I recently wrote in these pages about the need for Israel to stop settlement construction in the West Bank, and for the Arab world to take real responsibility in ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While immensely important, additional measures by all parties need to be undertaken as well. This third article of a four part series (see here and here) will highlight some of the other qualities that peace requires, primarily vision and courage.
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In politics, as in business, leadership is crucial. Much of what has gone wrong in the pursuit of Arab-Israeli peace is due to a lack of strong leadership, primarily among the Palestinians. While there is still a lot Israel can do - especially current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - we shouldn't be under any illusions: there is still not an effective and strong Palestinian partner on the other side capable of delivering on a two-state solution.
Starting from the time of Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat, it is clear that what peace demands is vision and courage. My old friend Yitzhak Rabin broke many taboos when he signed the Oslo Accords and embarked on the path of peace. I was in attendance in the Rose Garden when Rabin shook Yasser Arafat's hand; it was the epitome of courage in the pursuit of a peaceful vision. Like Sadat, Rabin paid the ultimate price at the hands of a religious fundamentalist.
More recently, Ariel Sharon took the unprecedented step of unilaterally removing the settlements from the Gaza Strip. Before 2005, not many people believed it likely that Sharon of all people would take such a step. However, he was convinced by his closest associates that if Israel retained control of the territories, then eventually Arabs would outnumber Jews between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. This would effectively spell the end of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.
We will never know how a healthy Sharon would have carried on the withdrawals from the rest of the occupied territories. What happened in Gaza after Israel's disengagement made such a move impossible. After all, the moderate Fatah party of Mahmoud Abbas lost the 2006 parliamentary elections to the rejectionist Hamas. Hamas followed this up by violently seizing control of Gaza itself. The rest we all know: over 3,000 rockets raining down on Israeli civilians, military retaliation on the part of Israel, and even more bloodshed.
But this shouldn't have surprised us. For years Yasser Arafat ran the Palestinian Authority as a corrupt personal fiefdom. The mismanagement of the Palestinians' affairs under Fatah explains a lot about Hamas' increased popularity and strength. The only remedy is better leadership and reformed governance on the part of moderate Palestinian leaders.
Despite recent security, political and economic improvements in the West Bank, there is still much work to be done on the part of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. A written plan for statehood is one thing; changing the endemic culture of corruption and division inside the Palestinian Authority quite another, and will take time.
In addition, in the occupied territories Abbas only controls half of the Palestinians; the other half is controlled by Hamas, a terrorist group that has yet to even recognize Israel's right to exist. But even in the West Bank, governed by Abbas, there are plans apparently in place to name streets after terrorists and murderers. Even worse, the recent Fatah Congress in Bethlehem inexplicably perpetuated the foolish notion of "armed struggle," with one news report describing a large poster of a child with a gun being displayed prominently at the conference.
Taken together, is it any surprise that negotiations with Israel have not been able to move forward? For the Palestinians, there is still no real leadership, no one who speaks for all of them, and no one who can get them the state they so desperately want. This must change.
The Arab world, specifically the oil-rich Gulf states, and the international community under the coordination of Tony Blair, need to help Abbas develop better systems of governance. Serious amounts of money - already pledged but still not delivered - need to be infused for economic development projects and jobs in the West Bank in order to bolster Abbas' legitimacy. US envoy George Mitchell needs to continue emphasizing the central roles that an end to corruption and reformed leadership must play in any realistic peace process. And, for their part, Palestinian leaders need to speak out consistently and courageously for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has accepted a two-state solution to the conflict, with conditions. While not perfect, this has to be viewed as a courageous step on his part. More will hopefully be forthcoming.
Palestinian leaders need to reciprocate and lay out their own vision for peace. Raising points of contention over final status issues, like Jerusalem, even before they have shown the slightest ability to manage their own affairs and credibly implement agreements, needs to be remedied going forward.
Based on the Gaza precedent, Israel should not simply be expected to withdraw from territory and let it devolve into a state of anarchy. The West Bank is simply too close to Israel's major population centers and infrastructure to allow it to become another launching pad for rockets. A credible Palestinian government needs to be in control, guaranteeing that a future Palestinian state not be taken over by terrorists. An essential precondition to any of this is courageous and visionary leadership.
MJ Rosenberg: Is Israel's New Ambassador Trying To Squelch J Street?
Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, is boycotting J Street's -- the new pro-Israel PAC -- first annual conference. Incredibly, he says it could "impair Israeli interests."
Israel would do well to remember that time, demographics and the thrust of geopolitics are on the side of the Palestinians and other Arabs.
So now what? Maybe justice? Hopefully, there will be justice and the israelis will be forced back to the 1948 borders, all Palestinians or their living desendents will be compensated by israel for losses and all individuals responsible for war crimes will be tried.
In violation of the terms of the 17 June 2008 cease-fire agreement with Hamas, Israel permitted only 20% of the amount of essentials agreed to into the Gaza Strip which led to sporadic rocket fire into Israel (causing no casualties) by Islamic Jihad and Fatah’s Al Aqsa Brigades, not Hamas, which attempted to stop the rockets. On November 4 – the day of the U.S. presidential election - Israel crossed the border and killed six Palestinians. Hamas responded with rocket fire but at the same time offered to extend the June 17 truce if Israel would end the siege. Israel refused. Hamas rocket fire resumed and although no Israeli was killed, it was used by Israel as a justification for its murderous rampage that started on December 27.
