Nobel Peace Prize, a note to the world

Dean Jorge Bocobo, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Asia News Network, Manila

United Nations supporters had plenty to cheer about this past week as the Centenary Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the UN and its outstanding Secretary General, Kofi Annan. Things were going so well that even the United States decided to pay the UN nearly US$ 500 million in back dues that in recent years have been held back or delayed. (Building a worldwide coalition against terror may also have something to do with the sudden diligence.)

Now, before there ever was the UN, there was the ill-fated League of Nations, which was very similar in concept and intent, but which existed for only a few years after World War I.

One of the things that the League of Nations did was to grant Great Britain a special "mandate" to establish a homeland for the Jewish people in the territory of Palestine, which had been taken from the newly defeated Turkish Empire.

History records that the administration of this mandate effectively began with the swearing into office as High Commissioner and Commander in Chief for Palestine of the Right Honorable Sir Herbert Samuel, in Jerusalem, on Sept. 11, 1922.

A long history of strife and war began on that day and was echoed in New York last month.

Later, the state of Israel was born. The Palestinians were displaced in a cruel Diaspora and thrown into a cycle of generations being born and growing up in refugee camps. As the last half century shows, the struggle between these two peoples, each with ancient claims to the same piece of earth, continues, and threatens to embroil the rest of humanity in a worldwide conflict.

Whether or not the terrorist attacks were timed to coincide with some of these historic dates is a matter of speculation. But in his videotaped statements, Osama bin Laden explicitly states that Americans will never again know peace and security until Palestinians are able to enjoy peace and security.

Thus, the Nobel Peace Prize to the UN could not have come at a more promising yet perilous moment. The quarrel between the Palestinians and Israelis has gone on too long, festering like an open wound, threatening the whole world's stability.

I think that most of the world is, well, tired of the ceaseless strife, the inflexible positions and the seemingly insoluble conflict between Palestinians and Jews. It's time to knock some heads together and force some kind of arrangement that is fair and equitable, perhaps under United Nations supervision. Such a historic rapprochement could help to defuse the escalating confrontation between the West and radical Islam that is pushing the world into war.

Over the years, U.S. policy on the thorny issue of Palestine has been often unwise or ineffective and not always even-handed. But the global war on terrorism may end up being un-winnable unless the Palestine issue is resolved once and for all. This could force the U.S. to take a good hard look at its long- standing policies, especially now that the Cold War is over and conditions are changing rapidly.

Many people were probably pleasantly surprised to hear U.S. President George W. Bush say unequivocally that Palestinians deserve an independent state as much as Israel. Such an utterance would have been inconceivable not too long ago in the history of the Palestinian issue.

How much wider does the door have to be opened? Perhaps this is the moment we have all been waiting for, to finally solve this vexing problem between Jewish and Muslim brothers, a problem that has held the world hostage to its insolubility throughout much of the 20th century.

It would be nice if, as some people fantasize, the U.S. could unilaterally impose a solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Perhaps some Americans have even harbored the conceit that they could in fact resolve the problem single- handedly.

But the realities of a multi-cornered world will quickly impose its own discipline, one in which the U.S. will find itself working more closely with the United Nations and other international organizations to accomplish coalition goals.

For example, as U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies tackled the problem of the financial networks used by Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, there was a growing realization that international cooperation is essential to any effective program against them.

I hope that all this will lead to a continued strengthening of the UN and its agencies. The present crisis alerts us to the need for a new synthesis of how the world should resolve deep issues of international conflict while preventing outright acts of mass destruction. It is regrettable that the world can still be forced to the last resort of war and violence in order to defend democracy and freedom.

Until we can establish one democracy for all humanity, one "United Nation" in which all human beings, everywhere, are citizens, equal before some universal law and free to practice their chosen faiths, we will have to make do with bodies like the UN to keep the peace and keep humanity moving forward.

The Nobel Prize emphatically reminds us that there are many ways to defend our most cherished values, without resorting to war, including diplomacy, negotiation and political compromise.