For me the most depressing thing about the debate in the British House of Commons on a non-binding motion to recognise Palestine as a state alongside Israel was that all MPs who participated, including those who made informed and honest contributions, still seem to believe that a two-state solution is possible. It isn’t.
One MP, Crispin Blunt, a Conservative and one of the two chairmen of the Palestine All-Party Parliamentary Group, went some way to indicate why it isn’t but he didn’t complete the journey. He said, “The settlers are a problem for any Israeli government.”
The reality behind that statement was defined for me as far back as 1980 by Shimon Peres when he accepted me as the linkman in a secret, exploratory dialogue between him and Arafat. (The full story of that initiative is told in The Blood Oath, Chapter 12 of Volume Three of the American edition of my book Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews).
Though he welcomed the initiative Peres said he feared it was “already too late” (for a two-state solution). I asked him why. He replied:
“Every day that passes sees new bricks on new settlements. Begin is not stupid. He knows exactly what he is doing. He is stuffing the West Bank with settlers to create the conditions for a Jewish civil war. He knows that no Israeli prime minister is going down in history as the one who gave the order to the Jewish army to shoot large numbers of Jews out of the West Bank.” Pause. “I’m not.”
The question I would put to all British MPs (and elected members of parliaments everywhere) is this.
If it was too late in 1980 when they were only about 70,000 illegal Jewish settlers on the occupied West Bank, how much more too late is it today when there are about 600,000, with that number rising on an almost daily basis?
There is a case for saying that if ever the governments of the U.S. and Western Europe indicated that they were prepared to subject Israel to real pressure (isolation and sanctions) to try to cause it to end the occupation, a significant number of illegal Jewish settlers would be prepared to take their leave of the West Bank in return for compensation; but very many would not. So, as Egypt’s President Sadat said to me a few months before he was assassinated, “For there to be peace, there has to be a Jewish civil war.” In principle that’s the case but it will not happen for the reason Peres gave me all those years ago.
Another aspect of the unreality of the House Commons debate was the assumption and assertion of virtually everyone who participated that “peace can only come through negotiations.” The reality this ignores is that Zionism is not interested in good faith negotiations to produce an acceptable amount of justice for the Palestinians. Zionism is committed to obtaining for keeps the maximum amount of land with the minimum number of Arabs on it.
The question the British House of Commons (and parliaments everywhere) ought to be debating is this.
Are we to go on allowing Israel to defy international law or not?
Footnote
It was not at all surprising that Conservative MPs who are content to read from Zionism’s script spoke the most nonsense.
One of them, British-born, Jewish Robert Halfon, a former Political Director of Conservative Friends of Israel and currently Principal Private Secretary to Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, said “the Palestinians already have a state – Jordan.”
He also asserted that if Israel did not have the Iron Dome, “hundreds of thousands” of Israelis would have been killed by Hamas’s rockets.
And he was on the same page as Netanyahu and those to the neo-fascist right of him who prefer to ignore the fact that Hamas’s top leaders have been on the public record for some years with the statement that while Hamas will never recognise Israel’s “right” to exist, it is prepared to live with it in a two-state solution provided that is the wish of the Palestinians as confirmed by a referendum. Halfon asserted that Hamas wanted “only the destruction of Israel.” If he really believes that Hamas could destroy Israel, he’s as nuts as Netanyahu.
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Acknowledging a "right to exist" is approval of the genesis of the state, the "right" of Jews to someone else's property. Who would acknowledge this: Some top Palestinian or Hamas should say just this: "How can I acknowledge the right of immigrants to cease my property and expel me and my family? This is what is being asked."
But, I'm dreaming.
The amendment to the UK action brought the "recognition" under the auspice of Zionism, repeating the Zionist condition that recognition be conditioned on "negotiations". Of course, such negotiations are impossible just as a dead man cannot negotiate with a living one. Ridiculous -- and everyone knows it.
So, I would leave out "good intentions." Secondly, the two state language in effect legitimizes the state of Israel explicitly. This is not helpful either.
It is just good ole imperialist hypocrisy at its finest. Nothing changes, Israel gets all and Palestinians disappear from the earth and, eventually, from history.
