Resolution

A Bridge too Burned?

Obama’s first Mid-East speech barely got Palestinians and Israelis to the table.  His recent speeches will get them nowhere.

Not that the speeches were bad, of course.  No Obama speech was ever bad.  Saudis should not have called them meaningless drivel.  Just because there are principles one disagrees, that does not make disagreeable principles meaningless.  Israel’s Netanyahu should not have said Obama does not understand reality.  That is too harsh given the aim to forge better realities.

Obama’s speeches sure were naive, though.

Tremendous hope was expressed – and some help offered – for Arab Spring uprisings.  Rightly so.  By March and April Muslims everywhere appeared to rise against despotism, against tyranny, perhaps against Islamism – militant Islamic fundamentalism – itself.  Western hearts and minds went out to them.  In necessarily small ways – so their revolution would indeed be theirs – we even tried to help.  It is with fists but impotently clenched we continue watching Syria’s Assad slaughter his own.   When Iran’s Khamenei was said to turn against Ahmadinejad, we could but pray this augured well.  We noticed with wonder how, in the shadows of uprisings and uncertainties afflicting its bigger brothers’ regimes, even Hamas – the Islamist society most overtly chartered on genocide – had stopped shooting.

Not mentioned, however, was another unprecedented first.  One we all failed to notice.  The entire absence of Israel from international headline news in March and April.  But so what?  This was no wonder.  The vital struggles for democracy were foremost everywhere else in the Mid-East.  Since Israel is a democracy, since Israel was not being attacked – and since Israel always fights only in self-defense – there was simply nothing internationally worth-while to report.  No sufficiently spectacular violence, in any event.

Until May 15^th.  When, as Patrick Martin reported to the Globe, Israel’s borders suddenly sizzled with violence:

Emboldened by Arab uprisings across the region, young Palestinians triggered widespread clashes.. with confrontation as never before during peace time; from Qalandia refugee camp, north of Jerusalem.. to Gaza.. to Lebanon.. [and] on the Golan Heights…

Mr. Martin distinguished the recent Naqba clashes as going against “.. the very existence of the Jewish state.”  And that’s correct.  The Nakba – catastrophe – is not against so-called occupation.  It is not even against how Palestine was partitioned into Jordan and Israel in the 1920s and 1940s.  It is only against Israel continuing to exist.  There would be no Nakba attacks against Israel’s borders on Israel’s 63^rd birthday if, in 1948, Israel had been wiped out within 2 weeks – as had been expected and promised.  Nor if Israel would have been properly destroyed as Nasser absolutely guaranteed in 1967.  Nor if the surprise 1973 invasion had panned out, as it ought have, in Israel’s thorough genocide.

Consequently, too glaringly since the May 15^th Naqba clashes, such heartfelt parallels as President Obama drew between Arab uprisings and America’s revolutionary past could only come across as terribly naive – if not outright delusional.  Because this month the world has been too starkly reminded again how little in common Arab uprisings have with former American, French, even Russian revolutions.  To the contrary.  The Mid-East remains the same cultural and ideological tinder-box where not the most glaring contradictions can be superseded.   Such as the difference between struggling to build one’s own democratic societies – and always aiming to destroy someone else’s.  Invariably seeking to destroy the Mid-East’s only real, existing democratic society.

Israel shall not continue to exist.  No principle is more universal to Mid-East culture outside Israel.  Nor is the fundamental principle of Israel’s destruction and genocide wilting in the Arab Spring.  Instead, this Arab Spring, emboldened by uprisings throughout the region, cultural certitude that Israel must and shall be destroyed blooms yet more fully.

The principle that Israel shall be destroyed means that surrounding nations must continue falsely blaming Israel for scattering the Palestinian people.  It means that descendants of Palestinian refugees must themselves remain perpetual refugees in camps for refugees.  And though it cannot be the case that none care about the Palestinian refugees – everyone cares – nevertheless to settle refugees or even their descendants outside Israel would contravene the principle of Israel’s destruction.  Therefore, regardless how many generations shall pass, the descendants of refugees cannot be tolerated to settle.

The principle of Israel’s necessary destruction also entails that even if Israel were to concede most everything demanded – as it did concede to the PLO’s Yasser Arafat in Oslo – still, there could be no recognition of Israel’s right to exist.  Because recognizing Israel’s right to exist simply means not trying to destroy Israel any longer – thereby fundamentally contradicting the principle.  That’s why, even while signing letters of mutual recognition, Arafat had to announce in Arabic that he didn’t really mean it.  He wasn’t really recognizing Israel’s right to exist.  It was just a hudna.

Yet Obama was absolutely right to declare: “The dream of a Jewish and democratic state cannot be fulfilled with permanent occupation.”  The Palestinian nation must have a country.  Must be enabled to secure freedom, autonomy, sovereignty and independence.  It could not matter less whether Palestinians used to be Egyptians or Jordanians prior to 1967.  They are Palestinians today.  They must have a real country today.  A viable country.  A contiguous country.  A country to be proud of.  A country Palestinians will proudly work to build instead of always looking to destroy someone else’s.

