Once upon a time, in a place far far away, a magical fairy took wing and sprinkled magical peace dust over Israel! Decades-old barriers between the Israelis and the Palestinians fell away as if they never existed. Peace ruled. Palestine was granted state-hood, and Israel was finally at peace with its new neighbor!
This is the scenario that it appears some at this site believe is possible. It must be a belief in a magical fairy, because their belief is not based on reality.
For some inexplicable reason, these cyber-peaceniks have convinced themselves that Israel, if given the choice, would oblige their occupied people to form a State somewhere on the Land of Israel. They tell us that there are petitions, meetings, and grass-roots support for this scenario, and, they also believe that people outside of the Israeli government can effect such change. These are the same people that see Israel as a 'bastion of Democracy' in the Middle East. It follows, so they believe, that if enough citizens want this scenario to unfold, unfold it must.
It is unfortunate for these well-meaning activists--well, some are 'well-meaning'--that they are acting outside of the 'reality-based community'. Do we dare tell them there is no magical fairy? And, would they believe us if we said as much?
Will they listen to reason? Will they confront the illogical basis of their scenario, or will they perpetuate their myth to this community by appealing to this community's sense that people can make changes to governments that seem too ignorant to listen to them, at the present time? That if only more people signed the petitions and participated in the grass-roots movement that Israel would get the message and peace would come to all of Israel?
I would like to frame this debate in its simplest terms: Israel, being the variable with the most power in this equation, must decide to change the status quo and cede a significant amount of its power to the Palestinians. Once this power has been shifted to the Palestinians, they can create a Palestinian state in the Land of Israel. An assumption I am making is that power is the most important variable in the Middle East. This is based on my studies of the region, and has been memorialized in a recent book by Jean Allain, titled International Law in the Middle East.
Another assumption is uncontroversial: That Israel is the occupying or the controlling power over the Palestinians, at the moment. Their forces are used to order everyday Palestinian existence and movements throughout the Land of Israel, to varying degrees.
The peace group is suggesting that Israel will have an epiphany, either through magical fairy dust, as a result of public pressure, or, out of a sudden pang of guilt and will decide that the status quo is not preferred. No, Israel has, so the story goes, decided to allow a Palestinian state to be created. And, for the sake of brevity, I will refer to this new state as 'Palestine', a state located in the Land of Israel.
However, this group does not give us any indication of the level of understanding they have of what 'statehood' means or implies. Palestine will necessarily have sovereignty.
This, for purposes of this diary, means that they will have the right to trade, sell, or use as they see fit its natural resources. An example that is quite relevant is 'water rights' to Palestine, to the exclusion of Israel.
As a state, Palestine will be able to enter into treaties and agreements with other states for goods and/or services.
They will be able to join international bodies, sign human rights treaties, arm's agreements, trade agreements. They will be able to litigate their trade or other agreements in international courts of arbitration and/or justice.
They can sue other states for past and present grievances for violations of the target state's obligations under treaties that they have signed and broken, to the detriment of the citizens of Palestine.
They can have their own armed forces, jets, tanks, bombs. They can as many guns, bullets, bombs, bombers that they can afford, from whichever country on the planet that will sell it to them.
They can enter into intellectual property agreements with any other state. The North Koreans, the Iranians, the Syrians, or, the Egyptians or any other state for any reason.
But, the fairy-tale spinners tell us, without addressing ANY of these concerns, that Israel will do so. And, we are supposed to go along with the fairy-tale and believe this is all possible and within our grasp.
Well, dear readers, you can believe the fairy-tale. It is human nature to hope and to dream for the irrational. I buy a lottery ticket from time-to-time, knowing that I will not win, but, wondering how I might spend the money when I do!
Tags: Palestine, Fairy-dust, Peace, Israel