Peace Reform Initiative in the Middle East

Peace Reform Initiative in the Middle East

This is a synopsis to some of the problems in the Middle East and some of the changes that have to take place before there will be long lasting peace. What happen on September 11 has changed the world forever. Some things will never be the same making new things possible. We have to open our eyes to what is going on in the world around us. When you are dealing with problems as profound as the ones in the Middle East there is a enough blame to go around so everyone to have a major part. This is true in creating the problem as well as in solving the problem. Realizing that all sides have to change their ways of the past to make a better and brighter future possible. There are many different interpolations to the history of the Middle East. Many of today's problems are rooted in treaties and agreements from the late forties. With the creation of the United Nation at end of World War II, many of these treaties were written and ratified by the western industry world. The need and demand for oil by the western industrial nations were behind many of these agreements.

It is from this time on that things have to be re-evaluated in the Middle East. Less than a 100 years ago there were few borders, there were villages and some cities in the middle of vast amounts of land. Many were tribal villages and nomads with Kings in some of the cities with control over some of the land. Britain and France had territories that were mandated to them by the League of Nations. Ownership of land was not a concern until the discovery of oil. The western industrial nations thrust for more oil with the largest reserves discovered in the Middle East is where we are today. Some regions in the Middle East are still in the Middle Ages while others have taken to western modern ways. One the biggest mistake the outside world has done in the Middle East is arming all side to the maximum capacity. The amount of money spent on military equipment is criminal, considering the standard of living of most of the people. This case could be made with many other counties outside the Middle East. It is a global problem that has to be dealt with on a global level. Over the last 20 years the Middle East nations have spent over a hundred of billion dollars and on a global level trillions of dollars have been spent on military weapons and equipment.

Developing Palestine into a viable economic peaceful state is the goal. There will be two major projects one being the Palestine West Bank Project and the second the Gaza Project one day connected by high-speed rail. Israel and other Middle East nations will have to make some contributions to make it work. The outside world will have to contribute like never before. The creation of a Palestine country must be addressed by the international world. One of the keys to making this work is the Egyptian and Jordanian government and people willingness to work out a land deal to create the State of Palestine. A land deal with Egypt, for some land adjacent to the Gaza strip to create the state of Palestine. The same has to be done with Jordan with land adjacent to the West Bank creating the state of Palestine. With 50% of the money received by Egyptian and the Jordanian government will be invested in enterprise zone adjacent to Palestine within their own country. Many of the Palestine refugees already live within some of this land. An economic package will be apart of the deal with the wealthy Arab nations making a contribution to make it work.

Palestine Project
This project will require the help and investment from the governments, religions institutions of the world and the United Nations to create two new institutions. With one being a Religions University of the World (RUW) and the second being a new branch to the United Nation, Palestine United Nations (PUN) to deal with religion disputes. They would be built on the west bank in Palestine creating thousand of jobs as well as changing the environment of the region. A major fresh water project will be needed to create fresh water for Palestine. An infrastructure will have to be created to give the Palestine people a chance for a good way of life. With private corporations being encourage investing in private project. A tourist industry will develop during peaceful times giving the people of the world a chance to see the cradle of religion to the Western world. RUW and the PUN will setup charter school in Palestine and Gaza of Palestine to teach the young Palestine children. There will be a close working relationship between RUW and the PUN.

Religions University of the World (RUW)
RUW would provide a platform for religion leaders and organizations to teach their belief. The courses will be offer to the student body, which will be students from around the world. RUW will have their degrees for their full time students, with many other part-time student taking courses for a semester from other schools. Bringing people from all over the world to study religion, philosophy, history, ethics and culture in a true global way. Government's corporations and foundations can send people for specific training courses. World leaders and special seminars will be global broadcast on RUW satellite channel. RUW will be the crossroads for people, knowledge, and understanding of other people and their ways. RUW will have training courses for the United Nation Peace Keeping Forces.