How, though?  Given the principle of Israel’s necessary destruction, how can Palestinians be expected to not keep trying to destroy Israel?  Particularly so when the destruction of Israel is required not only by fundamental principle – but also by the very geographic ground?  For while Palestinians continue lamenting how Israeli settlements built on land they want for a state will deny them a viable and contiguous country, the brute geographic fact remains that even should every Israeli settlement be dismantled overnight.  Or even if Israel should trade away thrice the land area it has settled.  There could still be no contiguous country for Palestinians.  Not if Israel itself is to remain contiguous.

Regardless all else.  Should Gaza and the West Bank be contiguously connected — then Israel must become divided and itself cease to exist contiguously.  Whereas if Israel continues to exist contiguously — then Gaza and the West Bank cannot be contiguously connected.

It seems hopeless – particularly so since Obama’s dismal Mid-East foreign policy record to date.  But it isn’t entirely hopeless.  It only seems that way.  Obama was right that occupation must end and Palestinians must have their contiguous country.  But he was wrong not to say how and why Palestinians should cease seeking to destroy Israel instead.  And he was dead wrong to insist on 1967 borders.  Because, with one cardinal exception, every Israeli withdrawal has led to war.  Every Israeli withdrawal – from Lebanon, from Gaza – has signified nothing but Israeli weakness and fabulous opportunity for those devoted to Israel’s destruction.

Destroying Israel is like apple pie and maple syrup in the Mid-East.  Stars, stripes and maple leaves all rolled in one.  It is geographically ordained to establish a contiguous Palestine.  It is historically ordained to defeat the Crusaders.  Every mullah and any imam worth his salt – not just Ahmadinejad – exhorts it.  There can be but zero tolerance for a non-Muslim state in the tent of Islam.  How could it be more than empty, sardonic rhetoric for Netanyahu to tell the U.S. Congress that it is time for Palestinians to say ‘I will accept a Jewish state’?

It could be more.  It would not even be unprecedented.  Because that is exactly what Anwar Sadat said to Menachem Begin.  And when Begin realized that Sadat truly meant what he said, that’s when Israel withdrew from more territory than it kept for itself.  That’s when there was enduring peace with Egypt – formerly Israel’s worst, most dangerous enemy ever.

Obama cannot alter Mid-East culture.  He can’t stop calls for Israel to be wiped off the map – as at Ahmadinejad’s website.  He can’t change the Hamas Charter or Fatah Constitution predicating Israel’s destruction.  But he does not have to.  All Obama must do, to give peace a fighting chance, is persuade Abbas to say what Sadat did.  To accept the existence of Israel.

Only Obama can persuade Abbas.  No other Western leader can do it.  But, in order to succeed, Obama must first make a real, genuine offer to Palestinians.  Not, once again, dis-contiguous territories appended onto 1967 borders.   It is no solution to carve one marginally viable country into two that are not.  Two countries bound to one another like dogs scrapping over one morsel insufficient for survival.  The country of Palestine should be larger than Israel — not yet smaller and less viable.  That’s why the solution has got to be regional.  That’s why everyone — not just Israel — has got to chip in.  Egypt can contribute a little from the northern Sinai.  Jordan can contribute a little from the east bank.

Only Obama can bring Egyptians, Jordanians, Palestinians and Israelis to one table.  Only so gathered, at that table, can Abbas be persuaded there could be a viable, contiguous Palestine – without necessarily destroying Israel.  A Palestine potentially larger than Israel as continuing to exist.  A Palestinian state ranging from Gaza eastward through the Sinai.  Across the Gulf.  Northward through the east bank and West Bank both.  With ports opening in the Gulf and on the Mediterranean.  Both.

Why not?  These would only be territorial crumbs.  Territorial crumbs which, together, would add up to a viable, contiguous Palestine.  To a dignified future for Palestinians.  To a genuine prayer for world peace.

Only President Obama can begin to make it happen.  Not with speeches like the ones he has made in the past, though.  Only with words much more like these:

Come on, Muslim brothers.  Contribute.  Just some crumbs from your laden territorial tables.  The days of the Palestinian people foddering your cannons against Israel are over.  You threatened Palestinians to leave, to get out of your way when you came shooting to genocide Israel in 1948.  Yet Israel still remains.  You promised Palestinians they’d return to feasting on the corpse of Israel.  And not only haven’t you delivered to this day and age — you continue burying the Palestinian people, heaping perpetual shame on them as refugees.  As if Israel still standing were their fault instead of yours.  But it was your threats and broken promises, Muslim brothers, which broke and scattered Palestinians from their homes.  It is also your duty, Muslim brothers, to contribute making the Palestinian people whole.

Contribute, Muslim brothers.  Don’t shrug off every responsibility onto Israel — there must be more honour.  Give up dreaming of genocide already.  You’ve been trying for 60 years.  Wake up.  If god were willing, you would long since have succeeded.  Help make the future better, please.  Not always worse.  Come on.  How hard can it be? Any future would be better.

