Is this Israel's Last Chance for Peace?

This is the story of two debates that have been unfolding in rival nations, in rival tongues, on one skinny patch of land in the Levant. In Israel, Kadima -- the main governing party -- has been deciding who should be its new leader. In Palestine, the population has been mooting a dramatic shift in their struggle for liberation. Soon, these debates are destined to collide -- in either blood or peace.

The Israeli debate had an air of willed evasion. The military's blockade of Gaza -- reducing it to pre-modern rubble just a short drive from hi-tech Tel Aviv - was barely discussed. The candidates seemed to be carefully avoiding taking a position on anything. The Israeli tabloid Yedioth Ahronoth noted: "Ask Tzipi Livni what time it is, and she will reply, after carefully examining Israel's position in relation to the global time issue and the international date line, that she has a very definite position, but isn't willing to specify what it is to the media."

It's a sign of how desensitized Israel has become to the violence committed in its name that the potential indictment for war crimes of Livni's main rival, Shaul Mofaz, was barely an issue. It has emerged that when he was the military chief of staff in 2001, he ordered his troops to fulfil a "daily quota" of killing seventy Palestinians a day. He came within 431 votes of winning the election.

From the wispy clouds of this contest, what has emerged? In theory, the winner Livni should be in a strong position to understand nationalist "terrorists" who have planted bombs on buses and in cafés -- because she was raised by them. Her father was the Military Director of the Irgun, the underground Jewish militia that spent the 1930s and 40s targeting the British occupying forces and Arab civilians who were trying to prevent the creation of the state of Israel. Livni was brought up to revere their tales of blowing up marketplaces, cafés and hotels; she proudly defends them to this day.

How would Livni's parents have responded to mass punishment -- blockades, checkpoints, bullets? Would they shrug and surrender? The leader of the Irgun, Menachem Begin, wrote that every British attempt to "break our backs... only made us stronger and more determined." The same is happening with Palestinian nationalists today. Stripped of a state, they are fighting for one - and every Israeli attack makes them more radical and enraged.

But does Livni see the parallel? In the abstract, she advocates a two-state solution -- but in Israel she has been dubbed "Ms. Not-Right-Now" because she always says she believes in compromising for peace but "not right now." Her husband said she decided to become a politician because of her "scathing" disapproval of the Oslo accords, signed exactly fifteen years ago. She reiterated this during the campaign. But Oslo was rigged in Israel's favour: while it lasted, the number of Jewish fundamentalist settlers on Palestinian land nearly doubled, and Palestinian movement was harshly curtailed. It is a myth that the Palestinians were offered a real two-state solution and rejected it. Even Shlomo Ben-Ami, Israel's Foreign Minister at the time, says: "If I were a Palestinian, I would have rejected Camp David as well."

If even this was too much for Livni, what practical peace can she achieve? This is the debate too many Israelis dodged this summer; they chose instead to block their ears, and ascribe the thud of rockets hitting their outskirts to raw evil.

This is where the parallel Palestinian debate needs to be heard above the Separation Wall. For decades, the demands of the Palestinian leadership -- and the Israeli peace camp -- have focused on the division of the land between Israeli and Palestinian states. There is still in principle a slender majority supporting this on both sides. But after fifteen years of stillborn promises, that vision is rotting. Unless there is a swift shift, the two-state vision will be supplanted -- by a vision of a "binational" one-state solution.

Several leading Palestinians -- including the late Edward Said, the former Prime Minister Ahmed Queri, and Sari Nusseibeh -- have begun to outline this idea. In one of those strange whirls on the roundabout of history, they are actually reviving an old idea pioneered by Zionist left-wingers. Back in the 1920s, a small number of Jewish socialists and liberals like Martin Buber tried to negotiate one big shared state with the Palestinians: one country, one set of laws, one parliament for everyone. Although they found some Palestinian interlocutors, these early binationalists were slapped down by both communities. Today their idea is being dug out of its ditch of despair.

The Palestinians would stop asking for a free enclave of their own, and start demanding full legal equality in one state between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. Equipped with this demand, they would no longer appear to the world as a fragmented minority, but -- all added together -- as a majority in Israel/Palestine ruled over by a racially-defined minority. It would look even more like South Africa Redux. Israel would then be incapable of marshalling international coalitions against possible threats from Iran or elsewhere: it would be alone, and anathemized.

