Commitment to Israel-Palestine, Part 3

Author's note: Who am I to worry about Israelis and Palestinians? What inspires me to be involved in the Israel-Palestine conflict? The following is the story of my struggle to see a cohesive world, the story will take you through different emotions but at the end, I hope you feel a sense of completeness of the story. Due to its length it is a three-part article, and this is part 3 of 3.

I am proud of President Jimmy Carter who brought Sadat and Begin together and had them sign the peace accord. He is a genuine hero to both the people, as he stopped the blood feud and had them look to each other as collaborators of peace. That is one less conflict between Egypt and Israel. When I put the review of his book on my website, one of my Jewish friends, who had collaborated with me on several issues boycotted me. He would not return my calls or emails. One day, I ran into him in a Synagogue, and begged him to explain to me why. He said, I was a no-good bum because I have Jimmy Carter on my website.

There are innumerable men and women out there who are working day in and day out to bring the people together, who have lived through the most difficult of times. Thanks to President Bill Clinton, another peace maker who climbed several more steps up the ladder of peace by bringing Arafat and Rabin together.

A few hounders had unleashed pit bulls at me on Facebook. They called me up and barraged me with floods of emails. It was a harassment, they were calling me names and telling idiotic things, and tempting me to shout "you people," so they can nail me as anti-Semitic. They failed miserably, I am not filled with hatred towards any. Thank God for the freedom from hate. By the way, I had jumped on a councilman in Dallas for using the very same phrase against Jews. A few on the right always do things to hurt Israel in the pretense of defending it. They do not want to derail any good any one attempts to do.

The exact same acts were repeated by the right among Palestinians and a few Muslims. A few have made serious attempts to malign me as anti-Palestinian or a Zionist agent, and campaigned against me at every opportunity they got. Despite my appeal to them, that as Muslims they simply cannot believe in hearsay without verification, both the Qur'an and the Prophet have emphasized to live a regret free life by not jumping to conclusions and holding malice towards others.

I guess facts don't matter to the right, no matter what group they belong to; Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Christians or others. By the way that "right" is not a group, it is a virus that infects all of us from time to time. It did to President Bush, facts did not matter to him.

My energy comes from the laughter they breed. Last year I wrote an article on the topic and immediately the right among Jews and Palestinians pounced on me. It was hilarious, that for the very same article, the Jews (right virused ones) called me an Islamist, while the Muslims (right virused ones) called me a Zionist -- it's the same freaking article! I cannot stop laughing on this. I am sure about 1 percent of you are judging me as well if you have made this far out. I am for building a cohesive society where no human has to live in fear, discomfort or apprehension of the other human. I have nothing to gain but feel worthy of living on the planet.

The real threat to the peace process between Israel and Palestine stems from their inability to look at their own policies critically. And those of us living in America have really messed up security for Israel and hope for Palestinians. We need to take responsibility for our thoughtless stand on issues.President Obama blew an opportunity of millennium for Jews to be who they want to be; a just people, and the Palestinians by denying them justice through veto at the United Nations.

Israelis and Palestinians don't need the duplicity from the Hagees, Gingrichs, Santorums, Perrys, Boltons, Ahmedinejads or Abudullahs and their shallow words. They need sincerity to deliver security to Israelis and Justice to the Palestinians, one cannot happen without the other.

It is time to quit blaming and start finding solutions. Damn it, the leaders ought to be ashamed of themselves; if they cannot look in the eyes of Palestinian and Israeli Children and commit to give them a better life, they should not be the leaders. The leaders need to learn that, they cannot have peace and security when they keep threatening others around them, period. Both sides are doing exactly opposite of what they really want; security and justice to them respectively.

Until we can see our own faults, peace for both people becomes a forlorn hope. The burden to find solutions falls on all of us, but particularly Jews, Muslims and Christians.

Staying away from each other will not contribute towards peace-making that the communities so deserve. The monster among us was a sad situation of people taking advantage through mis-information. We have to come together without conditions and learn each others concerns and clarify mis-information and together find solutions. If we don't, then who will?