The Nation of Palestine should be made of four States; Gaza Strip, West Bank and two new Palestinian states. One new state (The State of Sinai) would be created from the land adjacent to the Gaza Strip part of the Sinai Peninsula in a land deal worked out with the Government of Egypt, the other a land deal worked out with the Jordanian Government for some land adjacent to the West bank. These four States will make up the nation of Palestine. With an economics package worked out with Egypt, there could be a global effort helping the Palestinian people develop this area into an economically viable state. These two new Palestinian States will have many things in common, creating jobs and a new challenge for many of the Palestinian people. A master plans that is a clear vision for the Palestinian's people to a new way of life.

The Old City of Jerusalem should be an international city as stated in United Nations Security Resolution 181 (1947). Jerusalem would not be the Capitol of Israel or Palestine, East Jerusalem and the old section would become a religious state much like Vatican. The State of the Old City of Jerusalem should be separate from Israel and Palestine and should be under the United Nations as a separate State. This would create a natural zone with its own laws, enforced by the United Nations in the beginning.

With so many of the Palestinians refuges in the nation of Jordan, creating this new state of Palestine could help them political within their own country. Parts of these new territories will become Enterprise Zones that the global community will help, build the infrastructure for the Palestinian state. 65% of the Jordanian's population claims to be Palestinian descendants, with 1.6 million live in poor conditions.

The Right of Return and the Israeli's Occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are major parts of the problems that must be negotiated for a long lasting peace. Using United Nations statistics for the number of people involved on each side, a formula, agreed to by both sides, should be used as a base to work from. It could work something like this; whatever population figures both sides can agree to, could then be converted to a ratio. The ratio converted to a percentage that could be applied to each part: civilian population and land (Territory). Working from the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with the percentage of people it is agreed may stay on, then that same percent of Palestinians will have the right to return to Israeli as citizens. In each case the other will have to live under the law of the land in which they settle. A mix of population on both sides, to some degree, will be best for all sides. A similar formula for land should be worked out where a trade of similar acre for acre on the each side. Many of the policies toward each should reflect on what is happening on the other side. (Tit for tat.) For any agreement to work long term, it will have to be fair to both sides and may never be seen as fair to all people. The governments on both sides will have to agree to enforce the letter and spirit of the treaties in the best interest of most of the people. This is going to bring out the extremists on both sides testing the strength of the leadership on both sides.

Peace Keepers
One of the roles first the United Nations Peace Keeping Forces will be to help train forces on a local and state level. These forces will work with the local and state authorities to enforce the laws of the land. Other members will monitor the distribution of international aid. They will supply security for the international aid workers. The main base of operations will be in and near the capital city of Palestine. The United Nations and the sister agencies will take the leading role in this mission. An international empowerment zone will be created from which the public and private sectors will operate.

Campus
One of the first operations to be completed is the building of a campus for the international community to use in the first phase of this operation. These buildings should be built to stand permanently. They will be used be used for other purposes down the road. The campus will be where the government, private sector, humanitarians, educators, medical personnel, engineers, and communications come together. This campus will be built using local labor. The campus’ main focus will be to train local people in the way of the new world, that may be applied to the cities in their new country.

Government Sector
The government will have the following sections: administration, law enforcement, and justice. A balanced team of international workers will come to this campus to help train, consult and monitor the implementation of the new government. The enforcement side will be the most expensive and employ the largest number of people. Creating a base for the economy of the newborn society, a tax system will have to be implemented to cover future government operations.

Private Sector
The private sector will be encouraged to invest and bring in professionals to operate and train local individuals. Examples of business areas of need; hotel, computer, brick factories, communications, farming, banking… The list goes on and will grow as the needs and progress of their society grows. Parts of the private sector could be investment, and the other part could be aid, to help them recruit and build their network of local people in the region.

Humanitarian Sector
This section will manage the international donations, earmarking them for private individuals. This section will help the small local professional people with grants of tools and materials of their trade and start-up programs for small business owners. The new and alternate methods of generating electricity will be encouraged for outer regions in the nation.

