Yes, I am running for President of Palestine in the next election, if there is one. No, I don't expect to win. But then, many long shot candidates who don't expect to win, actually find themselves winning.
Still, my goal isn't to win office but to help re-ignite the peace process between Palestinians and Israelis not by pushing the leaders to do their jobs and stop putzing around but by reaching out to the grassroots Palestinian and Israeli publics.
I figure the leaders are hemming and hawing and violating past agreements because they believe the public doesn't care any more and that things have gotten so bad that conflict seems like a better alternative. Conflict is never a better alternative.
So I threw my political hat in the proverbial election campaign ring, and I am tossing my tongue in my stand up comedian cheek, too, in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, the publics of both people can return to a place of sanity and end the blame game.
Here's my campaign platform and I think it's doable because Israelis and Palestinians are already responding positively:
- I support two-states, one Israel and one Palestine. As far
as I am concerned, I can recognize Israel’s “Jewish” character and Israelis
should recognize Palestine’s “non-Jewish” character.
- I oppose violence of any kind from and by anyone. I reject
Hamas’ participation in any Palestinian government without first agreeing to
surrender all arms and to accept two-states as a “final” peace agreement. But I
also reject allowing Israeli settlers to carry any weapons and believe Israelis
must impose the same restrictions on them.
- I can support some settlements remaining – given the reality
of 42 years of time passing -- in a dunum-for-dunum land exchange. If Ariel is
500 dunums with a lifeline from Israel, then Israel gives Palestine 500 dunums
in exchange.
- Jerusalem should be a shared city and Palestinians should
have an official presence in East Jerusalem. The Old City should be shared by
both permitting open access to the city to all with a joint Palestinian-Israeli
police presence.
- Palestinian refugees would give up their demand to return to
pre-1948 homes and lands lost during the conflict with Israel. Instead, some
could apply for family reunification through Israel and the remainder would be
compensated through a fund created and maintained by the United States, Israel,
Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the United Nations.
- I also think Israelis should find it in their hearts to show
compassion and offer their apologies to Palestinians for the conflict.
- I support creation of a similar fund to compensate those
Jews from Arab lands who lost their homes and lands, too, when they fled.
- I think the Wall should be torn down, or relocated to the
new borders. I have no problem separating the two nations for a short duration
to help rebuild confidence between our two people.
- All political parties, Palestinian and Israelis, should
eliminate languages denying each other’s existence, and all maps should be
reprinted so that Israeli maps finally show Palestine and Palestinian maps
finally show Israel.
- A subway system should be built linking the West Bank
portion of the Palestine state to the Gaza Strip portion of the Palestine
State. Palestine should be permitted to build a seaport access to strengthen
its’ industry, and an airport to permit flights and too and from the Arab and
Israeli world.
- I would urge the Arab World to renew their offer to
normalize relations with Israel if Israel agrees to support the creation of a
Palestinian State.
- And I would ask both countries to establish embassies in
each other’s country to address other problems.
- While non-Jewish Palestinians would continue to live in
Israel as citizens, Jews who wish to live in settlements surrendered by Israel
could become Palestinian citizens and they should be recognized and treated
equally.
- If Jews want to live in Hebron, they should be allowed to
live in Hebron and should be protected, just as non-Jews. In fact, for every
Jewish individual seeking to live in Palestine, a Palestinian should be
permitted to live in Israel. In fact, major Palestinian populations in Israel
could be annexed into Palestine (like settlements).
- Another concept is to have non-Jews living in Israel
continue to live there but only vote in Palestinian elections, while Jews
living in Palestine would only vote in Israeli elections. A special citizenship
protection committee could be created to explore how to protect the rights of
minorities in each state.
- Israel and Palestine should create joint-governing and
security agencies working with the United States to monitor the peace, and
establish an agency to pursue criminal acts of violence.
You tell me who has a better campaign platform that makes more sense among Israel's and Palestine's leaders?
Everyone knows what the answer is, we just need to find people with courage to start saying it. But Palestinians and Israelis don't have to wait until their leaders suddenly see the light and stop pandering to the extremists.
Enough is enough! Yalla Peace!
My campaign web site is www.YallaPeace.com. Join in this movement, not to make me president, but to give our children a better future than the nightmare of a past and present we now have.
