By asserting that Iran is a threat to Israel’s existence (a ludicrous assertion) and beating the drums for war with it, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has succeeded in getting Palestine off the political and mainstream media agenda and winning more time for Zionism to consolidate its occupation of the West Bank. (As Barak Ravid noted in an article for Ha’aretz, “The Presidential election season in the United States is obviously an especially good time to enlarge settlements in the West Bank and strike new roots in the Jewish neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem.”)
Question: What can be done to put Palestine back on the agenda?
Answer: Close down the Palestinian Authority and by so doing make Israel fully responsible for its occupation.
As my regular readers know, I advocated this course of action many months ago, but the case for actually doing it has now been well made by Yossi Beilin, the Israeli who has worked harder than any other for real peace with the Palestinians. (Beilin served as a minster in the cabinets of three Israel Prime Ministers – Rabin, Peres and Barak; was the architect on the Israeli side of the Oslo peace process; worked on the Beilin-Abu Mazen talks between 1993 and 1995; and launched the Geneva Accord with Yasser Abed Rabbo in 2003. Incidentally, I agree with Beilin. The Oslo process was not doomed to failure from its beginning. As Arafat once said to me, it could have worked if Rabin had not been assassinated by a Zionist zealot and if the U.S. and other major powers had insisted that Israel honoured the commitments it made).
Beilin delivered his call for action in an open letter to Palestinian “President” Abbas published by Foreign Policy. It was headlined Dear Abu Mazen, End This Farce.
Here is part of what Beilin wrote:
I admit that I never believed the moment would come when I would have to write these words. I am doing so because U.S. President Barack Obama has convinced you not to announce, at this point in time, the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority’s institutions and the ‘return of the keys’ of authority for the Palestinian territories to Israel. Because there have never been serious negotiations with the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the last three years, and because you did not want to perpetuate the myth that a meaningful dialogue existed, you have been sorely tempted to declare the death of the ‘peace process’ – but the American president urged you to maintain the status quo. It is a mistake to agree to Obama’s request, and you can rectify this.
You and I both understand that the current situation is a ticking time bomb. From my point of view, what is at stake is the loss of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. From yours, it is the loss of the chance for an independent Palestinian state. And from both of our points of view, the failure of the two-state solution risks a renewal of terrible violence.
Anyone who believes these things must take action. You can do it, and for this step you do not need a partner. A declaration of the end of the Oslo process – justified by the fact that the path to a permanent-status agreement is blocked – is the most reasonable, nonviolent option for putting the subject back on the world’s agenda, with the aim of renewing genuine efforts to reach a conclusive solution.
Dissolving the Palestinian Authority and returning daily control to Israel would be an action nobody could ignore. It is not at all similar to a demonstration in front of the Municipality of Ramallah, nor is it similar to appealing to the United Nations for member-state status. This is a step that only you can take, and a step that will demand a response.
I know how difficult it is. I know how many tens of thousands of people depend on the Palestinian Authority for their livelihoods. I am able to appreciate all that you and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad have accomplished – establishing Palestinian institutions, growing an economy in impossible conditions, and fostering security in the West Bank.
After all these endeavors, however, you still need to beg the government of Israel to release your money from customs, you still need to beg the Republicans in the U.S. Congress to transfer funds to the Palestinian Authority, and you still need to stand, day after day, before your Palestinian critics and explain why your political efforts are failing. Please don’t let this be the way you end your political mission – a mission that seeks to achieve Palestinian independence without the use of violence.
Do not hesitate for a moment! Do not accept the request of President Obama, who merely wants to be left undisturbed before election day. Do not let Prime Minister Netanyahu hide behind the fig leaf of the Palestinian Authority – impose upon him, once again, the responsibility for the fate of 4 million Palestinians. Remain as the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which will give you the authority to lead the political negotiations if and when they resume.
But for the sake of your own people, and for the sake of peace, you cannot let this farce continue.
After that call for action, Abbas told an unofficial Israeli delegation which included Beilin that he was not prepared to wait until after the U.S. presidential election in November and was prepared to rock Obama’s boat. What might that mean?
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is about to meet with Netanyahu and will hand him a letter which will lay out Palestinian positions for an agreement with Israel and give him, Netanyahu, one month to respond positively. If he does not respond positively, the letter will say, Abbas will resume the process of seeking to obtain UN recognition of a Palestinian state.
Momentum on that front could be seriously embarrassing for Obama because it could lead to him having to veto UN recognition of a Palestinian state in the final countdown to the November election. (I can almost hear Obama administration officials saying to Abbas something like, “If you wait until after the president is re-elected, there will not be an American veto).
During his meeting with the unofficial Israeli delegation Abbas confirmed that his officials have discussed dismantling the Palestinian Authority and said that the issue will arise again if the process of seeking to obtain UN recognition of a Palestinian state is resumed.
Could that mean that Abbas will be ready and willing to dismantle the PA in the event of an American veto of UN recognition of a Palestinian state and/or Netanyahu’s confirmation by default that Israel is not remotely interested in peace on any terms acceptable to the Palestinians?
I hope so.
If Abbas does agree to end the farce and dismantle the PA, how would be the Palestinians be represented after the impotent and discredited institution had been put out of its misery?
Short answer, by bringing back to life the Palestine National Council, re-invigorated by elections to it in every place on Planet Earth where Palestinians are living.
In my view dismantling the PA would put Palestine back on the agenda and a re-invigorated PNC could and would keep it there.
