Yossi Sarid, a longtime leader in Israeli politics and an aide to several prime ministers, says it's time for Palestinians to realize that negotiations with Israel will get them nowhere.
They should simply unilaterally declare a state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem now.
He writes:
"President Abbas owes it to his people, to himself, and to us. This week, there were reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finds this possibility very scary, and he expects the Americans to nip it in the bud. But his nightmare is our only chance for an end to the occupation in our time.When he declares independence, Abbas should call upon the Jews living in the state of Palestine to preserve the peace and to do their part in building up the new country as full and equal citizens, enjoying fair representation in all of its institutions. David Ben-Gurion would not have been upset by such a pretty act of plagiarism from his Declaration of Independence.
And thus, Abbas will become the Palestinian Ben-Gurion. Conditions were no less foggy and circumstances were no more certain when Ben-Gurion declared independence in 1948. But our founding father took the risk, and we are fortunate that he did.
The risk Abbas would be taking is much smaller. Of the 192 member states of the United Nations, over 150 would recognize a free Palestine, and it would soon become the 193rd. Although the American position is an unknown, it is hard to believe that Barack Obama would agree to drag America back into isolation now that it has begun to be part of the world again.
And what would Netanyahu do? Invade and re-conquer the West Bank? Restore the military government in the Muqata in Ramallah?"
Read the whole piece. It's worth considering.
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The western world wanted an ally in the Middle East and so Israel was allowed to steal (and continue stealing) Palestinian land. This is, without question, one of the most heinous crimes of the last 100 years. However, justice will prevail even if it takes 100 years.
What you fail to realize in your triumphalistic rant is that there are a LOT of Palestinians living in the West Bank, Gaza and, (despite the efforts of the settlers to steal Palestinians' homes) East Jerusalem.
Not only are there a LOT of Palestinians, but their population is growing FASTER than Israel's -- quite a bit faster, as a matter of fact.
So if Israel decides to annex this territory (and try to make an illegal land grab a legal one), Israel will be faced with the prospect of having a larger ARAB population than their own.
What happens then? If Israel is to remain the democracy that many here like to brag about, then all those Palestinians will have to have their rights as citizens recognized-- and eventually "Greater Israel" will be a nation with a Jewish minority. Is that what you want?
Because two things are certain. The Palestinians aren't going anywhere. And they will NOT accept the current status quo indefinitely -- and neither will the world.
You make the same post in every thread. Its not going to happen.
If Israeli settlers dont accept Palestinian statehood and they remain as citizens of a foreign power they can expect no privileged land or property rights and I doubt theyll be permitted to be armed.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8361654.stm
This was well said. I'm a great believer in "jump-starts." It will always cause anxiety, especially in conservative thinking. Chance and change is scary, but progress happens because of it.
Progress is a nice word but change is its motivator and change has its enemies.
good words...ty
Like Icarus, they will insist on flying too close to the sun, and will get burned.
I don't think that your assessment that Palestinians will get nothing in the end is accurate. Although, I defend your right to differ with me on that opinion.
Who are you trying to convince of this slogan-- us? or yourself.
Going from homeless vagabonds to a national statues, being review and accepted by the world as a nation would be just great for Palestine. Yes, they the people and government would be accountable for the actions inside and outside of their new country.
middleamerican2010
Casey
Then they would be back to square one, or worse.
Why does everyone think that Israel is just going to give up her territory for nothing?
I dunno, because people think Israel is a civilised country?
Yeah, people are so misinformed these days.
I blame the corporate amalgamation of media.
Just wait ....
Empire is dying...
Everything will settle down....
I am an optimist !
1776: American colonies unilaterally declare statehood from British: war ensues. Americans win because Britain is an ocean away and France helped the nascent American state.
1948: Israel declares statehood when British rules ends: war ensues. Israelis win because of ingenuity and motivation.
1991: Chechnya declares independence from Russia: war ensues. Russia wins because it is exponentially bigger and Chechnya has no international support, Chechnya remains under Russian suzerainty.
But my favorite:
1988: Palestine declares statehood. Israel laughs because Palestinians have no chance of asserting their own sovereignty over any part of Israel. Everyone forgets about it in a matter of months and 21 years later people are advocating for Palestine to declare independence. Second time's the charm?
I think we all now how complex this situation is and we all know that the process is going nowhere, fast.
It needs a jump-start!
Yeah. Sounds like a great idea to me!
Problem #3: The settlers. The Palestinians declare their state, and the settlers are caught on the wrong side of the new borders. So what happens to them? There are two possible options: Have them become Palestinian citizens or get them to leave. This is assuming of course that the PA would declare the '67 lines to be the border of their state, without land swapping.
The settlers probably wouldn't become Palestinian citizens, as the PA doesn't want Jews to be living in their state. Yes, there is a movement among the Palestinians to annex the settler enclaves, but it is too weak at this point.
So that leaves the Palestinians with forcing the settlers out. How are they going to do that? Not without violence! This is assuming of course that Israel's army doesn't stay and help protect the settlers (since they are de facto still Israeli citizens). Looks like the Palestinians would be responsible for the start of yet another war between the two sides, only this time they would have a state and would be responsible for their own people, their own weapons, and their own facilities. They wouldn't be able to hide behind their statelessness and "refugee" status any more. In a war against Israel, they would lose everything and gain practically nothing.
They were removed from Gaza, theyre the same people and theytll be removed again. They have no rights, no claims and no legitimacy.
Israel may not have the most friends (unfairly so), but it's not insane. They would do themselves no favors by removing settlers.
-That's been happening for a while. They're still there.
"Either with or without anaesthetic."
-So you're saying the Palestinians will force them out with violence? What a peaceful solution! So much for co-existence and democracy, huh?
"They were removed from Gaza"
-Yeah. BY THE ISRAELI ARMY! But now Israel has no incentive at all to remove them. Good luck convincing Israel to do that...
"They have no rights, no claims and no legitimacy."
-They have the same rights, claims and legitimacy that the Palestinians do.
But, I'm hoping there is something to this for the simple reason that it would shatter the status quo - relatively speaking, of course - and get things moving again before it's too late for the familiar two state solution. That is assuming it's not already too late.
Problem #1: The issue of authority. The Palestinian Authority does not have sovereignty over the entire West Bank. They don't have the power to say "the West Bank is now Palestine!" Israel has control over quite a bit of it, and isn't just going to get up and leave because the Palestinians told them to. Especially without a peace treaty or cessation of hostilities between the two. In other words, the PA is not in a position to be declaring statehood.
Problem #2: Who is going to run the state? Hamas or Fatah? Or what? The same problem that the PA has now is just going to be repeated again and again and again until they figure something out. If anything, an end to the occupation would lead to more in-fighting and innocent Palestinian deaths. Which somehow I don't think is a solution that many Huffington Posters would be in favor of.
(continued)
Form a government, produce passports and open up trade agreements. Theyd immeduately receive billions of dollars in investment from all over the world and theyre currently in a better position and have more support than Israel did in 1948.
How? Hamas doesn't recognize Abbas' authority. And Abbas doesn't recognize theirs! So who is going to run this government?
One of these things is not like the others...
If they renounce Oslo, then the administered areas revert back to Israeli control. Abbas would have no legal standing to declare a state.