The Mall Model for MidEast Peace 

by Naomi Ragen

I had an e-mail the other day from some fine fellow who was 
all upset. “According to you, there will never be peace 
between Israelis and the Palestinians” he fumed.

Not so, dear sir.  In fact, if you lived here in Jerusalem 
as I do, surrounded by Muslim Arabs ­ you’d know that in 
many places, we already have peace.

All you'd have to do is go to that great center of Jerusalem 
day and night-life The Mall, a large three-tiered structure 
housing restaurants (all kosher) movie theaters, and hundreds 
of stores of all kinds (I don’t have to tell you, right?
It’s a mall.)  What's different here, is that you will find 
sitting around the fountains outside Pizza Hut Arab families 
with children in baby carriages, munching pizza beside Jewish 
families from  neighborhoods in Judea and Samaria. Look at them, 
enjoying the air conditioning, and happily feeding their
little ones from paper cups filled with ice cream on a 
summer evening.

All this without a Road Map.  Without the release of terrorists.  
Without a Palestinian State. Without the permission of Yasir 
Arafat. Or Sharon. Or George Bush.

Now, what lessons can we learn about how to actually achieve 
MidEast Peace from the Jerusalem Mall?  I’ll tell you.

You can only enter the mall if you have no weapons.   
The reason Jew and Arab can sit peacefully side by side 
enjoying life and each other’s company, is that anyone who 
wants to get into the mall is carefully checked for weapons 
before he's allowed to enter. That's right. All cars are 
checked, included the boot and back seat. People get their 
bags checked. They are wanded.

Get rid of the terrorists. Get rid of the illegal weapons.  
Stop up the tunnels bringing weapons from Egypt to Gaza.  
Deport arch terrorists like Arafat. Keep all the  jailed 
terrorists under lock and key, and destroy the Hamas and
Islamic Jihad and Fatah to the last building and the last 
man. And then you might not have peace, but you will have 
Arab and Jew sitting side by side with their families on 
a cool summer evening, making an attempt to quietly live
their lives and solve their differences.
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Naomi Ragen
http://www.NaomiRagen.com