Realism: Realism is based on the belief that all people are fighting for control and power. There is no trust involved. Peace can only be attained by the equal balance of power which is unattainable as people will never stop fighting for more power therefore knocking the scale off balance. In the Israeli-Palestine Conflict both sides are constantly struggling for power and control of various things such as water and land. All the peace treaties they try to put in place fail due to the lack of trust between the two people. From such a view point, this conflict has no hope of being solved.
Constructivism: Constructivism is based on the belief that wars are only fought with those different from you. For example, democracies are unlikely to fight each other and Catholics are unlikely to fight each other instead they would pick a war with a communist country or the Catholics would fight Muslims or Protestants. In Israel, there is a clear divide between the two sides. One side is Jewish while the other is Muslim Arabs. Their cultures and views are entirely different. These differences make it easy for the two groups to quarrel and even mercilessly slaughter each other as they see each other as a different species. This perspective appears to be as hopeless as the realism view, but maybe, if both sides could learn to identify with each other, there wouldn’t be so many misconceptions and they could view each other as human beings with the same fears and desires as they themselves possess.
