This is not a country interested in peace with Palestinians or a treaty of equals. Israel would be happy to accept the formal surrender of the Palestinian national dream, which is what the current negotiations are focused on, but a just peace is not the goal, and never has been.
As someone who has supported a two-state solution for the last 20 years I do not come to this conclusion lightly. I have always thought that the Israelis would eventually realize that peace is in their interest, and the long-term subjugation of the Palestinians is not viable. But it turns out that is not true. In fact, the majority of Israelis have concluded that the occupation can be maintained permanently, and that fully withdrawing from the West Bank is totally unacceptable and not necessary.
Because of the wall, the Israelis have defeated the prime violent option the Palestinians have, which was terrorism. Since the wall went up, the ability of the Palestinians to strike within Israel has been essentially obliterated. In the meantime, the Israelis are able to justify the continued existence of the wall to those who count, namely American public opinion and the American Jewish community, as a necessary protection. The devastating impact of the wall on the Palestinians, and the fact that it is built deeply within the West Bank, means nothing to the audience of importance.
Meanwhile, Israel continues to build settlements by the hundreds of units. The settler population makes up almost 10% of Israel’s Jews, provides many of its soldiers and generals, is politically powerful, and tightly linked to the right wing. It continues to grow much faster than Israel’s Jewish population as a whole, meaning that its power is increasing. The Israelis have no intention of removing a single major settlement, and have even gotten President Bush to commit to Israel support for keeping its settlements on a permanent basis, no matter what effect that has on the Palestinians.
The other major political achievement of the Israelis is to convince the American public and the American Jewish community that criticism of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians is always due to a hidden anti-Semitic agenda. Therefore, any critic of Israel can be safely dismissed as a lunatic, even an ex-President who did more for Israel’s long-term safety than any other President by getting Egypt to sign a peace treaty.
The Palestinians are in a true bind. When they were docile and let the Israelis treat them with the petty and daily humiliations of occupation in the 1970’s and 1980’s, the Israelis responded by convincing the world that the Palestinians liked being occupied so the Israelis had no reason to withdraw. Now when the Palestinians fight the occupation, the Israelis convince the world that the Palestinians are all a bunch of murderous junior Nazis filled with mindless anti-Semitism and therefore Israel cannot withdraw until the Palestinians return to being docile once again. Of course, once that happens, the Israelis will go back to the original story about how there is no need to end the subjugation because the Palestinians like being occupied.
So what should the Palestinians do? I think as long as the Israelis have no intention of ending the occupation, there is no purpose in negotiations. As such, the Palestinian Authority, which was created to be the negotiating platform for the Palestinians, has no reason to exist. The Palestinians should disband the Palestinian Authority and no longer act as Israel’s jailor. Israel should at least bear the full cost of their subjugation of the Palestinian people, the only people on the planet who are under occupation and denied citizenship in the land of their forefathers. The Israelis make much of how they cannot negotiate until the violence ends. I agree with that, neither side should negotiate until all violence ends. One of the most violent acts is the ongoing settlements in the West Bank. To end the violence, Israel must withdraw all of their settlers. When the last Jewish settler is pulled back behind the Green Line then the Palestinians have reason to negotiate. Until then, there is no point in these useless and meaningless exercises. Comments can reach me at
Nali@socal.rr.com.