Follow Ray Hanania on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/rayhanania
And then there's your generous offer that Hamas must disarm but, so as to be seeming fair, that Israeli settlers should do so as well. But Hamas is the *elected government* of the Palestinian people (although a majority of its elected representatives are still under Israeli lock and key). If you want to be "fair," how about proposing that the *Israeli government* disarm as well? After all, it is the *Israeli army* which protects the settlers.
on the positive side of things... (gotta keep positive)... I do like the subway idea connecting Gaza and areas occupied by Arabs in Judea and Samaria.
...but in the end this guy is just looking to fling mud. Israel should never apologize for not dying.
I'd sooner see Israel give up Jerusalem then ever apologize to those that were trying to murder Jews for centuries merely because they did not share a religion.
it is up to Palestinians and Israelis to decide whether they want one or two states.
As Americans, it is not our responsibility to negotiate detailed governmental structures or border arrangements for other countries, but to ensure that our government works to create an environment in which the parties can negotiate such matters based on the principle of equal rights, not unequal power.
Eileen Fleming,
Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org
Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"
Producer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu"
Maybe Egypt can do so as well. I doubt they would miss a a few hundred square kms of Sinai desert.
With some exceptions, this is what was offered to Arafat at Camp David.
To the utter astonishment of the world Arafat turned it down flat.
And right-wingers in both, Palestinian territories and Israel, were happy he did.
The land is internationally recognised as the occupied Palestinian Territories. In the end the building of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land is only going to make the inevitable resolution more difficult and costly for Israel.
History testifies that violence only reaps its own kind.
Voices of Conscience must be raised hounding Obama and Congress to Change Course.
LISTEN to the people who live there-they are the ones that must choose to LIVE in Peace-and they are ALL worn out with the ongoing misery!
I have met many Israelis and Palestinians who are partners and friends in NONVIOLENT solidarity against the Occupation.
You can be apart by phoning and writing Obama and your reps weekly on this issue.
Let's give all children a future without nightmares from the past and the now that we all share.
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/
http://endtheoccupation.org/
Israel will have to be recognized as a Jewish state. The Palestinians will get a large infusion of aid to build a country. Hamas will have to renounce violence or be destroyed.
Since everybody pretty much knows what the two state solution will be it should be negoitated for the most party without the two parties involved. It should be presented to Israel and the Palestinians as a take it or leave it offer. They take it and they will automatically be given full diplomatic relations with every country in the world. They leave it and all the same countries stop giving aid to Israel and the Palestians and tell them to bugger off and we can't help them anymore.
It seems to me that the existence of the State of Israel is and always has been predicated upon the right of one group of people, in this case the Jewish people, to take land and property away from an indigenous population by force. Whether we are talking thousands of years ago, or today, or tomorrow, we are dealing with a situation wherein one group of people believes that they literally have a God-given right to take ownership of a piece of the Earth by any means necessary.
It is impossible to argue with religious or political dogma and expect any outcome other than to agree to disagree, but in any discussion that does not involve religion, it is generally considered illegal and immoral to forcibly take something away from another person. If someone tried to take a piece of land away from a farmer in Montana by force, he would expect to be met with furious armed resistance. So, why should attempted robbery in Palestine be considered any differently than attempted robbery in Montana, Mississippi, or anywhere else on Earth?
It is in this light that we need to look at was been happening in Palestine for the last 100+ years, since the inception and promulgation of the most recent policy called "Zionism", the right of Jewish people to the land that is the center of so much suffering and conflict.
In the words of Albert Einstein, quoted from April 17, 1938, "I would much rather see reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis of living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish State."
It is also reasonable to remember that for over a thousand years the safest place on Eath for Jews to live was in the Arab nations, among the Muslims. It is horribly and tragically ironic that Zionism, the movement to restore to existence the State of Israel, has resulted in the destruction of good will and peace between historically amicable religions, Judaism and Islam.
Jews lived in safe among Arab nations as long as they were second degree citizens and wear yellow Star of David (first appeared in Muslim Assyria) and pay extra special taxes to the Sulatan and from time to time the Muslims oppressed, robbed and murdered Jews.
Gentile love Jews without a state, army and power, that's why there are many that still can't accept the very existence of Israel because their dark dream goes beyond their reach.
Zionism is a mostly secular movement. It has less to do with God and more to do with a historic connection to the land. Religion was certainly a motivating factor for the movement, but it is not what the movement based it's claim on. On the other hand, the Muslim religion states that all land once owned by Muslims belongs to them forever (IIRC). Palestine is no different. Just look at the Muslim clerics preaching "death to Israel" from the pulpit and ask yourself which religion is really to blame for this conflict.
