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After 22 years it’s time to stop pretending about the peace process

When Israeli Prime Minster Netanyahu stated during his election campaign that there would be no two-state solution during his tenure, the US administration and world leaders were infuriated. The reason for the outrage is that Netanyahu finally exposed the Peace Process for what it is – a cover used by world statesmen to allow Israel to maintain its occupation of Palestine.

Everyone has been acting over the last twenty years as though there is a genuine peace process between the Palestinians and Israelis. Successive Israeli governments and the Palestinian Authority (PA) held myriad rounds of talks. Media outlets used to trumpet to each round of negotiations. Scores of meetings between civil society organizations, on of both sides of the 1949 armistice line, were held under the umbrella of this process. Innumerable organizations and projects were established and funded  to enhance relations between the two communities as they moved towards peace. All and sundry pretended that peace was on its way.

The PA President and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat from 1991 to 2004, followed by Mahmoud Abbas, the PA president since 2004, have both behaved as though there has been a peace process. For them, and for their circle of patronage, without the PA and all its different bodies there would be no international aid to sustain the pretence and no high sounding titles for those involved.  The PA, which is a self-administration, has been a fundamental element in providing the facade that is the ‘peace process’. PA and its patronages made the preservation of the crystallized peace process the raison d’être of its continuality.

Even Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel (2001–2006), pretended that he was for the process. He accepted the Road Map for Peace plan although only after making scores of changes. The plan was proposed by the Quartet on the Middle East –  the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.

Tony Blair, the Quartet’s Special Envoy, went along with all this and behaved as though the process was somehow real. But throughout the period of his ‘peacemaker’ role he has been able to carry on his own business as usual – adding to his considerable fortune.

Successive US administrations have brokered, mediated and funded projects to nurture an environment in which the so-called peace process could prosper. The Clinton Administration in 1999 for example requested $1.2 billion in additional U.S. aid to fund the deployment of Israel forces out of areas of the West Bank according the Wye River memorandum. This took place despite the fact that the Wye memorandum’s was not enforced at all.

Furthermore, in the midst of the Second Palestinian Intifada when Israel deployed its forces to Palestinian cities in 2002, George Tenet, the head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the U.S. Department of State feigned that the peace process was still alive by continuing the PA-Israel security coordination and drafting the Road Map.

Even when Netanyahu assumed premier office, everybody acted like there was a peace process. Though Netanyahu accelerated the settlement projects, and returned the negotiation process to its first square. Ironically, in 2012 after a long hiatus in negotiation, Netanyahu sent his representative, Yitzhak Molcho, to negotiate with Palestinian champion negotiator, Saeb Erekat, a framework for a peace process. As the peace process did not establish a negotiation framework 18 years ago! Same talks took place in late July 2015 in Amman Jordan between the Israeli Interior Minister, Silvan Shalom, and Palestinian senior negotiator, Erekat, to no avail.

When Hamas won the PA Legislative Council election in 2006 the international community led by U.S. and EU did not accept the election results. Endangering the peace process was cited as the reason for boycotting and any more of Hamas ruled territory.

In a 101-negotiation course, students learn that a negotiation should have a clear and defined framework. It should have a timetable marked with milestones. Its advancement is measured against clear previously-agreed parameters. And it goes almost without saying that the mediator should have leverage on both sides to induce them into making progress. The Middle East peace process did not fully meet these basic points so in reality there has been no process at all.

Paradoxically, after each round of talks, Israel furthered its interests by continuing to expand its colonial settlements and to deepen its security ties with PA security apparatuses to meet its own security needs. Meanwhile for ordinary Palestinians the quality of life deteriorates, their security worsens and land is rolled from beneath their feet.  Moreover, the US which played a key role in brokering the process was clearly tilting toward Israel, and deceiving the Palestinians.

The last forward step of the interim agreement was in 1998 through the implementation of the Hebron Protocol with the partial redeployment of Israeli forces in the city. This agreement really ended in 2000 with the inception of the Palestinian Second Intifada when many of its clauses which had been implemented were rolled back. It had in effect become a permanent framework for maintaining Israel’s occupation

The interim peace agreement was a partial transfer of civil administration duties to PA. Partial because for example; PA cannot issue a driving license without coordinating it with Israel Civil Administration (ICA) which is a branch of the Israeli army. Even the president of PA and senior officials need a travel permit from ICA. Israel uses the permit system as a tool to reward/ discipline those officials when they use high rhetoric against Israeli policies. Many times a PA premier convoy was stopped by the Israeli forces in areas consider by international law occupied territories, though the convoy usually coordinates its movement with Shabak, the Israel Security Agency.

All of them pretended that the Palestinian Authority rules the Palestinians when it is in actuality not very different from Vichy France. Meanwhile as Israel carried out scores of military operations in the West Bank and Gaza  thousands of Palestinians were killed, the peace process continued.

The only people who do not pretend are ordinary people from both communities, Palestinians and Israelis. Israelis who enjoy the fruits of the occupation tend not care about the existence or otherwise of the peace process. Over the last 20 years those living in Tel Aviv have been more interested in improving their living conditions. Israeli settlers in the West Bank are interested in ensuring greater government subsidies so they can live as though in Tel Aviv itself. Ordinary Palestinians who live in refugee camps, cities, towns and villages did not pretend, as for them the peace process has meant further entrenchment of the occupation. They did not pretend because pretense means that some of their numbers are killed in silence and those who stay alive must adapt to a life in limbo under occupation.

It is now time to declare the two-state solution well and truly dead.