Israel

Jews have a need to be understood and be acknowledged of their eternal security needs, not the military, but mental security where they can put their guards down and live their life in peace.

Palestine

Palestinians have a need to be understood. They have suffered immeasurably, no human should be stripped of his or her hope and dignity; hope to have a family, work and own a house and call a place their homeland.

U.S.A.

Our presidents need to seriously look at what works. They need to have the vision for peace. They must understand that it may be going against the general opinion and must take bold steps and produce peace for the people of Israel and Palestine. It will save lives and brings peace to them and takes a burden off us.

We need to be above reproach and seek justice for one and all. We must protect Israel, our ally; however, if that protection is based on injustice to either Palestinians or the Jews, our integrity becomes questionable and we must deliver justice to the Palestinians people. We do carry the burden of guilt for messing up their lives.

Mighty empires can crush the weak for a short term; in the long run every one goes down the tube. We cannot rob anyone and live with a good conscience.

The fear of being hounded prevents people from speaking the truth, the need to be lauded keeps people from expressing honestly what is on their mind. It is these people that are not good for Israel or Palestine.

Thank God for blessing me with the ability to see the good and bad things in others without judgment.

If I say hateful things about Muslims and Jews, funds will pour in a hurry, what a shame! And that is the precise problem, everyone is after money. Neither the trumpeters for Israel nor drummers for the Palestinians really care about them, they cash in and run.

This blog has a few selected articles including my own writings. The hardliner Palestinians and Israelis lose their sights and of course attack me. I believe God is with me, as I have nothing to gain from anyone but do the right thing. I have toyed with the idea of going there and leading a sensible movement to bring about a positive change.

All I ask of you is simply this; when you hear voice that talk about revenge, retaliation, annihilation or blame, please appeal to them to join you in mitigating conflicts and nurturing goodwill to find comfort for all. This attitude has at least a chance of bringing goodness to them than aggravating the situation and making life difficult. If we cannot do good for an Israeli and a Palestinian child, let's not do any harm either.

I will continue do my work, if it makes sense to a handful of people; I have done my share of Tikkun in the world and I can rest in peace, tying the loose ends of my life, just as my mother did.

part 1 - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/israel-and-palestine-moving-forward_b_1258261.html  

part 2 - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/commitment-to-israelpales_b_1263793.html   

part 3 - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/commitment-to-israelpalestine_b_1263803.html 

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Mike Ghouse is committed to building a cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. He is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, civic affairs, Islam, India, and cohesive societies. www.ProfessionalSpeakerMikeGhouse.com and current articles at www.TheGhousediary.com

Peaceful Protest can Free Palestine

By MUSTAFA BARGHOUTHIPublished: February 21, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/22/opinion/peaceful-protest-can-free-palestine.html?_r=2&ref=opinion

OVER the past 64 years, Palestinians have tried armed struggle; we have tried negotiations; and we have tried peace conferences. Yet all we have seen is more Israeli settlements, more loss of lives and resources, and the emergence of a horrifying system of segregation.

Khader Adnan, a Palestinian held in an Israeli prison, pursued a different path. Despite his alleged affiliation with the militant group Islamic Jihad, he waged a peaceful hunger strike to shake loose the consciences of people in Israel and around the world. Mr. Adnan chose to go unfed for more than nine weeks and came close to death. He endured for 66 days before ending his hunger strike on Tuesday in exchange for an Israeli agreement to release him as early as April 17.

Mr. Adnan has certainly achieved an individual victory. But it was also a broader triumph — unifying Palestinians and highlighting the power of nonviolent protest. Indeed, all Palestinians who seek an independent state and an end to the Israeli occupation would be wise to avoid violence and embrace the example of peaceful resistance.

Mr. Adnan was not alone in his plight. More than 300 Palestinians are currently held in “administrative detention.” No charges have been brought against them; they must contend with secret evidence; and they do not get their day in military court.

