Will the latest round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks end up like all of the previous efforts that failed to resolve the big issues? Perhaps part of the problem comes from just who's involved with getting the neighbors to work together.

Why should this process be primarily an American or European-led process? With the right incentives coming from a newly-engaged China, taking up real responsibility for one of the world's most important international peace and security issues, perhaps we'd get a different result. It wouldn't even take much of a grand strategy. It really comes down to a financial accounting issue.

This process is outlined in a piece published in The Mark on today's International Day of Peace, China Can Solve Israeli-Palestinian conflict. An excerpt:

That morning, an utterly forgettable American envoy named Joe walked into the room and sheepishly addressed the Israeli and Palestinian leaders. He turned out to be an accountant. Querulous introductions followed. Next, he outlined some harsh truths.

 

“Look, the U.S. just can’t afford to keep pouring money down the drain and neither can our European pals,” Joe said with a shrug. “We’re broke. And our Chinese creditors, to whom we owe trillions, are threatening to call in our loans. And they’ve given us certain … conditions on our discretionary spending.”

 

To Abbas’ consternation, Joe’s next comments were directed mostly at his side of the table. Western countries (and their Asian financiers) were tired of spending billions of dollars maintaining the descendants of Palestinian refugees who wouldn’t be refugees if Arab states would simply give them citizenship rights. They would no longer underwrite Palestinian media that offered a stream of daily incitement. Same goes for schools where Palestinian children were taught to become suicide bombers. “We can no longer justify the expense.”