Education Sector
This section will focus on building and starting new schools, to be turned over to the local community. Local labor and contracts for material will be used whenever possible. Charter of private schools will also be encouraged. This will be the second most labor-intensive sector. The international community will encourage the separation of religion and public education.

Medical Sector
In a Palestinian city an International Medical Center will be built to provided basic medical care and training for the local population. The Center will start off as a small clinic with room to grow into the states premier medical training center.

Engineering Sector
This section will work with the other sections in their construction projects. Building the infrastructure will start around the capital city. Professionals and student undergraduates of engineering from the global community having some fluency in the local languages will do internships. They will take on one of the local construction projects and be a consultant giving training and encouraging local participation. Natives of the region will reproduce the projects in the outer regions of the nation.

Communication Sector
The communication sector will administer communications for the other sectors as well as disseminate information throughout the country. A start-up newspaper, a radio station and a telephone company will broadcast information about ongoing international aid programs and opportunities for the people of the country. A combination of wired and wireless telephone systems has to be implemented. With Web access, international communication of information and consulting will be able to continue.

With the first stage of the operations in place, with international aid keeping the nation of Palestine afloat. National elections and the operation of law enforcement by the Palestine people will mark the beginning of phase II. Monitoring and counseling programs will continue with the tax revenue paying the way for the further nation development. Nation building will vary according to region and culture, but the basic needs will be the same. The international community can only help so far, before the local people have to pick-up and build out what was started. The campus started by the international community will be taken over by local authorities, with the private sector remaining to run their operations.

Palestine United Nation (PUN)
PUN's Charter will be mediate religious dispute between the different religious fractions that have disagreements to promote the understanding of other people’s religious beliefs. PUN will consult with other United Nation members and government leaders of the world. PUN and RUW will work on project together with the United Nation. Such as Food and Tools for Guns and Weapons Program or the International Student Education Exchange Program. As part of the United Nation body PUN will focus on problems humane rights and religious practices that need to be addressed by UN.

RUW and PUN will be the backbone to the developing of Palestine and its economy. The international banks and investment community will have to make financial commitment to Gaza of Palestine and its new acquired Sinai land will be developed to create a viable economy with some farming, light manufacturing, recreation, and tourism. Gaza of Palestine could be the gateway to the Egyptian historical sites and Jerusalem religious sites. Creating a long lasting peace and stability in this region would create a gold mine in the tourist industry opening the region for international investors. The programs described in this outline if implemented correctly could change the way things have been going in this region, in course have everlasting changes all around the world. The Arabs and global world community will have to work together to make it work. A global oil surcharge tax could be added to ever barrel of oil exported, this money could help the United Nations and the developing nations. The British Monarch could be a role model for some of the Middle East Monarch to move towards. Palestine United Nation (PUN) will border East Jerusalem. The relationship between Arab and Jew has to change as much as the relationship between Arab and Palestine people. 40% to 70% unemployment among the Palestine people is and will be a breeding ground for trouble. There are many more details that have to be worked out.

UNITED NATIONS
This part of the paper is a follow up to what the United Nation new role should be in the future. The problems the UN faced during the first three years of its conception are many of the same as today. As the world becomes a smaller place our difference become more apparent. It is the time for UN to take a new leading in the world. These ideas may not be new and some of them may already exist. It is the formula and combination of some new ideas with some old ideas and some improvement on the ones that are already in place. The UN needs a major over haul into the twenty-first century; they have not fully utilized their goodwill. The world is changing at a faster rate then ever before and the UN has not keep up with its pace. The UN purpose, charter and goals for the most part are very good. As a group they have lost their direction, mission and have gotten lost in all of the red tape of a large bureaucratic system. An oversight committee needs to evaluate all of the committees and sub-committees to try to consolidate the number of committees. The UN has to call on some of the leaders of the global corporations world to help streamline the procedures of the UN and to help implement some of these new programs. This oversight committee should a group from the private sector, some former retired CEOs, CFOs, etc. The retired sector could have more time to dedicate to the project.