Britain’s practices in Northern Ireland during the 1970s and 1980s were not so different from Israel’s today — and they elicited a similarly rebellious spirit from the subjugated population. In 1981, Bobby Sands, an imprisoned member of the Irish Republican Army, died 66 days after beginning a hunger strike to protest Britain’s treatment of political prisoners. Mr. Sands was elected to Parliament during his strike; nine other hunger strikers died before the end of 1981; and their cases drew worldwide attention to the plight of Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland.

Just as Margaret Thatcher, then the British prime minister, unsympathetically dismissed Mr. Sands as a “convicted criminal,” Israeli officials have accused Mr. Adnan of being an active member of Islamic Jihad. But if this is the case, Israel should prove it in court.

Mr. Adnan’s actions over the past nine weeks demonstrated that he was willing to give his life — nonviolently and selflessly — to advance Palestinian freedom. Others must now show similar courage.

What is needed is a Palestinian version of the Arab revolutions that have swept the region: a mass movement demanding freedom, dignity, a just peace, real democracy and the right to self-determination. We must take the initiative, practice self-reliance and pursue a form of nonviolent struggle that we can sustain without depending on others to make decisions for us or in our place.

In the last several years, Palestinians have organized peaceful protests against the concrete and wire “separation barrier” that pens us into what are best described as bantustans. We have sought to mobilize popular resistance to this wall by following in the nonviolent traditions of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas K. Gandhi — and we remain determined to sustain peaceful protest even when violently attacked.

Using these techniques, we have already succeeded in pressuring the Israeli government to reroute the wall in villages like Jayyous and Bilin and helped hundreds of Palestinians get their land back from settlers or the Israeli Army.

Our movement is not intended to delegitimize Israel, as the Israeli government claims. It is, instead, a movement to delegitimize the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, which we believe is the last surviving apartheid system in the world. It is a movement that could free Palestinians from nearly 45 years of occupation and Israelis from being part of the last colonial-settler system of our time.

I remember the days when some political leaders of the largest Palestinian political parties, Al Fatah and Hamas, laughed at our nonviolent struggle, which they saw as soft and ineffective. But the turning point came in the summer of 2008, when we managed to break the Israeli naval siege of Gaza with small boats. Suddenly, I saw great respect in the eyes of the same leaders who had doubted the power of nonviolence but finally recognized its potential.

The power of nonviolence is that it gives Palestinians of all ages and walks of life the tools to challenge those subjugating us. And thousands of peace activists from around the world have joined our movement. In demonstrations in East Jerusalem, Silwan and Hebron we are also being joined by a new and younger Israeli peace movement that categorically rejects Israeli occupation.

Unfortunately, continuing Israeli settlement activity could soon lead us to the point of no return. Indeed, if we do not soon achieve a genuinely independent Palestinian state, we will be forced to press instead for a single democratic state with equal rights and responsibilities for both Palestinians and Israelis.

We are not sure how long it will take before our nonviolent struggle achieves its goal. But we are sure of one thing: it will succeed, and Palestinians will one day be free.

Mustafa Barghouthi, a doctor and member of the Palestinian Parliament, is secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative, a political party.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on February 22, 2012, on page A23 of the New York edition with the headline: Peaceful Protest Can Free Palestine.

Israel Palestine commitment, part 2

Israel's security and justice to the Palestinians are directly proportional to each other. Hundred percent security for Israel comes with 100 percent justice to the Palestinians. A majority of people in the conflict understand this, but the leadership runs aground with short sighted false perceptions.


Huffington post on Israel Palestine solutions : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/commitment-to-israelpales_b_1263793.html


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Mike Ghouse is committed to building a cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. A writer, thinker and a speaker and is available to speak on pluralism, politics, Islam, peace, cohesive societies and a variety of topics. Check out 4 websites and 27 Blogs indexed at www.MikeGhouse.net. Current articles atwww.TheGhousediary.com

Dr. Munther Dajani on Israeli Palestinian Confederation

Dr. Munther Dajani is a member of the Israeli Palestinian Confederation, an organization committed to find the path to peace between Israel and Palestine.  We welcome articles and notes that express the human aspirations for peace. IPC is listed on the right panel of this blog.

