Why does the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seem so intractable? Why do we hear the same ideas over and over again, even though they never work?
At her AIPAC speech this week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke of the need to find "a new path" to the two-state solution. But nowhere in her speech did she actually challenge a key tenet of the current path: We can never have Jews living in Palestine.
She's not alone. For decades now, the world's most brilliant political minds have worked with this same unimaginative and racist assumption: To have peace with the Palestinians, we must have ethnic cleansing of the Jews.
As a result, a peace vocabulary has developed that suggests anything but peace: words like "freezing" and "dismantling" rather than "warming" and "creating." The Jews themselves who live in the areas of a future Palestinian state have been globally demonized as the biggest obstacle to peace.
Sure, there may be terrorist entities like Hamas and Hezbollah that are sworn enemies of any peace agreement, but as far as the world is concerned, the soccer moms in Ariel and Efrat are bigger obstacles to peace.
Never mind that when Israel tried to cleanse Gaza of all Jews a few years ago, it got rewarded not with peace and quiet but with a few thousand rockets.
It's gotten so absurd, that the headlines around the world two weeks ago weren't about the terrorist rockets flying into Israel, but about interim zoning permits for apartments in East Jerusalem. Had those apartments been for Buddhists or Hindus or Hare Krishnas, no one would have flinched. But they were for Jews, which makes them obstacles to peace.
The Obama administration's obsession with freezing Jewish settlements -- including Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem -- has further demonized the settlements, made the Palestinians even more intransigent and pretty much frozen the peace process.
But what if the peace processors took a different view of these settlements and saw them not as obstacles to peace but as potential contributors to Palestinian society? What if, instead of forcing Jewish settlers to leave as part of a peace agreement, they were invited to stay?
In all these failed peace meetings over the years, has anyone considered that a Jewish minority in a future Palestine may actually be a good thing? That it would encourage mutual dependency and co-existence and democracy -- and help the Palestinian economy? And that for Israel, it'd be good to have Jewish representatives in a Palestinian parliament -- just like we have supporters in Diaspora communities throughout the world?
I know what you're thinking: How naïve of you, Suissa! How many Jews would want to be part of a Palestinian state? Who would protect them? It'll never work!
To which I reply: Maybe you're right! But nothing else has worked, so why not shake things up and try something new? Let's poll the Jews of the West Bank who'd be most likely to be evacuated and see how many would be interested in staying in a future Palestine, and under what conditions. Dual citizenship? Security guarantees? Equal voting rights? These are great questions for peace talks.
Even if you're a cynic who believes peace with the Palestinians is impossible in our lifetime, pushing for the right of settlers to stay in a future Palestine is a game changer. It disarms critics who claim that settlements are the main obstacle to peace and shines a light on fundamental issues, like whether the Palestinians are willing or even able to deliver peace, and how they would protect a Jewish minority in their midst.
Just like Soviet Jewry was about the Jews' "right to leave," this new cause is about the Jews' "right to stay." And if the world ends up opposing the idea, well, we'll finally have our PR homerun: An international movement fighting for "Human Rights for Palestinian Jews!" Our mantra: The Jews of Palestine deserve the same rights as the Muslims of Israel.
If you're not a cynic but a hopeless romantic who believes in the power of co-existence, you should have been with me the other night at the Levantine Cultural Center, a storefront salon on Pico Boulevard co-founded four years ago by local activist Jordan Elgrably to foster harmony between all peoples of the Middle East and North Africa. The guest speaker was author and journalist Rachel Shabi, who was talking about her new book, "We Look Like the Enemy: the Hidden Story of Israel's Jews From Arab Lands."
Shabi, a Jew of Iraqi descent who grew up in London and now lives in Tel Aviv, has had a lifelong fascination with the story of Jews who come from Arab lands like Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Algeria and Tunisia.
As she spoke about the long and complicated journey of these Jews of Arabia, she didn't sugarcoat their struggles, but you could feel her passion for the golden moments and possibilities of cultural co-existence.
Stuck between my cynical and romantic sides, and perhaps caught up in the moment, I couldn't help wondering whether there might be, one day, a Palestinian chapter to this Jewish-Arab odyssey -- a chapter that wouldn't be about Jews being kicked out, but about Jews being asked to stay.
Follow David Suissa on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SuissaOlam
But they are not allowed to have automatic weapons.
They are protected by the Mexican police, and subject to Mexican law.
Israeli settlers who stayed behind in an independent Palestine would probably find that they did not have amnesty for illegal actions committed before the change in government, particularly things which were illegal under Israeli law. Shooting at people etc. This ought to be enough to persuade the most fanatical of them to leave.
But in general, why not? Israel has built giant housing developments close to the border for people who commute into Israel. If they stayed they could pay rent to Palestine and pay taxes to Palestine and continue to commute over the border. There would be no need for "adjustments" to the Green Line to suit them. They would provide a revenue flow to Palestine provided Palestine could provide them sufficient services to justify the cost. Otherwise they would leave.
What a great idea! Let the settlers remain if they wish, disarmed and subject to Palestinian law. No need to make any adjustments to the Green Line. So "facts on the ground" become irrelevant!
What great thinking!
i want some of what you are on!
if Israel didn't continually steal land for 60 years in a Illegal Manner in ALL International Eyes
Palestinians wouldn't have a problem with Zionists would they?
Israel is a ZIONIST nation, not a Jewish One.
I seem to recall a few years back when Israeli settlers were required to leave an illegal settlement. The Israelis then razed the settlement. They preferred to destroy it rather than have Palestinians live it. Nevertheless, it's an intriguing idea -- except that the settlers themselves would go into instant meltdown at the idea that their settlement would lie within the new Palestinian state. They are not the most rational Israeli citizens.
To be honest tho', I cannot see a Jew being willing to live in a country where they will have to return land to the original owners, and laws which will not allow them to shoot, beat or stone Palestinians who are not Jewish with impunity.
12 months or so later Israel planted 12000 Jews in land stolen from Palestinians in the West Bank.
As to those illegal (check UN resolutions, the ICJ, the Geneva conventions) occupations, Israel does not see them as any future part of Palestine, but as extensions of Israel.
Alysheba's point is valid.
Please point me to stories about illegal Israeli settlements populated by Christian and Muslim Israeli citizens that have received the okay from the Palestinian government to keep their stolen land.
Why doesn't the rest of the world help create resettlement fund with like 50 brazillion dollars, and pay arabs in occupied territories x10 the value of their apartments and build some super duper non terrorist happy cities in Jordan/Palestine.
Eh?
The map would look more rational.
I wonder where CFL68 lives, and how he/she might respond were he/she required to move several hundred miles from where he/she currently lives?
the problem is not the people themselves. it is the fact that they have been forced into the palestinian population, on land that legally belongs to them. to now ask those same people to turn around and say that is okay is really not fair.
throughout its history, israel has a shameful record of refusing to honor its agreements. the country is now in the position of having to prove itself trustworthy, and that will take time.
if the jewish government brought the settlers back within israel, and waited for the palestinians to issue an invitation, that would be one thing. but the palestinians quite frankly have been too bruised and abused by the israeli government for far too long.
the key, truth to be told, is some concrete demonstrations of humility, mercy and acceptance of responsibility on the part of the israeli government to own up to the wrongs it has done, and the treaties it has broken for decades. this is something that not just the palestinians, but the whole world needs to see. you need to make amends and get on board with international law.
i fear we will be waiting a very long time.