Orono, Aug. 1. The tranquility of a Maine summer has been shattered by scenes of ghoulish violence from the Middle East. The shoppers of Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market — men, women, and children, young and old — were blown to smitherines in shrapnel bombings 15 seconds apart, as we hike our woodlands and fish our ponds.

At times of such shocking violence, one should keep in mind the broader contours of events in the Middle East. Despite short-term setbacks, there remain signs that long-term peace in the Middle East may yet be in the cards.

Israel and Syria, despite verbal abuse heaped on one another, enjoy a frontier on which there has been not one casualty since 1973. Indeed, the Henry Kissinger-brokered Disengagement Agreement of that year may well have set an all-time record for de facto peace between two Middle Eastern nations. It certainly has outlasted many peace agreements between Arab states.

Israel and Jordan have quietly settled a long-simmering frontier dispute over an area now informally re-named “Peace Island.” El Al Israel Air Lines has added Jordan to its list of “Milk and Honey” vacation destinations. Negotiations are underway to regularly export Israeli Dead Sea minerals to East Asia via the Jordanian port of Aqaba and Jordanian products to Europe via Israel’s Mediterranean ports freeing Israel’s port of Elat for tourist expansion. Israel has enjoyed only a cold peace with Egypt since President Anwar Sadat’s courageaous visit to Jerusalem 20 years ago. Nevertheless, the current Israeli-Egyptian relationship is infinitely superior to the incessant warfare that characterized the thirty years prior to Sadat’s visit. An example of that cold but peaceful relationship would be the recent reversion of the Taba beach resort to Egyptian sovereignity, after decades of agonizing negotiations culminating in a case before the High Court in The Hague.

And what of the Palestinians? The first state to recognize Palestinian independence was Israel. It did so at the moment of its birth nearly fifty years ago, only to have the viability of such a solution shattered by Arab states which attacked a fledgling Israel and confiscated the territories the United Nations had set aside for the Palestinians: the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Since the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991 Israel has granted infinitely more autonomy to the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza Strip than they ever enjoyed under Jordan or Egypt, which held those territories from 1948 to 1967.

The democratically elected government of Israel will now do what it must do to guard its citizens, including nearly 500,000 Arabs, against wanton violence. As a first step, it has suspended negotiations on further concessions to the Palestinians and ordered a massive arrest of suspects in the market place bombing. Israel is now secure on its Jordanian, Egyptian, and even Syrian frontiers due to long-term negotiation and deterrent strength. Hopefully, it will not be long before arrangements similar to those reached with Jordan, Egypt, and Syria can be negotiated with the Palestinians. The alternative is a return to all-out war, which no sane Middle Easterner desires and which the world can ill afford.

Dr. Jonathan Goldstein is visiting professor of Asian history at the University of Maine.