The Middle East conflict would shift from being a tricky-but-soluble crisis to an insoluble civil war. Michael Neumann -- the author of The Case Against Israel -- warns:

"One-staters apparently believe that Israel will give up the reason for its existence and at the same time expose itself not to the risk but to the certainty of being 'swamped by Arabs.' This in turn would indicate a willingness to accede to anything an 'Arab' majority might enact. Can anyone seriously imagine this? Will millions of Jews just leave if the majority says it should? Will they agree to crushing compensation payments?"

No. They will fight -- and this time, there will be no space for compromise between the competing visions.

The window of opportunity for a two-state peace is closing. Before it jams shut, the Israelis need to hear the plea coming through the checkpoints. Divide the land. Divide it now. Divide it properly. Or we will all end up battling forever -- over nothing but soil soaked in blood and cordite.

Johann Hari is a writer for the Independent. You can read more of his articles at here.

Comments

[alexandreea]

This is a great article. Something folks might want to do today is support H. Res 1369 in support of Israeli and Palestinian peacemakers. For more information, click here: http://www.helpthepeacemakers.org.

[MagisterLudi]

"binational" one-state solution as mention by Mr. Hari:

There IS a one state already, It's called Israel. It consists of Jews and Arabs (25%) living ( mostly) in harmony; participating in the democratic process together and sharing the fruits of its economic and social success.
There is NO chance that Israeli Arabs and Christians would want anything to do with Hamas or Palestinain Authority's versions of governance.

[MagisterLudi]

Despite all this nugatory rhetoric the solution will eventually look like this:

1. Land:Most of West Bank, all of Gaza to form Palestinian state.
Here's an idea: How about neighbors pitching in with some border land of their own. As a payback for Jordanian and Egyptian 20-year occupation of W. Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza!

2. Jerusalem:Some level autonomy in E. Jerusalem.

3. Security:No standing army for Palestinians. No heavy weapons until things calm down ( 20 years?)

4. Refugees: Some of Pal. refugees who were alive in 1948 will get land in Israel. Their foreign born descendents won't but will get a choice of: monetary settlement, citizenship in new Pal. state. or settlement in Muslim Arab country of their choice ( the ones that will have them).

In another words just what Arafat was offered and rejected

The wish-upon-the star fantasies of "one-state" are just that: wishful fantasies produced the minds of those who fervently wish Israel to disappear.

[Geauterre]

The losers have finally won! The winners have finally lost! Now the discombobulation can be set forth, and ten percent goes to the Palestinians, ten percent to the Israelis, ten percent to the fakirs, and of course, seventy percent to the Americans - who would love to share this burden with anyone else!

[Avigdor]

The speech Sarah Palin would have given today at the UN, had she not been censored by the Left:

....Tomorrow, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will come to New York " to the heart of what he calls the Great Satan " and speak freely in this, a country whose demise he has called for.

Ahmadinejad may choose his words carefully, but underneath all of the rhetoric is an agenda that threatens all who seek a safer and freer world. We gather here today to highlight the Iranian dictator's intentions and to call for action to thwart him.

He must be stopped.

The world must awake to the threat this man poses to all of us. Ahmadinejad denies that the Holocaust ever took place. He dreams of being an agent in a "Final Solution" " the elimination of the Jewish people. He has called Israel a "stinking corpse" that is "on its way to annihilation." Such talk cannot be dismissed as the ravings of a madman " not when Iran just this summer tested long-range Shahab-3 missiles capable of striking Tel Aviv, not when the Iranian nuclear program is nearing completion, and not when Iran sponsors terrorists that threaten and kill innocent people around the world.

Read the rest at http://www.nysun.com/opinion/palin-on-ahmadinejad-he-must-be-stopped/86311/?print=4317802221

[chaos4700]

I'd be more interested in the speech Palin would have given if she had experience in anything other than raising a family, hunting moose or appointing all the state and municipal government positions with the names of those who signed her high school year book.

