This is the last I/P diary we ever need... yeah right... (sigh)
- Israel in some form of a Jewish state, based roughly on pre-1967 border with some additional part of Jerusalem, is not going away.
- The Palestinians are going to get a independent country made-up of Gaza, the West Bank and some part of East Jerusalem.
It is Friday evening here in New York City. The Sabbath for Jews and Muslims...
Anybody serious about peace (as opposed to just bashing one side or the other) can start discussion on that fact... be it Camp David II & Taba, Geneva Accord, Saudi Initiative & Arab League Resolution, etc. (see below).
- Israel has to get out of West Bank (+/- minor adjustments for largest settlements that are immediately contiguous with green line; traded for land elsewhere such as in Sinai area). Western countries will wind up paying to help move most of the "settlers" back to inside the green line.
- Some sort of political partition of Jerusalem with parts of the east and old city, of becoming the capital of Palestinian state. Includes the parts that are traditionally Arab/Muslim/Christian and includes the "Temple Mount" where there are currently mosques (and which are under nominal Muslim authority even now). Some parts of east Jerusalem, including the traditional Jewish areas and some of the adjacent areas where Jews have (re-)expanded into since 1967 and The Western Wall and plaza area facing it, stay Israeli. Muslim (and most of the Christian) holy sites including the Temple Mount go to the Palestinian state. The post-temple/post-diaspora Jewish holy sites (which explicitely does not include the temple mount) go to Israel.
- No actual return to pre-67 borders by any significant number of Palestinians who used to live there. Israeli Arab citizen who live inside the green line continue to remain Israeli citizens. The so-called "demographic problem" is solely from post-67 West Bank, Gaza, and East-Jerusalem. Western and Arab countries will wind up paying for resettlement of Palestinian refugees to the new Palestinian state.
- Peace with Syria, based on the return of the Golan Heights to at least nominal de jure Syrian sovereignty, probably looking like recent Swiss initiative, which included a large demilitarized area including nature park and included a right for Israeli's to go (visit the nature park; assure that it was demilitarized) there freely without permission or warning.
That's what peace looks like.
Anything else -- whether by Israeli's or silly Western Right wingers be they Jews or Christians saying "nobody to talk to" or "we are keeping some significant piece of West Bank ("it's really ours because..."); or by Palestinians, other Arabs or Muslims, or silly Western lefties saying Israel has no right to exist -- is what hopeless stalemate and endless war looks like.
I used to collect all the more or less legitimate and true historical and moral claims by both sides as a list called "many different things can be true at once." This is not a matter of relativism. It is simply that the world is a complex place, made up of many shades of grey, and that not all things are mutually exclusive. Many things can be true at the same time. So, yes, we can endlessly discuss all the details of history, who was right or wrong on any particular event. But frankly, today in the real world, it does not really matter.
To my pro-Israeli friends, especially those who are, as I am, Jewish (and pro-Israel and pro-real peace):
The long-term existential security of Israel is not determined by holding this or that hilltop or this or that couple of mile strip of land. It is assured by internationally accepted and guaranteed peace agreement and borders. To assure the existence of Israel, and an Israel that is democratic and Jewish, requires getting out of the occupied territories and making peace. And who does one negotiate with? One negotiates with ones enemies. That is with whom one negotiates. Will there be some extremists shouting they will never accept Israel. Of course. So what. Somebody is always shouting. But their voices will be in an ever smaller minority, with less funding and less support once an internationally agreed upon peace is made. Most Palestinians, and Arabs, and Muslims worldwide including Iran, will settle down to just going on with their lives once there is an accepted Palestinian state. May some terrorism continue? Of course, but it will be in decreasing amounts over time as daily living moves on. But the threat to Israel's existence, of massive invasion, or missiles and WMDs will be over. It is not 1947-1973 anymore, with pan-Arab rejection of the very existence of Israel. Peace with Egypt, the Oslo Agreements, and peace with Jordan began that... and the Saudi Initiative was end of that. And, please, oppose the rejectionists and bomb throwers on your (our) side. No more expansion of the settlement; NONE! No more settler violence. Reduce the internal roadblocks. No more excuses to not at least talk. Don't let the violence of the few act as veto to longterm policy.
The NeoCons/PNAC/AIPAC and other just plain vanilla right wing or "conservative-on-Israel" American Jewery need to get past the juvenile kneejerk "Israel is always right," and look at the real world, including both the real longterm threat (to Israel, America, the world) of not having peace and the real suffering and real rights of the Palestinians. And the non-Jewish right wingers be they Cheney/Rumsfeld/Bush and/or Christianist need to just shut up (or stop being listened to on this issue). AIPAC is an organization of, by and for conservative Republicans in the U.S. and Likudniks in Israel. AIPAC does not represent the opinions of the majority of American Jews in general. AIPAC does not even represent Israel per se, as demonstrated by their opposition to Labor party Prime Ministers Rabin and Barak when they were leading the government of Israel in negotiations with the Palestinians and Syria. AIPAC support specific narrow minded idealogically based, and immoral, policies not based in reality. The large majority of American Jews who do not agree with AIPAC need to get better organized and louder with one voice (the problem is not that such organizations do not exist, perhaps there are too many different but small ones).