UN Satellite Stations
There should be two channels one being much like C-SPAN broadcasting globally meetings and sessions of the United Nations. The second station should be similar to the Discovery channel but coving UN projects, programs and problems. Both channels would be educational on global issues and a way that the UN could communicate with the people of the world. The stations would operate more like public broadcasting. They could expose problems and explain the UN position to them. The UN could have fundraiser and recruit volunteers into some of their programs. There would be programming for the schools, collages, public and private intuitions to use as an educational tool. It would be the way the UN could disseminate information to the people and governments of the world.

Export Oil Tax
Putting a tax on the crud oil that is exported would be a good way to help pay for some of the UN new programs. The Export Oil Tax would help the UN nation build the infrastructure for its new leading role. An exported tax on crude oil will help pay for some of the changes. Half the money colleted would be spent in the region of collection to help balance some of the social and economical inequities of the world.

Court of Culture and Religious Disputes
The role of this court will not be to handle criminal cases. It would be dealing with disputes over ideology difference that needs to be mediated. There would not necessarily be a party right or wrong but how can this matter be settle in a peaceful way. The rules of engagement will be quite different than the UN criminal court; it will resemble family court.
Peace Keeping Forces
Their role will for the near time future will play an increasing role of importance. Every nation should be encouraged to participate. For these UN Peace Keeping Forces will be the people’s ambassadors of tomorrow. The terms and engagement will vary according to the situations. They could be the police and soldiers of the humanitarian aid workers in regions that have un-rest. Counties that do not want their armed forces under UN command should have a sabbatical program for those people who want volunteer the UN Forces for a year or two. Counties with a lot of military hardware will be encouraged to donate the use of some of their hardware during peacetime.

United Nations Website
The UN Website that has developed is a good point to begin the new outreach programs. It is a great tool for receiving and transmitting information and new ideas around the neighborhood and world. For organizing a global volunteer force on many levels. As a teaching tool and promoter of the UN principle and goals.

Charter United Nation Schools
The UN has to strengthen it charter school programs using the Internet and satellite TV stations. Establishing UN charter schools in places where they are needed the most. You could have a board of director of retired school personnel in one country giving support and guidance to a group in Palestine on the day-to-day operation of that school system. This could happen over the Internet and conference calls. These schools should be established so they can start to run on their own over time. Teachers from around the world could help out on site, using the UN support team to get them up and running. The curriculum will have to be customized for the needs of the region and culture. In some cases and situations small finical sensitive will be needed for the students to get family support.

Step one to peace movement has to take into account the following:
1-Realignment of Society Attitude
2-Enforcement
3-Money

All three parts will over lap and will have to come together. Without one of these parts it will become chaos, as it is today. Realignment of Society Attitude (RSA) is going to be the hardest and longest parts of the solution. It must start with education and this must happen on several levels. The media, religions, schools, associations and families must reevaluate their ways of the past. With our media the door is half open and half closed. With the media in the Middle East the door is closed and only open a crack in Israel. RSA is global problem that needs to be worked out first on a regional level. Without regional changes the local changes will sway from one extreme to another.
The media has to be the first to change their ways. They need to be more moderate and pro-active in the peace movement. They have to create a program base that will bring people together. There should be a government official-to-official format to communicate each government’s viewpoint on specific problems and possible solutions. The media has to be open to viewpoints from all sides and from the middle. Educational programs should be created to show the moderate viewpoints of many sides of the same issue. These programs should be broadcast globally. Forums, such as a TV talk show between the Palestinians and Israeli people to discuss their differences on an on going base, could be utilized. Different programs covering the variety of issues and sides in a constructive format. The media can be a tool or a weapon depending on how it is used.

The religious institutions have to practice and preach the truth from their pulpits and books. Their schools must teach tolerance towards other people's beliefs and ways that may be different from their own. As with most things religion can be a tool and help people and society or it can be a weapon that hurts people and society. This is true with religion, education, politics, military, and power. Religious leaders from the different faiths of moderation should have their own media forums to exchange ideas and beliefs. The religious institutions, media and schools have a great influence on the ideology of the people. Young minds can change over time and though the older ones may never change, they will not live forever. The religious hard line extremists will be the most difficult to deal with. They may only be muffled and segregated from the mainstream majority.