Mike Ghouse
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Munther Dajani, dean, Faculty of Arts, AL Quds University, Jerusalem; co-founder,Wasatiyya(Moderation)movement:

This is the statement he was going to deliver at our convention in Jerusalem which was disrupted by demonstrators on December 12, 2011.

My name is Munther  Dajani and I am a humanist, chronic optimist and a citizen of the world.

Dear participants in this historic event, of all walks of life and of all nationalities and professions, the citizens of the State of Palestine and the citizens of the State of Israel.

I am honored to be standing here today among you, we the few who believe in the future of peace to become a reality in this part of the world. Needless to say that we owe our presence here to our American friends who took the initiative to make this meeting possible and specially Mr. Joseph Avesar and his team whose relentless efforts have to be acknowledged in making this gathering possible.

We the citizens of this region are the ones who always end up paying the price of blood-shed and death. Wars that results of meaningless deaths where the rules and regulations are imposed on us by people who already passed away generations ago, we have never met or even know. Decisions that are made maybe thousands of miles away in different capitals of the world, in closed rooms outside our region that we do not have anything to do with on the individual level per say… we who live in this region and in alliance with our friends in the United States and Israel have decided to make a change and as President Obama once said and we can make the Change that we all desperately need. I believe that it is about time that we take our own faith in our own hands and make our own decisions. 

A Decision that we will make today that will affect generations to come to end this protracted conflict that have plagued us for more than eight decades. I am standing here before you to say that we want peace, as most of the polls show that a majority of Palestinians and Israelis are thirsty for peace, peace of mind and body that will secure the well being of our children and their children in the region in particular and the children of the world. Stability that will usher in, economic prosperity, and will make the dream of the late President Arafat and President Shimon Peres come true resulting in a new Middle East based on human dignity and self-respect and respect of others for all regardless of creed, color, religion or ethnicity.

I am standing here to tell you that I have never met a Palestinian or an Israeli who did not hope for the achievement of peace in our area. After all, we breathe the same air, drink water from the same aquifers and plough the same land, and live on the same natural resources of the land as well as share the same touristic and religious sites…that constitute our main source of living.

In order to achieve this peace, we have to think outside the box and we have, we are proposing a confederation between the two states of the region, the State of Palestine and the State of Israel that will ensure security for all. This is the utmost level of guaranteeing security for all. This is the utmost of practical Confidence Building measure of all.

To have a shared vision for peace and common interest not only on the superficial level but to those who are concerned with security, this will be the maximum security assurance that all can hope for deep down to the core of our inner souls, our deep core of our different societies, where all will have a stake in keeping an ever-lasting peace.

This is the message we are sending all our leaders in order to be responsible towards future generations to come. We are doing this in order to save our children and future generations from the agonies of war and bloodshed.

In conclusion, this is our historic contribution and our legacy which we leave not only for our people but for mankind as a whole because we took a stand for the achievement of peace and stability in our region. I have been told again and again that this is the land of peace, this is the land referred to as the land where the prophets delivered their messages for peace have to have an ever-lasting peace.

Our call for a confederation between the states of the region, the State of Palestine and the State of Israel to begin with and we must keep it open for other nations of the region to join, I call upon all the nations of the area to join, so they can all also live in peace, peace that can assure all, political stability and economic prosperity that will end all conflicts in the region.

I thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to share with you our vision for peace in the region, that we are all sure will be achieved, due to all your efforts in the call for this initiative.

Thank you.

ABOUT ISRAEL-PALESTINE

Author's note: Who am I to worry about Israelis and Palestinians? What inspires me to be involved in the Israel Palestine conflict? The following is the story of my struggle to see a cohesive world, the story will take you through different emotions but at the end, I hope you feel a sense of completeness of the story. Due to its length, it is a three part article.