[ZenJu]

Sadly, this author is correct. The wisest of Israeli statesmen, David Ben-Gurion, correctly foresaw in 1967 that, ultimately, the "West Bank" and Gaza should NOT be retained by Israel, only held in a sort of trust until the day came that peace would prevail and Israel could safely withdraw to modified lines. Ben-Gurion stated, wisely, that Israel should keep only parts of East Jerusalem and the Golan. Unfortunately, Israel didn't listen to Ben-Gurion and now faces painful choices. For Israel's sake, Israel needs to find some way to disengage from the "West Bank" with guarantees that the Arabs there will not immediately turn their new state into a terrorist launchpad as Gaza has become. I wonder if the "Palestinians" can rise to this challenge and boldly choose peace, development and the betterment of their citizens, rather than fanaticism, martyrdom and jihad. One is known by one's actions.

[SD leaker]

As long as people keep talking from lsrael's interest point of view, there wiII never be the slightest chance for peace.

[MagisterLudi]

Are you suggested that your so-called opinions, opinions of this blogger, entirely biased towards Palestinians, will bring us closer to peace?!! No chance.... Only people who put aside their preconceived notions will be able to do that. There's no evidence of such people on this thread.

[SD leaker]

A "two state solution" is a fallacy. A "two state solution" for you is a "half state solution for most Palestinians". Palestinians will never settle for that as an end goal. To achieve peace, we better start discarding fallacies.

[MagisterLudi]

And that is why they will not have their own state.

[SD leaker]

"Is this Israel's Last Chance for Peace?" You always make the same question at every event. Insteadd the question is a fallacy. Peace means Palestine belongs to Palestinians. Period. So the straight forward answer to you question is and always will be, NO.

[mommamia526]

There is, indeed, a racially defined minority, *Palestinian* ARABS. Jews are not racially defined. They come in a variety of races, and are a people, a nation. Arab countries are racially defined. Not all MUSLIM countries are racially defined. *Palestinians* would fit in well both in Arab countries and in Muslim countries for that reason. Yes, *Palestinians* appear to be plotting a civil war - again!. They need to learn to get along, first among themselves. After sixty years of being on the dole, it is also time for them to come out of their tenements, seek and find work, in Arab and Muslim countries, and do as everyone else does, work and earn a living, and mind their own business and families. People all over the world migrate and find better lives, even Arabs. No one owes these *Palestinians* who hail from Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and recently even from Iraq a living. We in the U.S. have enough to take care of at home. And, frankly, Israel has enough on its plate as well, a.o. taking care of those driven out of Gaza, many of which are still homeless and out of work, and new jewish immigrants. Murder is not common sense. Murder does not advance a people or its standing in the world. Holding out one's hand for alms does not improve one's station in life. Building tunnels and tunneling into a neighboring country to attack it, is not common sense.

[mommamia526]

If my memory is correct the jews fought side by side with the Arabs to liberate *Palestine* from the British mandate, which was a much larger territory. It was decided by the UN that part of the British Mandate would be divided in two parts, Israel for the jews and Jordan for the Arabs. *Palestinians* are not a cohesive group. They have no shared national goal or history. They depend on handouts from others. A large group tried to carry out a coup against Jordan and were expelled. Now a large group of these socalled *Palestinians* are also those recently expelled by Iraq. The PLO and Hamas are getting closer and closer to a civil war. Gaza, handed over to Hamas, is being used to target Israel with kassams. There is now a cease fire, but that does not deter Hamas. *Palestinians* are out of work since the greenhouses were destroyed and recently a group wanted to sue Israel for loss of income from that! These people deserve to be let out of their tenements and live. They should come out and go where they belong, to live among Arabs, and if they are Muslims to live with other muslims. It has been three generations. Enough already! Time for them to realize that Americans have their own problems. Many Arab countries are rich and have huge territories. There are 22 Muslim countries from them to chose from. I say, let them go out work,live in peace and prosperity.

[chaos4700]

"They depend upon handouts from others"? That's insulting! I have friends who are Palestinian. They've had to work pretty damn hard, both in Jordan (where their family was exiled after Israelis seized their land) and in the United States. In both places they suffered racism -- Jordan has gotten much better in that regard in recent times and it puts the US to shame that we've still got people like you.

I'd wager you think that African Americans are all "welfare queens" and "gangstas." Please take your racism back to the forums on John McCain's campaign website where it belongs. It has no place here.