The schools and programs have the greatest chance of helping change the ideological beliefs of the young people of this region. More family student exchange programs are needed on an international basis, especially between Palestine and Israel. Education is the best chance for RSA to have a long lasting positive effect. For this reason, major changes have to be made in the existing Palestine schools. An international coalition of educators should be organized in local chapters, to adopt individual schools in Palestine. A bridge from administrator-to-administrator, teacher-to-teacher, and student-to-student, should be built to communicate and educate the each side to the problems and solutions of the day.

Young Arab People Associations should be established much like our “Y” program here in The United States. There should be a foreign student exchange program, providing halfway housing for foreign students. Connecting the Palestinian's youth to other youths in other international pluralistic societies should be a part of their study program.

One of the major hurdles we face in the Middle East today is that tribal society has evolved into what are mostly single religion states. There is no separation of religion and military, and both become one within the governments of the Middle Eastern nations. These monolithic countries with autocratic rulers have the hardest times changing some of the ways of the past. Creating bridges between the Open Societies and Closed Societies will create a better understanding on both sides of the bridge. Bringing people and families together to build a relationship of understanding, though not always in agreement. You can turn back the clock in a nation, such as the Ayatollah did in Iran, but you can't erase the knowledge acquired by a society. This is what frightens many of the closed autocratic societies so much. The States of Israel, Egypt and Palestine represent a threat to many of the closed Middle Eastern nations of today.

ENFORCEMENT
After a platform is established and the Rule of Law is created, only then will you be able to have self-governed enforcement of the laws. A clear vision of the future State of Palestine will have to be agreed to by all sides involved. A small, elite, national, light-armed Palestine military force needs to be trained by the international peace keeping forces. Their role will be to help support the State Police of Palestine in overseeing the law enforcement of the new Palestine. The cities, and some of the villages, will have local police that will enforce local and state laws within their city limits. In conjunction with the development of the new police force there needs to be a new court system implemented. The State and local courts system should have a High Court of Appeals.

Palestine may one day join Egypt, as the more open Moslem societies in the Middle East. In closed society enforcement, laws and regulations are easy to enforce. It is only went you have an Open Society that laws and regulations evolve as society changes. What is needed today for enforcement hopefully will not be needed one day in the future. Most societies want and strive to a peaceful co-existence with the global community. Having strong central government with local control and enforcement of the laws should be the global way.

What is needed now in Palestine is a strong and massive international peace keeping force under a United Nation mandate. The goal of this force will be to leave this region under local control in peaceful co-existence with it neighbors. This force will have an array of assignments. First and foremost they will be Ambassadors of Western Ways in a peaceful co-existence with a pluralistic world. Second they will help the regional and local authorities to establish a system that works. Establishing a working relationship with the outside world will help them achieve a self-governing society than can peacefully co-exist. The military housing that will be needed in the beginning will one day be used by educators and students from the outside world. Many of the groups and organizations needed to do the mission already exist. They need the backing, coordination and assignment of the mission by local authorizes and global communities that are involved. The United Nations and its new Palestine branch should be the leader in this role.

MONEY
Taxing a society is the only way an open society can raise money for humanitarian aid to others. The leading nations of the world want security for their people and the rest of the world. Security comes in many forms. The world leaders cannot afford to tax their people in order to provide a militaristic security in a world of social unrest. The cost of social change verses military spending is where we have to decide which way we are going to go. Only with a balance between these two will you achieve global security and peace. How we spend and invest the global resources today will determine the world we will have tomorrow.