Published at Huffington Post, installment 1 of 3: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/israel-and-palestine-moving-forward_b_1258261.html

I believe at the heart of world peace is the Israel Palestine conflict. It is the mother of all conflicts, and if we can find a solution to this, peace is on the horizon, ready to shine on us.

When I was about 10, my Dad made me aware of the conflicts, not just around Bangalore, my home town; but around India, the Subcontinent, Asia and the world. My father is my hero and had opened the doors of wisdom to me. He taught one of the biggest lessons of my life in social cohesiveness and dealing with extremism that I continue to reflect in my speeches, acts and write ups.

During the communal (religious) riots in the early '60s, both Muslims and Hindus were killed in the mayhem. I wish every father in India, America and elsewhere teaches this lesson to his kids. He told us the "individuals" were responsible for the bloodshed and not the religions; he would emphasize that you cannot blame an intangible like religion and expect justice, we must blame the individuals who caused it and punish them accordingly for disturbing the peace and thus bring a resolution to the conflict by serving justice. He was crystal clear: You cannot annihilate, kill, hang or beat the religion, so why bark at it?

Fully cognizant of China's attack on India usurping large swaths of land in Kashmir and on the North Eastern Borders, my little mind recorded another devastating war between India and Pakistan followed by the 1967 war between Israel and Palestine. The Palestinian exodus was painful and I went through anger and then into mental exile trying to understand the inhumanity and the futility of wars. I was thinking about King Ashoka, who became a pacifist after witnessing blood shed on the fields of Kalinga. Who do we blame? How do we find solutions? I was 14.

The exodus of Palestinians remained clear on my mind and I wanted to find solutions.

Fast forwarding to the '80s, the destruction of Beirut was debilitating. The Sabra and Shatila massacres were harrowing, and I was seeing Israel as the Goliath and the Palestinians as the Davids with nothing but rocks to throw at the rolling tanks.

Ted Koppel's broadcasts of Intifada from Jerusalem were censored, particularly when he pitted Hanan Ashrawi against Benjamin Netanyahu. American media was determined to show Palestinians in the poor light and invariably showed and repeated the poor miserable performance of their poster boy Arafat, against the suave Netanyahu. My heart was crying out loud and was hoping the world could see the way I saw things and peace came to both the peoples.

It took me years to truly understand the nature of security that the Jews were craving for over a millennia, it is not the military power but a sense of security that a baby feels in the lap of a mother -- completely free. The Jews felt home in Spain after nearly 2,000 years of wandering, then the damned Ferdinand massacred (along with Muslims) and completely uprooted them in 1492. It took them another 450 years to feel home again in Germany, but the butcher Hitler was bent on annihilating them. Thanks to America for stepping in and preventing a full scale annihilation and Holocaust. Even here in the United States, every now and then a Swastika appears on some one's door. I have been a witness to it and have fought off two such incidents. Now they have a home in Israel sans security and they really need to feel that it is their eternal "home." Once they feel that sense of home in their bones, they will go back to becoming their self again -- a people who have stood up for social justice.

Ironically, the Israelis were busy in defending their right to survive up until 1967 and completely failed to articulate their need to the Palestinians, they should have poured their hearts out to them, who would have understood in an environment of mutual suffering and sharing.

On the other hand, the Palestinians were hurt, uprooted from their own homes, and were completely deprived of their basic need to have a sense of belonging, a sense of community and a sense of identity. Children have witnessed their parents and siblings butchered in front of them, and what do we expect them to do? What is their hope? For nearly three generations they lived in tents and squalor, and had to beg for food, clothing and an identity. It is depressing to see such humiliation in their own land.

We the people of the world were busy in punishing the weak and shamelessly enjoying the emotional and physical beating they were taking. We did not offer them any serious options but to fight for survival. Sadly, like the leaders of Israel had failed, the Palestinian leadership also failed to share their humility and humanness with the Israelis.

