Doc's Talk: The two-state solution asymmetry

Monday, November 17, 2008

The two-state solution asymmetry

Joseph Puder

The prospects of an Israeli-Palestinian peace now or in the foreseeable future are non-existent.

The Two-State solution for Israel and Palestine heralded by Israel (Kadima's Olmert and Livni) and western leaders including President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condi Rice is a non-starter. There is a fundamental asymmetry between how Israelis see the two-state solution and the way the Palestinians understand it. The asymmetry lies not in the usual measurements of Israel's military and economic strength and the weakness of the Palestinians in these categories. While Israel is perceived as the stronger party in this confrontation, it is the Arab-Palestinians who possess the strength that comes from resolve, and belief in the justness of their struggle.

Whereas the Israelis have already given up on Judea and Samaria (Gaza was given away unilaterally, without reciprocity on the part of the Palestinians) with the exception of the Jewish residents of these areas, the Palestinians, including their so-called "moderate" leaders Arafat (until 2004) and Abbas (currently) are fighting not merely for the West Bank but for Israel within the Green Line. They seek possession of Haifa and Jaffa, Tel Aviv and Netanya.

While Israeli Jews are ready to sacrifice portions of historical/biblical Israel for a peace agreement with the Palestinians, the Arab-Palestinians of 2008 refuse to accept a Jewish state in Palestine, regardless of size, just as they rejected the 1937 Peel Commission or the 1947 U.N.. Partition Plan. This kind of psychological asymmetry is unbridgeable.

The Arab-Palestinians are fighting for what they perceive is their rightful claim to all of historic Palestine, while most Israeli Jews would settle for security in only a portion of their homeland. The Arab-Palestinians are on the offensive while the Israeli Jews are in a state of denial and withdrawal - a condition that permeates and causes psychological weakness.

In the minds of the international community, and among many Israelis as well, it is accepted that the Arab-Palestinians have the right to live anywhere in historic Palestine. For Israeli Jews however, there are illegitimate areas of residence including, of course, Judea and Samaria. Arabs can live in Haifa and Tel Aviv but it is "illegal" for Jews to live in Kedumim or Shilo. Another asymmetry that is unacceptable.

The Oslo Accords divested Israel of an equal and just claim to Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and reinforced the Arab-Palestinian perception that Israeli Jews care only for their comfort and security. Every red-line Israel established with the Arab-Palestinians has been removed thereby strengthening Palestinian resolve to fight for all of what is today Israel.

It is now clear to most Israelis - if not to Shimon Peres- (Israel's president) the Oslo Accord architect and his acolytes, that Arafat made a mockery of Oslo. Arafat regarded the Oslo Accords merely as a Trojan horse. Faisal Husseini, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Jerusalem representative, framed the Accords as: "Oslo was our Trojan horse through which we entered Palestine, and in September 2000, we exited from the horse's belly."

In July 2000 President Clinton, Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Yasir Arafat met at Camp David. With no intention of reaching a final settlement with Israel, Arafat ordered Marwan Barghouti to start a war against Israel in September 2000. Arafat's successor, Mahmoud Abbas, who has far less status among Palestinians and less charisma, cannot and will not accept a Jewish State anywhere in historic Palestine.

Peres, Olmert, and Israel's leftist elite have refused to recognize the disastrous consequences of Oslo. Their delusional thinking of the efficacy of a Two-State solution still prevails. The political dialogue is defeatist and detached from the reality at hand: Palestinian refusal to recognize the Jewish State and an amended Arabic version of the Palestinian Covenant – a provision of the Oslo Accords, and frankly, the only one that matters.

Understandably, Israeli leaders must provide their citizenry with hope and assure them that there is "light at the end of the tunnel.." Thus, to prevent emigration and the abandonment of the Zionist dream, they have made the likes of Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas out to be "peacemakers" and genuine partners in the negotiations for a two-state solution. Regrettably, it deceives the electorate with false and delusional hope.

When Ehud Olmert, the disgraced but still reigning prime minister of Israel forfeits the historical heartland of the Jewish People without demanding reciprocity from the Arab-Palestinians, and when he ignores Abbas' unwillingness to recognize the Jewish State, it speaks volumes about the defeatism of Israel's political elites.

Speaking at Mt. Herzl National Cemetery during the 13th commemoration of the tragic assassination of the late Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin, Olmert stated, "If we want to keep Israel Jewish and democratic, we need to give up parts of the homeland we have dreamed about for generations and mentioned in our prayers, even Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem, and to return to a 1967 Israel with certain amendments." No mention in Olmert's speech of Jewish rights to the land or Israel's demands that the Palestinians end incitement and hate against the Jewish State, eradicate terrorism, and recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

A Two-State solution will require a balancing act. Just as the Palestinians seek to control all of Palestine, Israel must demand the right of Jews to settle in Judea and Samaria. This attitude and not defeatist speeches like Olmert's, will ultimately convince the Palestinians that their demand for Haifa is balanced by Israel's claim to Nablus. Eventually the Palestinians will have to give up claims to Haifa just as Israel has been ready to part with Hebron and Nablus. In the final analysis a Two-State solution is only possible between Jordan and Israel, not with Abbas or Hamas.

Guest comments: Even before we get to the accurate analysis of Joseph Puder, it is important to point out that the charter of the Palestinian Authority still calls for the destruction of Israel. Israel must demand that the charter be amended before any negotiations proceed. Aggie
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Israeli leaders have misled their fellow citizens with false and delusional outcomes. unfortunately,american leaders have also been co-conspirators-painting a picture lacking paint and canvas-swearing the emperor is splendidly attired. the lives of our people depend on clear evaluation of what is,as depressing and difficult as
it may be. you don't facilitate your potential killer to live in the house next to you-distance still counts for something . taking a calculated risk is one thing-failure to calculate is for the criminally insane

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: This is a very accurate analysis. Furthermore, though, we have to remember that the Palestinian-Israeli "peace" talks are just one of the many that are going on the in area. While trying to figure out how to work with the Palestinians and Hamas, Israel also has to keep in mind the threats from Syria, Hizbullah and Iran. These various threats are spelled out in a analysis by Amos Gilad at theJerusalem Center for Public Affairs website.; 11:46 AM
GS Don Morris, Ph.D./Chana Givon said...: I appreciate your comment and suggest my readers move to your suggestion immediately-thank you-doc; 3:59 PM

The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

Bedouins:

Bedouins are nomadic Muslims who were in Israel when modern borders were set in place and are now considered Israeli citizens. They are not required to draft but a growing number choose to enlist. In 2012, there were over 1,400 Bedouin Muslim soldiers doing regular IDF service and almost 1,500 in the reserves.

Read more:http://www.idfblog.com/2014/02/27/truth-idf-numbers-pictures/#more-34027

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.
More...

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’
-- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.
Clare M. Lopez

Who is being discriminated-facts tell the truth

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,409 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-bias offenses showed:

65.4 percent were anti-Jewish.
13.2 percent were anti-Islamic.
9.5 percent were anti-other religion, i.e., those not specified.
4.3 percent were anti-Catholic.
3.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
3.3 percent were anti-Protestant.
0.5 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010/narratives/hate-crime-2010-incidents-and-offenses.

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror Yemini
In 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").
Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state.
Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."
Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

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