To my lefty friends and other pro-Palestinians, regardless of faith:
Israel is not going away. Everybody else gets their nationalism and so do the Jews. Israel has a right to exist. Whether you accept this on the basis of history or not, it does under International Law, the UN Mandate and Paritition. Regardless, in real world, it is not going away.
Calls for a single binational state, popularized by some western lefty academics, are also essentially silly. Neither side on the ground wants that. Throwing around catch-phrases like Apartheid, which does have some true application to the situation in the occupied west bank, is ultimately simplistic. Arguing by catch-phrase or analogy does not advance pushing the two sides to real negotiations.
Feel free to oppose Israeli policies including the occupation and failure to negotiate. Please do oppose NeoCons, AIPAC, PNAC and their camp follower. But don't talk conflate them with American Jews in general. And do not cast it in terms of Israel's overall existence per se, or American Jews in general, for when you do you are suggestnig you are not interested in peace but something else. And, please, oppose the rejectionists and bomb throwers on your side. It seems like Fatah and even half of Hamas is ready to talk. Let's not let other's veto this with violence.
I believe that:
- It is going to take outsider powers, Western and Arab, to force the two sides to an agreement. Too many people do want peace, but leaders on both sides are too weak, and the people of violence get to control the agenda.
- Small stepwise interim agreements won't work, since that has proven to leave an ongoing veto to the people of violence. Need a big all-in-one final agreement. No more lengthy multi-step road maps or processes.
- What NATO & EU under UN auspices have done in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo is a potential model.
- It is admittedly forced peace making, not just peace keeping. But it is would be under UN auspices with broad international support. But it is better than the current war without end, and the ever present danger of it spiralling out of control regionally. And it is also a preventive against international terrorism; and yes of course, having the festering sore of unresolved Israeli-Arab war is one of the sources of outrage and and support and recruitment for such terrorism directed against the West. For all those reasons it is worth the cost and risk.
Here is what peace looks like:
Camp David II, 2000:
MidEastWeb on Camp David II: http://www.mideastweb.org/...
MidEastWeb on Orient House report: http://www.mideastweb.org/...
Clinton bridging proposal: http://www.mideastweb.org/...
Taba - a last ditch effort to save Camp David II, January 2001:
Haaretz articles compiled at: http://www.haaretz.com/...
MidEastWeb on Taba: http://www.mideastweb.org/...
MidEastWeb Final Maps: http://www.mideastweb.org/...
MidEasWeb EU summary: http://www.mideastweb.org/...
Saudi Initiative, 2002:
Several Haaretz article compiled at: http://www.haaretz.com/...
MidEastWeb report: http://www.mideastweb.org/...
Geneva Accord, 2003:
MidEastWeb article: http://www.mideastweb.org/...
Maps & Principles: http://www.mideastweb.org/...
MidEastWeb article: http://www.mideastweb.org/...
MidEastWeb article: http://www.mideastweb.org/...
Swiss Mediated Israel-Syria talks, 2004-2006:
Full text: http://www.haaretz.com/...
Haaretz articles: http://www.haaretz.com/...
Haaretz article: http://www.haaretz.com/...
Haaretz article: http://www.haaretz.com/...
Haaretz article: http://www.haaretz.com/...
Map: http://www.haaretz.com/...
MidEastWeb report: http://www.mideastweb.org/...
American Jewish Groups that are pro-Real Peace and Anti-AIPAC:
...and dozens of others:
- Too many, not speaking with one voice
- Individually too small
- Not connected to levers of power
I am an American Jew. So that is where I am coming from (reflected in among things my weblinks).
It would be wonderful to here from American Muslims, especially Arabs and very especially Palestinians.
Addendums:
- Ben Gurion was opposed to settlements. He urged governent at the time to make a quick settlement. Early on settlements almost an accident. But rapidly took on life of its own, with different groups supporting it for different agendas. After Oslo, both sides ignored agreement, in the case of Israel massive continued expansion of settlements and occupation.
- Number of Jews kicked out of Arab countries about same as number of Palestinian Arab refugees forced out of Israel. Israel took them in.
- Some like to dismiss them as just a bunch of "leftists", but on Israeli side people involved in activities like Geneva Accord with Palestinians include retired senior Generals, and former heads of intelligence, security and military intelligence agencies; as well as former diplomats and Knesset members; on Palestinian side included former #3 of Fatah/PLO and current Palestinian parliment members from several parties. "Swiss" talks included retired former head of Israeli Foreign ministry (senior career professional diplomat; just below always changing political level foreign minister) and Syrian generals and intelligence officers. In other words serious senior people all around.