And we the people of the world found poor excuses to blame Palestinian and Israeli leadership, instead of taking the lead and guiding them in their most vulnerable moments of history. We succumbed to their plea of the moment and took sides and propped them to fight against each other. We Americans are as guilty as the Arabs in the mindless upmanship, shame on us for dumping our in-capabilities on to the next generation.

We should have gotten the families of Palestinians and Israelis to sit and eat together, talk with each other and let the kids play a game of soccer in their presence and dream about a future for them. We deprived them of their humanness and instead armed them to fight. What have they achieved and what have we achieved?

The hate multiplier has made the leaders on both sides to say shameful things about the other including cooking up things that weren't true. The world community took sides instead of finding the truth and solutions.

I feel the pain and wanted to do my share of work in doing the things I am capable of, and here is a partial accounting of it. It is not easy. You get beat both by the Palestinians and Israelis in the leadership front, and both want to blame the other.

I am deeply committed to the security of Israel and Justice for the Palestinians. A few ugly comments here and there matter to me but don't deter me from my commitment. I have chosen to be neutral for the sake of peace, and invariably about 1 percent of Israelis and 1 percent of Palestinians will never want to see neutrality in others. We cannot forget the desire for peace by the overwhelmingly silent majority. We need to hear them.

Huffington post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/israel-and-palestine-moving-forward_b_1258261.html

REFERENCED LINKS IN THE ARTICLE

If the embedded links don't work, here are the links:

Muslim Holocaust commemoration:
http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/Images_HolocaustDay/HMD2006_ProgramReport.asp  
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Anti-Circumcision Bill and a Muslim's take
 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/circumcision-satire_b_872270.html 
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Huffington post on Anti-Semitism http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/standing-up-for-jews-gays_b_650167.html 
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Pictures from Fred Phelps Demonstrationhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeghouse/sets/72157624336357507/ 
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Middle East Peace Initiativehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeghouse/sets/72157624709053713/  ....
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President Obama blows the opportunity for Israel and Palestinehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hb0Y-4lRkM
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Pluralism prayers
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeghouse/sets/72157624709140887/
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Responding to Ahmedinejad
http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/Images_Press/holocaust_dallasmorningnews_lettertopoints.htm 
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UN Resolution
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/ga10569.doc.htm 
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The necessity for a Dialoug between Jews and Muslimshttp://www.foundationforpluralism.com/Articles/Jewish-Muslim-dialogue-a-necessity.asp
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A tribute to my Mother
http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/05/mother-my-story-happy-mothers-day.html
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Additional items not referenced above:

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A tribute to the Jewish Communityhttp://www.foundationforpluralism.com/Honored_JewishCommunity_TG2005.asp. . . . . . . . . .

A tribute to Elliott Dlin, Executive Director of Dallas Holocaust Musuem
http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2010/04/tribute-to-eliott-dlin.html

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Yom Hashoah at the Temple Emanu-Elhttp://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/05/yom-hashoah-at-temple-emanu-el.html 

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Muslims Condemn display of hate at Holocaust Museumhttp://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2009/06/muslims-condemn-display-of-hate-at.html

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Yom HaShoah and Yom Milaad
http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2007/04/yom-hashoah-yom-milaad.html

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Stereotyping Muslims and Jews
http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2009/09/stereotyping-muslims-and-jews.html . . . . . . . . . .

Extinguishing Hoaxes
http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2007/04/extinguishig-hoaxes.html

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Anti-Semitism and Anti-Israelism
http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2007/08/anti-semitism-anti-israelism.html

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An Apology to Jews, Christians and others
http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/Quraan/Not-like-Jews-and-Christians.asp

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 Americans condemn the attacks on Rabbi Lerner
http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/03/americans-condemn-attacks-on-rabbi.html

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Understanding Judaism
 http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2007/07/understandign-judaism.html

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Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace making, foreign policy, Islam, Israel, India, Pakistan, interfaith, and cohesion at work place or social settings. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. Mike has a strong presence on national local TV, Radio and Print Media, and is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News, fortnightly at Huffington post, and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes everything you want to know about him. 

