Israel/Palestine: Is it too late for peace?
Though 242 did pay lip-service to “the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war”, it left Israel totally free to determine how much if any of the newly occupied Arab territory it would withdraw from. In other words, this infamous resolution, which didn’t even mention the Palestinians by name, put Zionism into the driving seat for any future negotiations.
As things are and look like going the reality on the ground in Palestine that became Israel, and the complicity by default of all the major powers (and the Arab regimes) in Israel’s on-going colonization, mean that the occupied and oppressed Palestinians have two options if their resistance is not be crushed at some point by a final Zionist ethnic cleansing.
One is to abandon their struggle for justice and either accept crumbs from Zionism’s table in the shape of Bantustans on 30-40 percent of the West Bank which they could call a state if they wished, or pack their bags and leave to start new lives elsewhere.
The other is to seek to change the dynamics of the conflict by insisting that the PA be dissolved with full responsibility and complete accountability for occupation handed back to Israel.
As I have suggested in previous posts this would impose significant security, financial and political burdens on Israel. Its leaders would respond with ever more brutal repression which would cause the global tide of anti-Israelism to rise higher sand higher.
And that just could be enough at some point to cause the governments of the major powers (including the one in Washington D.C.) to say to each other behind closed doors something like this: “It’s not in any of our interests to let this conflict continue to fester because it is helping to fuel sympathy and support for violent Arab and other Muslim extremism in all its manifestations. We must now use the leverage we have to try to cause Israel to end its defiance of international law and be serious about peace on terms the Palestinians could accept.”
It is, of course, possible that even if the dynamics of the conflict could be changed in this way, Israel’s nuclear-armed leaders would tell the whole world to go to hell. But we will not know for certain how Israel would respond to real international pressure unless it is applied.
As Thomas Friedman noted recently in the New York Times, Avigdor Lieberman, the former Israeli Foreign Minister and would-be prime minister, is one Israeli leader who is firmly on the record with the statement that he doesn’t care what the world thinks about Israel’s policies and actions.
Last December at the Brookings Saban Forum on the Middle East he was asked a provocative question by Atlantic’s Jeff Goldberg.
“Things are shifting radically not only in non-Jewish America but in Jewish America as it concerns Israel and its reputation. My question is: (A) Do you care? (B) What are you going to do about it? And (C) how important is it to you?”
Lieberman replied:
“To speak frankly, I don’t care.”
Israel, he went on to say, lived in a dangerous neighborhood, and to ram home his main point he added this:
“I don’t really care what American Jews and non-Jews think about Israel.”
What I am saying in conclusion comes down to this. If the occupied and oppressed Palestinians insisted on the dissolution of the PA and handing back to Israel full responsibility and complete accountability for occupation, the answer to my headline question might not be yes.
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confoundmeonce:
February 12th, 2016 at 5:18 am
Alan, That Is a Quite serious question to ask of any jewish person ( whether they Live in This USA ..OR If they Live in Isitreal. When you have been Taught from infancy that You are A race apart..And Above Others. that Does sort of Mess you up when you TRY to Integrate into the rest of the Human race with Those Others who Have been Taught That you Should have caring and respect For All..No matter that their Nationality or religion…Differs from our own.) To not Be respectful.. Creates Many Conflicts between us.. Some Leads to Endless Discord. It is Not Possible for all Differences To Find a Safe Place to Be. Sadly, It may Always BE too Difficult to Come Together ..But we Must Never Quit Trying to Erase That Chasm. ” With God, All Things Are Possible. if you but just Believe ? Why Can`t we Practice what We preach ? Think what a Wonderful World we Would All Live In Then ! When we All learn this Valuable Lesson, And Begin Practicing it..YES ! Then Is when Peace between ISITREAL And Palestinian Peoples Will Happen.
ontogram:
February 12th, 2016 at 6:23 pm
The PA are employees of Israel. Power wins, Palestine is lost. Our only duty now is to be sure nobody ever forgets how the “Jewish” State came into being, stealing a homeland from another people, destroying that people entirely.
Sami:
February 12th, 2016 at 9:32 pm
It is never too late for anything. However, as you say, the dissolution of the PA is a necessary step, but primarily to bring about instant cessation of the absurd ‘security’ ties the PA has with Israel. When that happens, the Palestinians can, and should, plan a new ‘intifada’ but this time emulating the Vietnamese in the battle at Dien Bien Phu of May 1954 where military superiority succumbed to numerical human supremacy. I know it is a heavy price to pay, but well worth it to rid themselves of the inhuman savage brutality dished out to them daily by a most immoral occupier.
Rehmat:
February 14th, 2016 at 12:59 am
Dear Hart – Anyone who has read the ideology of the Zionist experiment in Palestine from an objective source will learn that the European Jewish settlers in British occupied Palestine had no interest in sharing the land with the native Muslim and Christian neighbors. Their agenda was “Jews only” Eretz Yisrael, the so-called Biblical Israel which was destroyed by Babylonians over 3,000 years ago.
The current Zionist regime including entity’s so-called “moderate president” are not interested in a separate independent Palestinian state. They want four million native Palestinians to live like American Indians inside one-state Israel or move to Jordan.
However, a majority of Jews living outside Israel are worried about the demise of the Zionist experiment. They prefer a “demilitarized Palestinian state” consisting of Gaza and part of the West Bank.
American Jewish billionaire S. Daniel Abraham’s S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, a Zionist pro-Israel advocacy group, put a full-page advertisement in The Jew York Times (Feb. 4, 2016), urging Jews around the world to campaign for the so-called two-state solution; a nuclear Jewish state and a demilitarized Palestine state. The ad warned that Zionist dream of Eretz Yisrael (Greater Israel) has failed as the demographic Jewish population will become a minority (49%) within the so-called ‘one state Israel’ by 2020, and 44% by 2030.
https://rehmat1.com/2016/02/09/brazil-gets-palestine-embassy/
confoundmeonce:
February 20th, 2016 at 3:59 am
If Anyone Was Holding their Breath,,thinking That Obama Would…In his LAST year Of “‘power” do Anything at all About Assisting The Palestinians Who have been Hemmed Up In Gaza.( What Is Left still Standing, That Is )..they can start exhaling now. HE is Doing His Handlers Bidding To the Bitter End..Or ELSE ! He is Not Equipped with A whole lot of Courage..(although he speaks With “”such Authority ‘ But that quality called Courage is Just Not in him to be A Brave Person On his Own. I`m sure I am not alone is Hoping he will Do What is Right…before His ‘Time Is Over’.
confoundmeonce:
October 29th, 2016 at 9:33 pm
Alan Hart, I have not been receiving your Commentaries FOR Months Now. WHY Is That ? I Wish you would Look into this..AND Send me Your “reply” I Look Forward TO This, For YOU HAve Common sense AND The Ability to See THRU Any Lie or cover-up That is Thrown in your Path. Please..Let me HEAR from YOU. I Pray All is Well with YOU. I Know of no other way TO Get This Message OUT to YOU. THanx ..For YOUR Attention to my REquest >>VGF … Sincerely…… CONFOUNDMEONCE