Last modified on 2011-12-21 19:53:21 GMT. 37 comments

No Peace in our Times

Barack Obama really wants us to believe there can be a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians.  That Israelis and Palestinians can live — if not together — then at least peaceably and neighbourly. Obama honestly wishes everyone could believe it. “This time will be different,” he told the U.N. General Assembly.  And while everyone can appreciate how politically critical brokering a two-state solution is to world peace — and to Obama’s foundering appeal at home — there’s no sense even remotely believing Obama can pull it off.

Wouldn’t it be just crazy expecting any different outcome when nothing fundamental has changed? When Palestinians continue to be either quietly constituted or loudly and proudly chartered on genociding Israel? When Israelis won’t stop settling where Palestinians hope to establish their own sovereignty?

Besides the issues on the table.  Above the bloodshed on the ground.  Beyond the lies and genocidal hatred throughout the air in the Middle East.   There is one brute incontrovertible geographic fact placing the two-state solution out of reaching.  For while Palestinians continue lamenting how Israeli settlements built on land they want for a state will deny them a viable and contiguous country, the brute geographic fact remains that even should every Israeli settlement be dismantled overnight.  Or even if Israel should trade away thrice the land area it has settled.  There could still be no contiguous country for Palestinians.  Not if Israel itself is to remain contiguous.

Regardless all else.  Should Gaza and the West Bank be contiguously connected — then Israel must become divided and itself cease to exist contiguously.  Whereas if Israel continues to exist contiguously — then Gaza and the West Bank cannot be contiguously connected.

Regardless all else.  That one brute geographic fact alone means this time can be no different.  Not in the twilight of Obama’s speech to the 65th United Nations General Assembly.  Yet President Obama could have begun to make a difference.  Not with the speech he made, though.  Only with a truer, more relevant, far stronger speech.  A speech to have made Ronald Reagan proud — not Jimmy Carter.

There must be a country for every nation.  Distinct societies and peoples must possess territorial integrity in order to secure freedom, autonomy, sovereignty and independence.

Otherwise, lacking essential territorial integrity to secure freedom, autonomy, sovereignty and independence, distinct societies and peoples become trampled by endless risk of genocide.   Not only physical genocide.  Also deliberate cultural genocide — as seen not only throughout the former Soviet Union.  As we see right now not only in Tibet.  That’s just how we humans do onto one another when our cultures get clashing.  Hell on earth.  That’s what human history totally is.  Our record how genocidal we get when clashing cultures.

The Palestinian nation must have a country.  Must be enabled to secure freedom, autonomy, sovereignty and independence.  It could not matter less whether Palestinians used to be Egyptians or Jordanians prior to 1967.  They are Palestinians today.  They must have a real country today.  A viable country.  A contiguous country.  A country to be proud of.  A country Palestinians will proudly work to build instead of always looking to destroy someone else’s.

It is no solution to carve one marginally viable country into two countries that are not.  Two countries bound to one another like dogs scrapping over one morsel insufficient for survival.  The country of Palestine should be larger than Israel — not yet smaller and less viable.  That’s why the solution has got to be regional.  That’s why everyone — not just Israel — has got to chip in.  Egypt can contribute a little from the northern Sinai.  Jordan can contribute a little from the east bank.  Syria can contribute that Shebaa Farm.

Palestine must be a viable, contiguous country.  It should be larger than Israel.  From Gaza eastward through the Sinai.  Across the Gulf.  Northward through the east bank and West Bank both.  All the way to that Shebaa Farm.  With ports opening in the Gulf and on the Mediterranean.  Both.

Why not?  These would only be territorial crumbs.  Territorial crumbs which, together, would add up to a viable, contiguous Palestine.  To a dignified future for Palestinians.  To a genuine prayer for world peace.  And only President Obama could begin to make it happen.  Were he only willing and able to use stronger language.  Words like these:

Come on, Muslim brothers.  Contribute.  Just some crumbs from your laden territorial tables.  The days of the Palestinian people foddering your cannons against Israel are over.  You threatened Palestinians to leave, to get out of your way when you came shooting to genocide Israel in 1948.  Yet Israel still remains.  You promised Palestinians they’d return to feasting on the corpse of Israel.  And not only haven’t you delivered to this day and age — you continue burying the Palestinian people, heaping perpetual shame on them as refugees.  As if Israel still standing were their fault instead of yours.  But it was your threats and broken promises, Muslim brothers, which broke and scattered Palestinians from their homes.  It is your duty, Muslim brothers, to contribute making the Palestinian people whole.

Contribute, Muslim brothers.  Don’t shrug off every responsibility onto Israel — there must be more honour.  Give up dreaming of genocide already.  You’ve been trying for 60 years.  Wake up.  If god were willing, you would long since have succeeded.  Help make the future better, please.  Not always worse.  Come on.  How hard can it be? Any future would be better.

Last modified on 2010-11-02 16:04:34 GMT. 9 comments