Settelers' a threat to Peace and Israel's existence

THE SETTLERS’ MOVEMENT IS A THREAT TO PEACE AND ISRAEL’S EXISTENCE

Alon Ben-Meir - January 9, 2012

This article was filed under following categories: Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Middle East, Israel, arab spring, Netanyahu, Jordan, West Bank

The attack of hard-line Jewish settlers on an Israeli military base in the West Bank must not be seen as a passing incident that can simply be eradicated by punishing the perpetrators, as Prime Minister Netanyahu said in the Israeli Parliament. This dangerous and most deplorable incident is a byproduct of the continuing settlement policies that Netanyahu and his hard-core coalition partners have zealously been pursuing for the past three years. Netanyahu condemns the attacks on individual settlers while such policies continue to focus on the rapid expansion of the settlements, further strengthening the settlers' movement, which, for all intents and purposes, has acquired a de-facto veto power over policies affecting the future disposition of the West Bank.

Any attempt to resume serious peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, including the recent efforts by Jordan's King Abdullah II who hosted the representatives of Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the Quartette (the US, EU, Russia and the UN) in Amman will go nowhere as long as there is no change in the settlements' policy. Beyond that, continued settlement construction will increase the divide between those Israelis who seek an end to the conflict with the Palestinians and those hard-core ideologues that reference the building and the expansion of settlements as the singular, historic opportunity that will restore the Jewish birthright to their homeland.

The attack on the military base will not be the last incident and is bound to escalate to the detriment of Israel's very existence as long as the settlement issue remains the most contentious issue between Israel and the Palestinians and any future peace agreement requires the evacuation of scores of settlements scattered throughout the West Bank. Indeed, far more than a manifestation of the territorial dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, the settlement problem is intertwined with the principle ideologies encased within Israeli and Palestinian identities. Every housing unit built beyond the 1967 Green Line has physical, psychological and political ramifications, making the issue a formidable obstacle to overcome if a two-state solution is to be achieved.

From the Palestinian perspective, the settlement issue is the albatross that undermines any prospect for a viable Palestinian state. Since the Oslo signing of the Declaration of Principles in September of 1993, the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank has nearly tripled, from approximately 116,000 in 1993 to over 300,000 today. This number does not include more than 200,000 settlers in East Jerusalem, where Palestinians seek to establish a capital for their state, and where the Netanyahu government continues to build thousands of new housing units.

Physically, settlement construction confiscates land that Palestinians seek for their future state, bit by painstaking bit. Psychologically, construction sends the Palestinians a clear message: that Israel does not accept their claim to the land or their national aspirations and has no interest in a two-state solution. Herein lies the rationale for the continued Palestinian insistence on a complete Israeli settlement freeze in both the West Bank and East Jerusalem prior to their entering into negotiations which they emphasized in their recent encounter with the Israelis in Amman.

The Palestinians insist that if Israel were truly willing to accept a Palestinian state, it would cease its construction, which encroaches further into would-be Palestinian territory. Prime Minister Netanyahu and his cabinet ministers reinforce the Palestinian assertions that Israel is not interested in accepting a Palestinian state by continually invoking Israel's historic connection to the West Bank by referring to its biblical Hebrew name, "Judea and Samaria," a position that strengthens the fervent nationalist settlers who believe they have a biblical birthright to live wherever they choose in the West Bank.

Politically, continued settlement construction has moved Palestinian leaders further away from compromise with Israel. For any Palestinian leader to enter into negotiations without a construction freeze would amount to political suicide. As more Palestinians question whether negotiations can truly lead to a Palestinian state, compromising on an issue that contradicts the very notion of the creation of their state has become a political impossibility.

