The real conflict in the land between the Sea and the River is not between Palestinians & Israelis, it is not a religious war (there are Jews, Muslims, Christians & believers of other religions supporting both sides).  It is a conflict between, on one side, those who want that land exclusively for their side, realising that it will mean an ongoing war for the foreseeable future, a war that neither Palestine nor Israel can win but both Palestinians & Israelis will lose, and, on the other side, those who are willing to trade exclusivity for peace, who are willing to accept that both Palestinians & Israelis have the same right to claim the land as their people’s homeland and to be a free people in it.

The exclusivists on both sides are very good at painting the 100+ years of conflict in black and white, us or them, win or lose terms.  Indeed, the exclusivists on both sides are not above working with each other to stop those who accept the need to compromise being accepted as the real patriots.  Even the recent assassination of Ismail Haniyeh can be seen like this, the removal of a relatively moderate Hamas leader in such a way as to strengthen the hawks on both sides.

The reality is the opposite, it is those who believe Palestinians & Israelis  both have rights to that small sliver of land, who believe both people have ancient ties to it and that they both need to learn to live alongside each other who are the real patriots, the people who really love both the land the people who live there & want to see an end to the continual violence.

On both sides, the majority of people just want to be able to earn a living, to feed their families, to see their children grow up and fulfil their potential, to live in peace & dignity whether they live in Gaza or Ramallah, Tel Aviv or Bet Shemesh.   

Sadly, both sides are afflicted by political leaders who put their own wellbeing, political & personal, above the wellbeing of the people they claim to lead, leaders who are not afraid to shed other people’s blood to stay in power.

For the sake of Palestinian & Israeli children to come, so they don’t have to learn to kill or be killed, both nations need to find a way to change the narrative that binds them into the conflict.  This is why both Palestine & Israel need new leadership, leaders who realise that, while the past should not be forgotten, the future must not be bound by it.  

The only way to break out from the endless cycles of violence that afflicts Palestine & Israel is to change the narrative from exclusivity to inclusivity, to accept that terrible deeds have been committed by both sides, to accept that while the “truth” of each side is different neither version is wholly wrong or wholly right, but both are valid, to realise that neither the 7 million Palestinians nor the 7 million Jews who live between the Sea & the River are leaving the area willingly.  

Both Palestine & Israel need new leaders who are willing to compromise, however painful those compromises will be, new leaders willing to make difficult choices, to be leaders who lead their people on a new path & not just follow what has gone before.

Taking this different, inclusive way is not without risks, it is not without dangers.  We have seen leaders who take this path be killed by the extremists on their own side for threatening the old “certainties” that kept the conflict going. But unless we support those willing to face those dangers, take those risks, all we can be certain about is more innocents will be killed, more lives will be wasted and, in the biggest injustice of all, future generations will still grow up in the shadow of conflict.

So let us be brave, support those in both Palestine and Israel calling for compromise & inclusivity and denounce those who claim that only their side can be right.

* Leon Duveen is Chair of Liberal Democrats for Peace in the Middle East, a new group of Lib Dems working to support those trying to a solution to the Palestine/Israel conflict and to providing information about these peacemakers.