But it’s not so simple. Bringing back a re-invigorated PNC as the Palestinian parliament-in-exile and the highest decision-making body on the Palestinian side would require the Palestinian Diaspora to become seriously engaged. The question is – Do enough Diaspora Palestinians care enough to make it happen?
I have previously written, and believe with even more passion today, that if they don’t, they will be charged by future historians with betraying their oppressed brothers and sisters in Palestine that became Israel.
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Dismantling Palestinian Authority (PA) is not in the interests of USrael. Both Washington and Tel Aviv know that the gap left by Fatah - will, immediately, filled by Islamic Resistance Hamas - which would be a nightmare especially since Israel is bullying Iran with its nuclear bombs.
USrael has succeeded in putting a wedge between Hamas and Damascus - but both still maintain closer relations with Lebanese Hizbullah and Iran.
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/abbas-returns-to-enact-mother-of-treasons/
I am not convinced, that getting Palestine on or off the mainstream and political media makes an iota of difference. We know that both are controlled by zionists. All you might see is a crafted fairytale. You cannot expect any leverage to be developed.
I have also become more concerned that the voices of (humanitarian) zionist are being portrayed - at the expense of Palestinians - as the most likely source of a solution; as moderate, intelligent, and deserving of applause.
Alan you bring to the fore, Yossi Beilin, and describe him as: "
the Israeli who has worked harder than any other for real peace with the Palestinians."
I will ask you this question Alan. Is peace possible without justice?
Let us now abandon peace and the peace process. The way forward cannot be achieved through peace. Peace is just a holding pattern. Surely we must all agree that the question of Palestine does not need to be locked in a holding pattern any longer? Peace will come but not until peace efforts stop and justice efforts start to bear fruit. It is justice that needs to be emphasised and not peace. Let all of our near and dear (humanitarian) zionist friends busy themselves with the subject of justice and compensation. Now what would be their contribution? We would strip from them the cover that words like; moderate, humanitarian, intellectual, and peace provide. We would expose the inner zionist and reveal someone I think with whom we would clearly see that co-operation was never possible. This is because justice is not something they want. What they want is a share; and to know that their share is safe. The only difference between zionists are to what extent they are will to gamble with the cards they hold.
Always remember Alan, that a zionist is an extremist. They either believe that a god gave them the land of Palestine or they pretend to believe in it for profit. An extremist is not someone who is willing to negotiate. 64 years has taught us that much. An organised peace process has not played any part in bringing this dispute to an end. It is just a delaying tactic. Let us not spend our time trying to resuscitate peace. The periods of peace we have had in the past have played no part in a solution. Peace should not be the goal. Peace will only ever be stable and become a foundation, when it is a byproduct of justice.
More "peace talks" and screwing around with the PA won't do a thing. This occupation won't end until there is military action against Israel forcing them to withdraw. I am convinced of this.
Dear Alan,
I daresay that I concur with what Mr King has said. For any peace
in the Middle East we have to get down to basics: the crux of the
problem is the fate of the Palestinian refugees, people dispossessed of their land and homes in 1948 and 1967 by the ugliest colonisation process in modern times and who, after 64 years are still languishing in shanty camps and elsewhere
in the diaspora.You mention this to Mr Beilin and you may get a not-so-docile an answer. In his socalled Geneva Initiative, which he co-authgored with Abed-Rabbu, he did not give an iota of attention to that matter.
As for the Oslo Accords, they were negotiated, and I quote
Edward Said here,'by an amateur group of Palestinians' who didn't
even 'have maps' of the West Bank with them.Oslo has been a tragedy for the Palestinians as about 90% of Israeli colonies were erected by virtue of Oslo and its provisions. All the Palestinian Authority has done, from its inception, is police the West Bank- its own people, for the sake of Israel's security with the hope of the likes of Rabin, or Barak or Netanyahu giving them, and I quote you Alan here,'a crumble' from Israel's 'table'.The people of the P.A.,in short, have been self-serving political quislings who don't represent even the Palestinians in whose midst they are living, i.e.the West Bankers.Make an independent poll in the West Bank, and the P.A. will know how popular,or otherwise, they are.
So, I do agree with Mr King.Justice must come before peace.And look where the realism of Arafat in 1988 has taken us.And how Oslo was just a sell-out.Your Suggestion, Alan, is probably the best in the circumstances.The Palestine National Council must be activated as the true representative of the ten million or so Palestinians, and its election must start, after a good census,with diaspora Palestinians. And the latter, must be able to get organized, not on any party lines, and get counted. Thank you for the not so novel suggestion, for I remember you making it a couple oy years back.
Whatever is done, I hope that Palestine will be put back in agenda and that the suffering of Palestinians will end. I agree with King David that peace will come after, or at the same time with, justice.
(By the way, Beilin mentions an Israel that could be a Jewish State and democratic. The arguments that show that BOTH things are not possible have been published in quite a few places).
In 2010 - two Jewish writers - one American and one Israel-born Brit - came up with a solution to Palestinian occupation. Both are still committed to 'One State' solution to Palestine-Israel based on Justice for both native Muslims and Christians - and the foreign Jews. However, both have diffrent ideas to resolve the problem.
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/palestine-the-third-option/
Thanks Rehmat for the link, and Alan for the article. I do not know if Alan's suggestion would work, but something needs to be done, and Tucker's idea and Gilad Atzmon's need a lot of unlikely changes in Zionist thinking.