Gershon Baskin, of the Israeli Green Party, writing in the JPost, understands that the Jewish state is at risk. As a Zionist, he wants to save the state of the Jewish people. Wherever you are on that (I’m a Jew who loves western freedom and rejects my alleged right of return to the land of the Israeli people with their Merkava tank), his analysis of the political reality is deadly. This type of statement should be on American op-ed pages, and in the New York Times analytical pieces (hat tip to Mark).
[Oh and before you read the Baskin, he’s coming to the US in April and is seeking to set up speaking gigs in a couple of places yet.] Baskin:
The so-called building freeze is no more than an exercise in self-delusion. The binational reality of life over the Green Line is apparent to anyone who crosses it…
The country has apparently made its choice – it prefers territories to peace. By our own hands, we are putting an end to the Zionist enterprise. A people that occupies another and denies it self-determination, liberation and freedom cannot be a free people in its lands.
THE AVERAGE Palestinian and more so the intellectuals are voicing a new understanding: There is no longer a chance to establish an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza with east Jerusalem as its capital. A new strategy is developing and Israelis should be worried about what this strategy will mean for them.
Phase one of the strategy will be what is already being termed a “white intifada.” This is a strategy for massive civil disobedience and a refusal to cooperate with the occupation. This strategy is based on non-violent confrontation with the occupation authorities. We have seen evidence of this in Bil’in, Ni’lin, Budrus, Masara and other places that are so far unfamiliar to Israeli consciousness. The Palestinian Authority is actively advancing the boycott of settlement products and will soon encourage Palestinian workers to stop working in settlements.
The challenge will be to stick to non-violence and to finetune their message. The political purpose of the struggle will be to give the two-state solution a final chance….Every use of force against Palestinian defiance will result in increasing support for them around the world and the continued rapid deterioration of support for Israel.
IF THE strategy of nonviolent confrontation fails, if the price is too high to pay or if, God forbid, it turns to violence, the Palestinian national movement will drop the strategy of seeking an independent state and will call openly for full democracy within Israel – one person, one vote. This strategy will eventually be embraced by the international community as the growing delegitimizing of Israel gains strength.
This year there were 40 university campuses around the world taking part in the “Israel Apartheid Week” campaign; next year it might be 400 or more. Once the Palestinians adopt the strategy of “democracy” as their solution, they cannot lose. It will only be a matter of time before the world treats Israel like it treated the last white government of South Africa.
Most of the world, and certainly the entire Arab world, has never really comprehended that the State of Israel is a nation-state of the Jewish people. Most of the world thinks of Jews as a religion and not a people. The opportunity to support a “democratic” solution to the conflict will be warmly embraced and supported because it makes more sense than partition, which gives the Palestinians only 22 percent of historic Palestine. Israel will lose the battle.
There is no longer a way to prevent the Palestinians from becoming a free people in their land. The only way to ensure that the Jewish people will remain a free people in our land is by making the decision to end its occupation over the Palestinian people.