" [Question from Ha-Rav’s radio call-in show from this week]
Question: Is it permissible to travel to a wedding in Ashdod (in Southern Israel) which is in range of the Kassam and Grad rockets or is it forbidden based on the commandment of “You shall surely safeguard your soul” (Devarim 4:15, 23:11)?"
The answer is hilarious when contrasted with Israel’s cassus belli for “Cast Lead” :
" It is permissible. There is a clear distinction in Halachah between a high-probability danger and a low-probability danger. If this were not the case, we would not be able to travel in a car since every year, to our great distress, six hundred people are killed in car accidents in Israel. Many more people have been killed in car accidents since the establishment of the State of Israel than all of the Kassam rockets and all of the terrorist attacks and all of the wars, even when they are added together…….."
What follows is an “angels on a pinhead” analysis that concludes that there is very little danger in visiting “Southern Israel” in spite of the rockets.
So there you have it. The “thousands of rockets” which caused Israel to kill 1400 Palestinians in Operation Cast Lead represent such a minimal danger that it is considered insufficient hazard to warrant staying home from a wedding.
http://mwcnews.net/content/view/33738/26/
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24855309-2,00.html
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3753851,00.html
I must also comment that the Palestinian leadership, such as Salam Fayyad, appear to have a very definite idea about what their future state will look like--even if the Israelis don't wish to acknowledge this. Obviously, their capital will be in East Jerusalem, and the borders will be on the 1967 green line with some land swaps of "equal" quality land to allow some Israeli settlements to be incorporated into Israel. The West Bank and Gaza will have to be joined in some manner and a contiguous Palestinian state with sovereignty of its borders, sea and airspace would have to be granted, along with a standing Palestinian military force to prevent further Israeli assaults on the state.
What happens a month after the two state are set up, if there is an election, and hamas wins. Now firmly in power in gaza and the WB, Hamas surrounds Ben Gurion airport with anti-aircraft missiles, and start lobbing qassam rockets into Tel Aviv, claiming that ALL of Palestine is "oocupied territory" and must be returned to Muslim rule.
At that point, in you scenario, what happens next?
On May 20, 2004, he was convicted of 5 counts of murder - including authorizing and organizing the Sea Food Market attack in Tel Aviv in which 3 civilians inside Israel were killed. He was acquitted of 21 counts of murder in 33 other attacks for "lack of sufficient evidence." On June 6, 2004, he was sentenced to five life sentences for the five murders and 40 years imprisonment for the attempted murder.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/09/israel-foreign-ministry-media
Hamas and Likud are at least up front, unlike so called 'moderates' like Labor and Fatah.
Fomenting a coup, and Israel and the Bush administration did by inciting Fatah and President Mahmoud Abbas to refuse to cede power, despite losing a free election, is the cause of the present 'confusion' about who speaks for Palestine. Until another election, it's Hamas. If Israel wants ANYTHING to change, you have to talk to them. Abbas' term has expired, and Fatah's usurpation of control in the west bank is illegitimate. Neither can deliver the people, who ultimately are who has to be convinced. Israel keeps fantasizing that if you can only find the right 'partner', you can get him to say yes, and everything will be ok. That's not going to happen. Israel needs to make a deal with the most hostile, not the coziest Palestinian leader you know, and the reverse is true for Palestine. If getting Amos Oz's signature was all that needed to happen for peace to break out, it would have happened 30 years ago.
If you don't take that deal, as Shamir and Ohlmert both told you in recent years, the one that comes next -- the one-state solution - you'll like even less. Go figure!
You were one of the few who dared speak their mind from a position of knowledge and a sense of fairness that transcended the party line. I am disappointed to see that now
1 You have been chastised and removed from your position, and
2 Are now toeing the line, with the rigidly-enforced AIPAC talking points, which, sadly, are so clearly disingenuous that someone of your caliber has to be a little embarrassed to repeat them.
We expats still hold out hope--- for new organizations like J Street, that articulate an intelligent path to peace. But as long as AIPAC holds the reins, we will be treated to this charade of seemingly "thoughtful analyses" that in actuality are as obstructionist to peace in Israel/Palestine as a "climate change report" put out by the Bush administration is to the environment.
AIPAC's goal is not peace, any more than the right-wing Netanyahu, or the more-right-wing, happily racist Lieberman's. As long as these thugs have AIPAC covering their backs, there is no hope for anything but ugliness and pain. To use your credibility in this area to give these hateful types a rhetorical veneer of reasonableness, is, I think beneath you.
You know better.
To ignore the danger would be foolhearty. But to give up trying would be to concede defeat in the ongoing effort to make the world a little bit more livable.
The Palestinians are equally to blame for the lack of peace as the Israelis. One side cannot shoulder all the blame, and both sides need to recognize the other's right to live in an independent state in peace. The Palestinians are not represented by leaders who want to make peace with Israel. If they want peace, they should overthrow these leaders and install new ones who do.
Israel continued to control ALL borders!
The 1.5 million human beings trapped in Gaza have been under a brutal siege since they democratically and transparently elected Hamas in 2006, because they were fed up with the PA which is just another layer of The Occupation!
Only the PLO, can theoretically claim to represent the entirety of the Palestinian people: inside historic Palestine and in exile.
However, the PLO needs to be revived in a transparent, democratic and inclusive process that encompasses all the political parties that are outside the PLO structures today.
The true voice of Palestine is the Palestinian Civil Society, and they have issued the Call for BDS: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel until the OCCUPATION ENDS and Israel complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights.
This October 16-17 is a Global Day of Action for BDS!
Learn lots:
http://www.stopthewall.org/
http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/52