Once again, the most interesting conversations about Israel/Palestine are happening outside the U.S. mainstream. Following on Noam Sheizaf’s historic piece on rightwing Israelis talking about a one-state solution, Jared Malsin interviews him for Palestine Note.
And we see two large insights here: the rightwingers have greater understanding about the Palestinian condition than even liberal Americans do; and as the Palestinian solidarity movement does, the rightwingers see little difference between the expansion/setlement of 1948 (valorized by liberal Zionists) and that of 1967, except that ’48 was a whole lot worse:
I’m not interested in their motives. I think what’s new is that they are saying that there are Palestinians and the problem of their rights reflects on the entire Jewish public, on Israel, on the legitimacy of the Israeli project. And many of them spoke in human rights terms. You can be cynical and say that they are only saying this because they are scared for their homes, and it might be true. But it’s still something new, and it’s worth reporting….
I think in a way we should listen to the way these people read the reality. You don’t have to subscribe to their solutions, [but they are] speaking about a land in which the two populations are totally mixed, linked to each other, have a common history by now, even though it’s a pretty awful one, and reading it as one territorial unit, and trying to rethink issues, and saying that in a sense the colonialist project after ‘67 was far easier on the Palestinians than the one around ’48. This is pretty revolutionary for Israelis to hear, and I think interesting for people anywhere to hear….
Very few Israelis would recognize anything having to do with the Nakba. You know Israel is passing laws that will prohibit even Palestinians from mentioning it. So now how strange is it that while the Israeli center, the political center, is passing these laws against mentioning the Nakba, and settlers are discussing it openly, even if they do it for their own purposes. It raises a lot of questions for the Israeli left, about the issues it’s been trying to avoid.
And I think the claim, for Israelis, that the settlers will be sacrificed, to cut a deal with the Palestinian leadership and avoid the issues of 48, is an interesting thought.
JM: You mean, that there’s something not right about that?
NS: Yes, of course. They’re asking, “what’s the difference between a settlement and a settlement west of the Green Line that was established just 20 years earlier?”
JM: And you’re saying that in a way these right wing people are bringing these questions into the political mainstream?
NS: I’m not sure the mainstream is ready to receive them right now, but they are raising them.