A global export crude oil tax would be one of the fairest ways to pay for some of these new programs. The cash flow created by this tax would give the international groups the money to build and support the infrastructure for humanitarian projects and for peacekeeping missions. The United Nation would be one of the main organizations coordinating other groups and agencies in their humanitarian missions. We must utilize the expertise of the groups that already exist in the area. The benefits of a global oil tax could create the means to balance some of the world's inequities. This tax could help develop the infrastructure needed to enforce global policies that are mandated by the United Nations. This tax would be collected at the port of exit. It would go to the regional offices of the United Nations, to help with the cost of their regional missions. With a large source of new capital the United Nations and its operatives can take on the new leading roles in regional missions that are mandated by them. As the growth and expectation of the United Nations role grows, so will the resources to take them on. This would distribute the cost on to those nations that consume more imported crude oil. It would create a transparent record of export and import of the crude oil.
This tax would give the United Nations an independent source of cash enabling it to finance projects on an ongoing basis. With the creation of UN regional offices, focused on their region’s needs, the route of the international aid can be made more direct. Full time UN workers, in the region of need, will become the monitors and enforcers of the international aid. Their allegiance will be to the United Nations and it role in the region.

When the Middle Eastern nations were formed during the late forties, the old British form of government was chosen by many of these newly formed countries. The British Monarch gave up a lot of ground and absolute power to have the world we have today. The Middle Eastern Kingdoms have to change their ways going forward as a nation preserving designated region of their country. As people and families should have the right and freedom to choose weather they live in a city or country, they should also have the right to choose between the old ways and new ways as a way of life.

There should be sections of regions that preserve the tradition and ways of the past. The outer parts of these regions would be open to the outside world to come and see and visit. With the inner parts of the regions remaining closed to preserve the purity of the old ways of the past. Progress and the ways of the new world are not seen as being good by all sides. Establishing areas that are reserved by laws maintaining areas of the past should be part of all cultures. The Rule of Law would vary region to region according to local traditional.

United Nations and the New World Order
With a code of conduct written that is acceptable among communities around the world. The four-status level of nations would be divided into six regions: The UN and it regional members will have find the code of conduct that are similar among the majority of nations and adopt them as a resolution. Those countries, groups, and people that do not agree with the principles and goals of a globally accepted agreement, should be isolated. Political and religious extremist should be dealt with in an appropriate manor. We need fewer laws and more enforcement of the laws we need.

Neither the United States nor any other country should be the global police or judge in a unilateral fashion. This role should be led by the UN and followed by the Open Society nations as well as any other nation that want to participate in a multilateral way. The UN has to play a stronger role in the leadership into the new millennium. All nations should be responsible for internal crimes, violence, and justice within their borders. A government could summons UN to mediate, intervene or judge an internal dispute between different ethnic, and or religious groups that are having conflicts within a nation. The second way for UN involvement in a country internal problem is by 2/3-majority vote of UN council. It would be illegal for any nation to use it armed forces outside their boarders unless it is an act approved by a 2/3-majority vote by the UN Council. In the case of Declaration of War between two or more nation, the UN would only play a diplomatic role. Only during cease-fires, or at the end of a war would UN Peace Keeping Forces would be involved.

There are many more than two sides to any problem. Very often, there is not one answer that is right to all, only conformity to what might be best for the majority involved. One cannot change history or what has already happened, but we can influence the way things are going to be tomorrow. What was right and proper yesterday may be wrong today. One must understand the historical perceptive of the way things were to be able to understand where we are today, and where we may be headed. We have many more things in common with the other side than we realize. “Things are not right, and there are injustices being done to their people.” “They started it and we don't feel secure, and it's not our fault.” Usually most sides will agree that there is a problem; it is only in the answer, or solution, that there will be disagreements.

In the ever so changing world the UN role becomes more important. For the New World Order to work the UN will have lead all the nations into the world of a multilateral platform. All nations will have to make major changes in their practices and ways. Example: The United States and its allies cannot preach peace and be the world supermarket for weapons of death and destruction. With political and social issues, the rate of change will vary among nations. The United Nation and the New World Order should focus on the Middle East and bring peace into this region and the rest of the world will follow. The UN should help navigate and mediate these changes into the new Millennium.

posted by David @ 9:04 AM