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by Peter A. Belmont / 2010-03-25
© 2010 Peter Belmont
Everyone talks about Israeli/Palestinian peace, even J-Street (and even AIPAC !). No one talks about the essential problems that stand in the way of peace.
What are those problems? They are, respectively, the minor and the major problems.
The minor problems are the devil-in-the-detail questions like equitable sharing of water resources, territorial boundaries, sharing Jerusalem, and return of some or all refugees to their original homes (i.e., the territory of pre-1967 Israel where most Gazans and many Palestinians now living as refugees in Lebanon and the West Bank—or their parents or grand-parents—came from), to name just a few.
There is only one major problem: Israeli triumphalism and territorial expansionism.
In the 43 years since 1967, Israel’s settler invasion has been expanding its usurpations into the West Bank and Gaza (and the Golan Heights) without significant difficulty, as if “of right.” Although Israel pulled its settlers and its army outside the territory of Gaza (while continuing to maintain a near-genocidal blockade on Gaza, recall), it has insisted on its sovereignty and ownership (via so-called governmental acts of “annexation”) of parts of occupied territory adjacent to the old walled city of Jerusalem and the entire Golan Heights just as if these so-called “annexations” were “of right” and, moreover, just as if they were legally effective or significant. (At international law and in the view of the UNSC, they are neither.)
These “annexations” have not convinced the international community of nations and have angered the people of the world, and to that extent have not been “effective.”
But the people they were designed to convince were convinced.
The Israelis, and especially the settlers, have been convinced that Israel is sovereign in the Golan and in “East Jerusalem” and as they continue to build new housing for Israelis (for Israeli Jews only, as far as I know)[1] in occupied territories (and especially in “annexed” parts thereof), the settler community becomes ever more triumphal.
”It is ours,” they cry, “and we will keep it forever!” And since 1967 Israeli governments have been saying—and Israeli people have been believing—that “Jerusalem is the undivided capital of Israel now and forever.” By this they mean that the combined territories of pre-1967 (internationally recognized) Israeli Jerusalem and post-1967 occupied and “annexed” Jerusalem are never to be separated, never to be split off for a capital of a Palestinian state.
Now it has been clear for a long time that the Palestinians have nothing with which to bargain for the return of the occupied territories which is valuable enough to Israel to be worth reversing this triumphal and expansive land-grab of 43 years (two-thirds the life-time of the State of Israel, which, itself, is only 62 years old.)
And the Palestinians, who lost 78% of Palestine to Israeli armed forces in 1948, are not willing to lose any more. That is why there has been no peace in 43 years.[2]
In 1988, the Palestinians offered to return to the 1967 borders (thus painfully accepting the losses of 1948) when the PLO recognized Israel. Israel wasn’t having any. It, like Oliver, wanted “more.” The Arab states, under the Saudi Peace Plan, offered peace and recognition of Israel by all Arab states including the yet-to-be re-born Palestine upon a return by Israel to the 1967 borders. Israel showed no interest. Israel has been on a triumphant roll. She is like a gambler who keeps doubling her bets and has not lost yet. She has shown no interest in peace because no-one has offered her anything she wanted more than she wants the feeling of triumph and the illusion of sovereignty to the occupied lands.
So, if there is to be a peace, how can it happen?
Clearly, one pre-requisite of peace is that Israel’s claim to sovereignty and ownership of the occupied territories must be shown to be a dream, an un-reality. The Israelis do not need to be defeated militarily as a nation, they do not need to be delegitimized as a nation, but they do need to be shown—for sure and beyond any lingering doubt—that their territorial ambitions may be realized only by a peace treaty with the Palestinians, and not by such unilateral actions as “annexations” and the colonial settlement of territories held in what the law calls “belligerent occupation.”
Note I said “shown”. I did not say “told”.
They’ve already been “told.” The UNGA and UNSC have told them, The world’s highest court, the International Court of Justice has told them. The US, somewhat ambiguously and insincerely, has told them—not to remove all the settlers but merely, and far less shockingly—not to build new housing in occupied territory.
In one ear and out the other. Israel insulted the US several times recently by announcing new settlement building when the US had clearly “told” him that Israel must stop. Mere “telling” doesn’t work with these folks.
Israel doesn’t care what people say. Words are cheap. Israel only cares what people do. If the US ever decides to require Israel to abandon the settlements, it will have to decide also to “do” something forceful to back up its demand. Words alone are not enough.
The great powers (evidently not including the Palestinians or the Arab states) must “show” Israel that it is not sovereign and not owner of the occupied territories. They must accomplish this “showing” by taking away the apparent incidents of Israeli sovereignty and ownership. These “incidents” are , primarily, the settlements (and settlers) and the wall.
Even if the occupation continues, the great powers (US and EU to start with, Russia and China added if possible) must force Israel to remove all the settlers and to pull down the separation wall. The settlement buildings and highways must—as the Palestinians may decide—either be pulled down and the rubble removed (which is the proper handing of the physical manifestation of the wall) or be given to the Palestinians in perpetuity for their own use.
The Israelis must be told so clearly that even they can understand that although they may seek to negotiate—as part of a peace treaty with the Palestinians—a right to return Israeli citizens into the territories they now occupy, they do not have now and will never have in future a right to insert Israeli citizens as settlers into these territories until there is a peace treaty which allows it.
What the US or EU or UN must “do” is the subject of another essay. It is sufficient for this essay to say, as I have said, that mere words are not and will never be enough.
It is not clear that the US or EU or UN realize this. Similarly, it is far from clear that any of these care enough about human rights or peace to do what it takes. In particular, neither the US nor the EU has shown a real desire to tackle this issue. Rather they have approached it like something they “want” in the manner of a dinner who after a very large and satisfying dinner says that he “wants” a too-calorific dessert. The anticipated cost of that dessert, whether in calories or in money or in indigestion, makes him half-hearted at best in declaring what he “wants.”
If the US wants peace, it will have to want it a good deal more than it has so far shown.
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[1] Israel practices discrimination based on religion-based nationality rather than on “race”. Israeli citizens who are Jews enjoy many privileges which non-Jewish Israelis do not. Some people have said that Zionism is a racist ideology. Not so, say Israelis—it is a national-religious-based ideology the goal of which is to provide ‘a national home for the Jewish people.’
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[2] The Palestinians have always had the choice to say, “To Hell with it. Let’s get over it. Let’s get a life. We give up. Palestine is dead. We quit.” Israel has applied fierce pressure to make them say exactly that. So far they have resisted. So far they have exercised “sumud”, steadfastness.
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