No one was going to force anything away from anyone in 1948. The Arabs living in Israel could continue living their lives normally. Only after those very Arabs rose up and attacked the Jews did the Jews fight back and sometimes force them out. Second, the "Montana farmer" example is flawed on two levels: the land did not belong to the Palestinians, so they had no right to defend it with deadly force, and therefore no one was taking "their land" away from them.
In the first years of white settlement in Australia the same justification was used to claim Australia for England - they simply declared Australia as "empty", the Aborigines didn't exist and had no legal claim on the land in the eyes of the law.
It was a land grab here in Australia and it's the same thing in Palestine/Israel today.
Thank you for all the above and esp. the bottom line:
"To give our children a better future than the nightmare of a past and present we now have."
My first of 7 trips to Palestine was to meet a particular little boy of Bethlehem and to be a delegate with the Olive Trees Foundation for Peace, a US non-profit dedicated to raising awareness and funds to purchase trees to replace those that have been destroyed by The Wall.
Experiencing The Wall in full frontal view and listening to people enduring under occupation was brutal, but most chilling was-and remains-the thought of what such an existence does to children.
I promised that little boy of Bethlehem [it is his photo on the banner of my website] that the rest of my life will be dedicated to doing something to help End the Occupation -which dehumanizes both sides.
The rest of that story:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=892&Itemid=200
The two-state models for Palestine and Israel
Federal State of Israel-Palestine
The two-state models for Palestinian and Israeli is not working. Many experts on the Middle Eastern politics and people indicate that a two state solution in not viable model. We have struggled with it for nearly 60 years.
The advocates for one-state solution stress that under a two-state solution, Jerusalem can not be the capital of Israel. This city is religious holy city belonging to Jews, Muslims and Christians. This city should not be controlled by a theocratic Jewish state; in that case, it should be an open international city.
Practically the region is one State. Israel controls the entire region in air and on the ground. The chance for creating a two state solution is dead. Both Jewish and Palestinians have paid a high price for a failed two-state system; we have to consider the human side of the Israeli-Jewish struggle for a lasting peace.
I suggest that only as one nation, Federal State of Israel-Palestine, the peace may endure. We, Americans, have failed to see the both side of the struggle for a lasting peace. As Semitic people, they have common historical and religious heritage.
Those who advocate one-state solution as a Federal State would also suggest Jerusalem as the capital of the Federation.
Now if we could get it to happen.
Give it a good serious try. Many people would back you.
Netanyahu seems to be willing to offer half the W. Bank and Golan for a fully peace with all Muslims but not E. Jerusalem, he likely know they will not accept this but he needs to show Israel atleast put up a counter offer to Saudi plan.
Israel would rather deport all Muslims to Gaza or Jordan than accept any peace deal but they need to keep the West happy while the settlement continue to grow. The illegal outpost still stand after years of Israel telling the US that they will be removing, at some point they will become part of the settlements and a change in status will be how Israel removes them.
Most the world except for Israel has decided on something close to the Saudi Plan with a land swap but Israel will never willingly accept this will out major US/UN pressure and I don't see that happening. With out a full stop to settlement building, Israel will keep the talks going for decades with no deal in sight.
A move to stage the commemoration in Israel's parliament, the Knesset, is being led by Michael Ben-Ari, who was elected this year and is the first self-declared former member of Kahane's party, Kach, to become a legislator since the movement was banned 15 years ago.
The US Embassy, in Tel Aviv, has sent a series of e-mails to Reuven Rivlin, the parliamentary speaker, asking that he intervene to block the event.
According to US officials, pressure is being exerted on behalf of George Mitchell, the US president Barack Obama's envoy to the region, who is concerned that it will add to his troubles as Israeli and Palestinian leaders clash over a possible move by the Palestinians to issue a unilateral declaration of statehood.
Some Israeli legislators have warned that Mr Ben-Ari and his supporters are gaining a stronger foothold in parliament, in an indication of the country's increasing lurch rightwards.
"Ben-Ari and the advisers he has brought with him are unabashed representatives for Kach and Kahane's ideas," said Ahmed Tibi, an Arab legislator and the deputy speaker. "What we have is in effect a terrorist cell in the parliament."