AC writes:
Have you read this article on Netanyahu
in the Times of London? You don't have to read the whole thing; there's nothing
new in it if one has been paying attention. Just read the first and
eleventh paragraphs:
front-runner in Israel's general election, was eager to reassure a crowd of
Jewish settlers in the West Bank last Friday: victory this week for his
Likud party would mean no Palestinian state on their land….
Under Netanyahu's plan, Palestinians would not have a sovereign state but
self-governing, non-contiguous "population centres". He also proposes an
"economic peace" that would improve living conditions for Palestinians in
the hope that this would help moderate opinion to prevail.
You've got to respect this man for his honesty. It's
refreshing. Let's not kid ourselves, all he's doing is describing the
situation as it is and as it's been for decades: a one state solution
with ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, and
"buffer zones"; apartheid in the West Bank and until recently in Gaza;
and occupation, usurpation, and subjugation all over. Every single
indication is that this will not change. Israeli policies will continue. The Palestinians will
continue to resist. They might get insignificant concessions from
Israel, but they can't force it to accept a single state, short of a
F.W. De Klerk miracle-contrarian or a total military defeat, probably
in a regional war (unlikely, to say the least).
But they have justice
and demographics on their side. Once the usurpation and subjugation are
complete, the Palestinians will either accept their their lot as a fait
accompli, like the Native Americans, or, with the demographic reality
manifest, mount a revolutionary movement for their rights, like the
black Americans. One wishes that all the above were not true or
probable.
The two-state solution is a farce. A sheer, utter, and stillborn
farce. No one in Israel — and certainly none of its governments —
want or wanted a two-state solution with an Arab state on their land.
It's an affront to Zionism. They can't accept it. What the Israelis want are exotic little hamlets for the
Palestinians, where the simple Arabs can set up their souks and barter
and be content. Right. And all the blacks wanted were their
separate-but-equal ghettos. And all the Native Americans wanted were
their reservations.
The blacks got their inalienable rights recognized.The Native Americans? Well, they got casinos, right?
