiative of 2002 as a comprehensive framework for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They supported all peace efforts in the area including a new UN resolution 2334, passed by the General Assembly (GA) in December 2016, which clearly condemned Israeli settlements and all forms of violence.

It has been too long since focused attention was given to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

At this time, we need more than words. Actions must be taken, steps must be devised. Diplomacy could start there, but must evolve into all other countries of the Middle East that are in ruins and in need of immediate attention.

The US cannot retire its army from the Middle East and leave a complete mess behind!

It must call for an International Peace Conference. Just as the US has built these huge coalitions for war, it must reassemble them to build peace, to build processes that will emerge as the future diplomatic new world that supports lives on this planet. We can create a cooperative process that will involve all members of the coalitions to rebuild countries, create jobs, and build a new future based on proven techniques to mitigate climate change and solutions that will sustain lives in their many different forms.

Stressing mutual security and a culture of nonviolence, as well as a rapprochement of cultures, is needed. This is not to ignore that tribal and historic enmities exist in the region but to recognize that they have been fanned by wars. The call for vengeance must transform to a call for redemption and peace with justice.

To end the war system and create a global security system and a peace culture, we must engage a diplomatic process that is bigger than one that involves just heads of state. Whole peoples must participate, and all the parties must be invited to the peace table.