I believe in a joint struggle led by the progressive Palestinian national forces, and other progressives in the world that will lead to dismantling the Israeli settler political polity over British Mandate Palestine in order to establish one democratic state for all of its citizens that integrates itself in the Arab region. This means for Palestinians a long-term struggle inside Palestine coupled with international support using BDS as the main instrument. In this process the Palestinian struggle is anchored to social and national justice and not only to international human rights standards.

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It is now time to declare the two-state solution well and truly dead. (?)

Well, maybe, but take things a step at a time. It is time for everyone, for President Obama first of all, to declare the “peace process” dead. That will open the way for other mechanisms to spring forth, such as coercion by UNSC or UNGA or EU.

Today, of course, there is a “one-state solution”, apartheid in nature and undemocratic, discriminatory, etc., etc. It must end. There are two principal ways it might end, both requiring great coercion exerted upon Israel. One is to let the 1SS become democratic and non-discriminatory. The other is some kind of 2SS. Israel would hate both of these.

Any acceptable 2SS will require Israel to give up territory it has long pretended belonged to it permanently. It will have to give up much or all of the OPTs. It will have to abandon (if not, indeed, dismantle) much or all of the settlements, including great cities and at least one university. And since the pretence of ownership of OPTs has gone on for 48 years, and the pretence of ownership of the pre-1967 Israeli territory is only 17 years longer (67 years), perhaps Israel should be required to give up so me of that territory as well.

Impossible? No. Unlikely? Yes, at present. But Israel is infuriating much of the world as hard as it can. It is running off any decent railroad tracks. It is repeating 1933 in some ways. so the world could, and I hope it will, become energized to coerce Israel.

And since the UNGA should not be deciding the question of 1SS v. 2SS, I respectfully suggest, as so often, that it coerce Israel by enforcing the laws of occupation — forcing a removal of all settlers and dismantling of wall and settlements. I think such a move would bring about a lot of peace-making on Israel’s part. But only after the coercion was seen to be “in earnest” and sufficiently strong in its enforcement-sanctions.

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seems like trying to settle the details of the divorce while one spouse is beating the other spouse to death
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at this time safety should come first
being the side with the power Israel is and has been safe for quite some time

Palestine needs to be made safe
under Israeli occ./rule Palestine has been in grave danger 24/7
plainly the safety efforts thus far have not been up to task
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the P.A. and the IDF should be exchanged with international forces
maybe from the U.N. or made up of the P5+1 …. anyway something better than what is
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we who claim to be trying to help can do better
it’s well past time to help Palestine with safety health and a hopeful future
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1s 2s can wait
quality of life health and safety can not
get Israel away from/off of Palestine
for both ‘their’ sakes
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G-d Bless
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Samer Jaber: …Netanyahu has finally exposed the Peace Process for what it is – a cover used by world statesmen to allow Israel to maintain its occupation of Palestine.

[…]It is now time to declare the two-state solution well and truly dead

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That’s a complete non sequitur. It conflates process with goal . If a process is fraudulent, it doesn’t necessarily mean the goal is as well.

The BDS movement, by the way, does not declare the two-state goal to be dead. What it does it initiate a new process with that goal as an enduring possibility.

Both Omar Barghouti and Ali Abunimah have stated that the overwhelming majority of Palestinian organizations backing BDS support the goal of two states .

See Abunimah’s article, “Why do Zionists falsely claim BDS movement opposes two-state solution?”

[…] any informed person would know that the vast majority of organizations represented on the Palestinian Boycott National Committee (BNC) – the movement’s steering group and collective leadership – explicitly support a two-state solution. You can see a list of organizations that currently make up the BNC.

Omar Barghouti makes this point in his book BDS: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights:

While individual BDS activists and advocates may support diverse political solutions, the BDS movement as such does not adopt any specific formula and steers away from the one-state-versus-two-states debate , focusing instead on universal rights and international law, which constitute the solid foundation of the Palestinian consensus around the campaign.

Incidentally, most networks, unions, and political parties in the BNC still advocate a two-state solution outside the realm of the BDS movement. (pages 51-52) [emphasis added]

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/why-do-zionists-falsely-claim-bds-movement-opposes-two-state-solution

Samer Jaber is absolutely right to declare the so-called peace process a sham. The process started in Oslo in 1993 was invalid from the start, because Palestine recognized the right of Israel to exist in peace and security, whereas Israel did not even recognize that there was a place called Palestine. Twenty two years have been wasted.

But I do not conclude from this that “it is now time to declare the two-state solution well and truly dead”. There has been one real achievement of the last 22 years, and that is the increasing recognition given internationally to the State of Palestine. Both Israel and Palestine are formally recognized by a majority of the world’s states, and both are included in the United Nations system. The world as a whole (excluding the US and a few other, mainly English-speaking, states) clearly understands the situation: the two states exist, but Palestine is occupied by Israel.

A two-state solution could be achieved if the Security Council were willing to recommend Palestine for full Membership, enforce international law, put a stop to settlement building, and demand an end to the Israeli occupation and blockade of Palestinian territory.

The American people have the power to prevent a US veto of such a resolution. Wake up, organize, educate, campaign, make clear to your politicians that your votes cannot be bought, and that you will never vote for any politician who accepts Zionist money.

The only way forward is to annexe and secure the area below highway 1 also known as Judah…hebron and Bethlehem must not be allowed to fall into Islamist hands,in response Israel can expect a full scale attack coming from this area by Islamist forces in the coming weeks.
These attacks will be spearheaded by foreign jihadi,s and local parties such as Hamas.a humanitarian corridor must be established to allow arab populations to relocate to the northern west bank.at the same time settlement populations must relocate to judah