From Netanyahu's perspective, settlement construction is linked with national identity. He has repeatedly placed the idea of Palestinians accepting Israel "as a Jewish state" at the center of the deliberations over renewing peace talks. From his perspective, until the Palestinians and the Arab world accept the legitimacy of this claim, peace will be impossible. Furthermore, Netanyahu can easily point to his ten-month construction freeze (during which time Abbas failed to enter into negotiations because it excluded East Jerusalem) as a justification for his refusal to accept another freeze, especially if it includes East Jerusalem.

Netanyahu fundamentally differs from his predecessors, Ehud Olmert, Ariel Sharon and Ehud Barak, who used the word "occupation" to describe Israel's continued hold on the West Bank. Netanyahu does not view the ancient Jewish lands of "Judea and Samaria" (and certainly not East Jerusalem) as occupied and thus does not believe them to be off-limits to Jewish construction. This explains why he has expended so much political capital in opposing a settlement freeze, despite continued pressure from Washington and the international community. Netanyahu hypocritically condemns the attacks against settlers while simultaneously justifying his refusal to freeze construction by linking the settlements to Israel's national security, which an increasing number of Israelis accept at face value.

Netanyahu has repeatedly claimed that Israel cannot accept "indefensible borders," based on the 1967 lines. He highlights that Israel would be only nine miles wide if it were to relinquish its territory in the West Bank. However, this security argument is undermined by the reality that for any agreement to be reached, Israel will have to relinquish land. Unless Netanyahu claims that a twelve or fifteen-mile width is more "defensible" in today's missile technology than a nine-mile width, it is difficult to comprehend what Netanyahu's "defensible borders" look like without a continued, substantial Israeli military presence in the West Bank.

If the dispute over settlements was solely based on security or political issues, it could be reconciled through good-faith negotiations and iron-clad security guarantees. However, the settlements represent more than a security and political disagreement. The issue is viewed as a matter of the inherent historical rights and existence of each side. This is what makes this conflict so intractable and this is precisely why the hard-line settlers feel that no one can impede their activities, including the military, which is stationed there for their protection. All of this begs the question: Will the Netanyahu government recognize that its blind policy on the settlements has set the stage for further escalation of violent confrontations not only between the settlers and the Palestinians but between the settlers and the Israeli military? There is no doubt that Jews will kill other Jews in the name of a messianic mission. Those who think that this is simply unthinkable should think again. The late Prime Minister Rabin was killed by an Israeli Jew and not by a Palestinian terrorist. Nothing will stop the zealot settlers as long as they believe that they are pursuing God's mission and that the Almighty is testing their resolve, tenacity and willingness to sacrifice themselves before He once again grants them the Promised Land.

This is no longer just a small group of criminals and vandals who are out to burn or daub inflammatory graffiti on the walls of Palestinian Mosques or vandalize an Israeli military base. This is a whole movement deeply entrenched and continues to exert disproportionate influence on all Israeli governments, especially a right-leaning coalition government. It is a clear manifestation of a movement determined to control any future political agenda in the West Bank and will not be, as Netanyahu seems to believe, easily eradicated. Yes, he can incarcerate one, two, or a dozen settlers but how he does he intend to incarcerate a whole movement, which represents the core of his own constituency? Notwithstanding the Netanyahu's government "revulsion" to the settlers' criminal acts, these settlers know where Netanyahu and his cohorts really stand as long as the government continues to authorize construction of new housing in the heart of the Palestinian neighborhood. Fundamental policy changes are needed here, changes that must firstly, cease construction and secondly, commit in deeds (and not just in empty rhetoric) to a two-state solution or the Netanyahu government runs the risk of the settlements becoming a self-consuming cancer.

The behavior of these radical settlers must be condemned in the strongest possible terms but the real culprits are not the settlers but the Netanyahu government, which was committed from day one to defying the Palestinian reality and the international community and has, above all, engaged in excessive self-denial to the very detriment of Israel's future. No one but Netanyahu is to blame for this horrifying development. If he has one ounce of integrity left in him he should resign.