It's late and I'm tired. I meant "seized".
“Peace can only come through negotiations” is the euphemism for the overriding proviso that everything hinges on Israel's whims!
I hate to disagree with you Allen.
A few points.
1. A two state solution was never possible. That is the sole reason it was focused on. That is, to prevent a resolution that would have fixed borders.
2. It is not too late, and it was never too late to out the zionist squatters. By squatters, I am referring to the "Settlers" and all other israelis.
Your last point Allen is one I have been pointing out for many years now. I wish more would take it up. The point of the peace negotiations is to protect the zionists from International Law.
There is only ONE solution to the Israel-Palestine "conflict": Israel must leave the Middle East. The U.N. must revoke its Resolution 181 of November 1947 on partition of Palestine. A new Place on Earth must be found for Israel, where Zionists can settle, after due negotiations with the present land owner(s).
This is the ONLY way to make Peace in the M.E.
In all the argument I have online with Zionists, although I have a ready answer to all the old myths by now, the one point I have always found difficult to answer is about the Hamas Charter. The points in Alan's article here are very helpful in that debate. But most of the Zionists still state that Hamas wants the 'annihilation of Israel'. I always reply to this by saying that such a thing is quite obviously impossible, so what are they afraid of?
The refusal to accept Israel's 'right to exist',as I now see, is perfectly acceptable and is not the same as wanting its complete destruction. However, for the simple benefit of PR, I can't help feelng that Hamas could do well to alter the Charter.
Hundreds of Israeli notables including Nobel Prize laureate Prof. Daniel Kahneman, former Meretz ministers Ran Cohen and Yossi Sarid, four former MKs, six winners of the Israeli Prize and the former attorney-general Michael Ben Yair in a letter urged British MPs to vote in favor of Palestinian statehood.
However, now more and more Europeans are reaching the conclusion that their governments are using their military muscles not to defend national borders but the Zionist entity created by the western powers in the Arab heartland.
I believe it’s a great victory for Hamas. Britain now becomes the second European Union member to make the rightful decision after the recent decision by Sweden.
http://rehmat1.com/2014/10/15/uks-two-states-vote-irks-israel/
MP Galloway got it right:
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/politics/8349-british-mp-george-galloway-abstained-from-palestinian-state-vote-as-it-accepts-recognition-of-israel
We can have peace or we can have Zionist Israel. We can't have both.
It is a SAD commentary When Anyone Can Mention ""Isitreal'' Without Making it Clear that What is There on That Piece of Territory...is Not Any sort of Legitimate state. IT Is A ''place These People have Flocked to..To Live Off Our Resources..Like it was Their JUST Dessert !.. All of Them are Nothing but illegal..Squatters' Squatting on Palestinian Land..SEIZED from Palestinians Using Every Bloody means under Gods` sun . This U.S .of A, Must Stop Propagating This Problem It presents to All of the World. Every Country Knows This is The Problem..And Why there can be NO Peace ..or Freedom from Turmoil Brought about ... Because of THese Entities. STOP Supporting That Place with OUR Tax Dollars..And Let Them Know They are Cut off For Good of Mankind.
Bluntly put, Blunt...There will never be a Two-State Solution to What These Zionist Jews are Doing in Gaza. First of all, No state can possibly survive that is being built upon confiscated territory. it can't possibly stand, or ever be acceptable..when one part of it is Stolen land from the Rightful owners ( By killings and Thievery.) In this kind of beginning... There will never be Peace between the two. The only solution for this dilemma is that These ''z-jews dispense back to wherever they Sprung from...And Leave the Palestinians alone. As it stands, The Part that Is Squatting on the land they have Called 'Israel " is Not theirs..Nor is it rightly named. They are not "Settlers'', but ARE merely uninvited, and unwelcome squatters ... who think they can keep wherever they squat long enough. But Memory never Ends..this unholy Deed is passed on to all generations , and the anger and resentments and hatreds continue to multiply with time. Nothing good will come from this . So >> Do the right thing for a change......Back Out of There, zionist jews. Leave while you can.