Simple ideas the best
HAVIV RETTIG GUR
SOMETIMES it looks as though too much is invested in the peace process for anyone to notice that, as of this writing, it doesn’t exist. For the record: I believe there should be a Palestinian state, and it should be free, happy and sovereign.
A reminder: The Palestinian Authority (PA) has little authority over Palestinians, every Israeli withdrawal has been followed by attacks, PA President Mahmoud Abbas won’t meet Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu, Hamas still controls Gaza, Hezbollah still maintains a non-state army on the northern border, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, chief funder of both Hamas and Hezbollah, still rules in Teheran.
So why do diplomats continue to insist that the weaving of diplomatic fantasies is the same as negotiating peace?
The latest example: European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana last week presented an idea in London so ludicrous, that it could only be spoken by someone who won’t be around to pick up the pieces.
The media mostly reported Solana’s suggestion as a call on the international community to recognise Palestinian statehood immediately. This idea actually might have merit. Unfortunately, that’s not what he suggested.
Solana actually advocated that the UN Security Council (UNSC) impose an agreement on the parties, complete with borders, refugees, control over Jerusalem and security arrangements.
It’s difficult to know where to begin. How do you force Israel to take in Arab refugees? How do you force the Palestinians to comply if the UNSC concludes, for example, that Israel can keep the major settlement blocs adjacent to the Green Line because six per cent of the West Bank would solve 90 per cent of the settlements issue?
And who steps in if the Israeli withdrawal turns into a fiasco?
Solana’s idea isn’t an idea at all, just a diplomat’s confused, resentful yearning for a world that operates according to the rules of diplomacy.
The real tragedy is that the media circus surrounding Solana drowned out the feeble coverage of a serious idea put forward by a serious player.
At the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado, Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayad told his American audience that Jews who stayed in the Palestinian state would be protected and free citizens of that state.
It was July 4, and Fayad was asked by former CIA director James Woolsey why Jews couldn’t enjoy civil rights as a minority in Palestine — like the Arabs in Israel.
Fayad responded: “The kind of state that we want to have, that we aspire to have, is one that would definitely espouse high values of tolerance, coexistence, mutual respect and deference to all cultures, religions … No discrimination whatsoever, on any basis whatsoever. Jews … will enjoy those rights and certainly will not enjoy any less rights than Israeli Arabs enjoy now in the State of Israel.”
The chief obstacle to an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank is as simple to explain as it is difficult to fix: Israelis don’t trust Palestinian intentions. An unparalleled campaign of suicide bombings was the response to Camp David in 2000, and the rise of Hamas to the 2005 Gaza withdrawal. Polls now show the majority of Israelis believe Palestinians are either unwilling or unable to keep their side of any bargain.
If this perception is correct, then West Bank rockets will be hitting Israel’s central population centres, Jewish Jerusalem and the international airport. Only the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) prevents that from happening today, just like it was the IDF — not Yasser Arafat or the PA — who stopped the suicide bombing campaign that killed 1000 Israelis a few short years ago.
Anyone wishing to make peace between Israelis and Palestinians must bridge this credibility gap. Israelis will give up the military hold on Palestinian society only if they are convinced it is safe to do so. It’s as simple as that.
If Fayad was honest in his answer, if the Palestinians are willing to accept a Jewish presence in Judea as legitimate so long as it doesn’t deny them their own national sovereignty, this could be the start of an honest, respectful and, above all, credible dialogue.
Here’s hoping.
Haviv Rettig Gur is the Jewish World correspondent for The Jerusalem Post.
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