As I read this Op-Ed in today’s New York Times, the image of
a petulant child and an overindulgent parent at the supermarket came to mind.
The child demands candy and cookies.
The parent insists on one or the other. Vegetables do not enter the
conversation.
The article, by DavidMakovsky, accompanied by maps, advocated
peace based on land swaps – land swaps involving Israel’s settlements.
The suggestions left me a little surprised.
Let us not equivocate. Settlements and water resources are
Israel’s candy and cookies, and Israel is becoming a diabetic. The settlements are illegal, according to the 4th article of the Geneva Conventions, an
International Court of Justice decision, and common decency. In fact, they are
illegal according to Israeli law itself, and Israel has often promised to stop
building them.
Yet the op-ed and accompanying maps advocate an eventual
two-state solution in which Israel will annex certain settlements, thereby
becoming even stronger, and that the Palestinian state would have to absorb
some settlers, adding to its well-documented insecurity. In other words, Israel
will be rewarded for bad behavior with territory located directly above
precious aquifers – candy and cookies
- while Palestinians will have to deal with a zealous, uncompromising,
fundamentalist Jewish bloc. (Brussel sprouts?)
I think there’s a simple, just solution to the question of
settlements. The American media and government skirt this simple, just solution
with all the grace of a figure skating rhinoceros.
Why not abandon all the settlements?
Doing so would be difficult, but so was setting up a Jewish
state where none had existed for several thousand years. Moreover, it is the
only legal option. It’s as simple as that.
As for leaving some settlers in Palestine…Israel wants
recognition as Jewish state, fine. Allow Palestine to exist as Palestinian
state.
There are, of course, Arabs in Israel. Though they are
increasingly discriminated against, they serve in the Knesset, in the civil
service, even in the army. Grudgingly, slowly, reluctantly, they have
undertaken the task of adapting to a society that dispossessed their ancestors
and continues to make life as impossible as they can for cousins, uncles,
aunts, and grandparents living in the occupied territories.
Israeli settlers living in an eventual Palestine would never
do what Arabs living in Israel have undertaken. Israeli settlers endorse a
radical form of religiously fueled nationalism. To them, Palestine is not
Palestine - it is Israel. While Palestinians implicitly acknowledge the Jewish
state by trading with it, negotiating with it, and accepting the fact that it
will continue to exist, Israeli settlers have hijacked the peace process,
caused both sides too much misery, and compromised Jewish commitment to social
and cosmic justice.
Because of their nationalist, border-line messianic fervor,
settlers will not leave land on which they live. Nor will they submit to Palestinian
suzerainty. Just like the Irgun and the Stern Gang, just like Hamas and Al Aqsa,
they will be a violent force for chaos if left in Palestinian territory.
It is time for the settlements to be dismantled. It is time
for peace.
It is time for Israel to eat its vegetables.
No comments:
Post a Comment