Only Haaretz seems to be discussing the existential crisis Israel is in today in a frank manner. Here is Avrum Burg, a former speaker of the Knesset (and the son of a rightwing religious leader), saying that the time of the two-state solution is coming to an end. Burg favors a federation of Palestinian and Jewish national entities–because Palestine is "too small" to contain two states. Share Jerusalem, give up the right of return. Fascinating.
Burg was speaking at a conference with a demographic theme. Called "Divided Families," it addressed the status of Palestinians married to Israeli Arabs who cannot become residents of Israel. The bureaucratic torment of such families is one reason that Saree Makdisi is for a single state in Israel/Palestine. He is the the author who was recently banned (then unbanned) at Washington book store Politics and Prose. Makdisi, a professor of English at UCLA, writes in Palestine Inside and Out of the Arab families broken so as to serve Israel's policy of preserving the Jewish state against the demographic threat through "the stated objective of… the separation of Jews from non-Jews." A former adviser to the Sharon government says, "If a Palestinian cannot come into Tel Aviv for work, he will look in Iraq, or Kuwait, or London…. there will be movement out of the area." Apartheid by another name.
My point is about the discourse. A Palestinian-American whose views were offensive to a Washington cultural institution and a Jewish former speaker of the Knesset addressing a conference in Jerusalem are making similar points about Israel's crisis and the way out. Can we have this discussion here? Not yet. Here, Jews for Obama insist that Obama is for an undivided Jerusalem forever and ever! As an optimist, I insist that younger progressives will let this cup of Koolaid pass.
(Thanks to Richard Witty for tipping me off to the Haaretz story.)
