Enormous. Former Speaker of the Knesset Avraham Burg has come out of the colonialism closet and endorsed one democratic state from the river to the sea if Israel fails to take real steps toward two states, which of course, it will not.
This is barely a week after Nicholas Kristof said similar things in the New York Times. If only Thomas Friedman or the NYT’s editorial page had the courage/honesty to write this. From Haaretz:
If the idea of realizing this aspiration [of democracy] in the framework of a democratic Palestinian state does not bear fruit, the Palestinians must embark on a worldwide initiative demanding that they be allowed to vote for the Knesset. Yes, Israel’s parliament.
This initiative must be accompanied by a non-violent civil rebellion. It will attract a great deal of attention and will cast the spotlight on the paradox of Israeli hypocrisy which claims that we are the only democracy in the Middle East but forgets to point out that we are a democracy for Jews alone. Because we are also the only colonialist conqueror that is left in the Western world….
Anyone who is not prepared to do anything to promote two states today – and who is not prepared to pay the price by evacuating the settlements – will, in the end, have to concede all of the state of Israel. That is to say, the Jewish and not so democratic state will be renounced in favor of a legitimate democratic process in which everyone between the Jordan River and the sea has one basic right – the human and civic equality to elect and to be elected. They will have at least the very same rights that are enjoyed by Obama and his new friend who knows just how to manipulate him, Netanyahu.
Wow. That is huge.
I was JUST THINKING about Burg, wondering when he would write this essay. Even when the “two state solution” was still “possible” – Burg was always a voice for true autonomy and self determination for Palestinians and was quick to reject the idea of Palestinian “rejectionism” at Oslo and Camp David.
Lot of respect for Burg – I think he actually lives in Ramallah, so he walks it like he talks it
i heard him speak at the local jewish community center a few years ago. he said at that time he thought one state was optimum. my friends and i cheered but otherwise there was stony silence when he said this.
he’s a brave beautiful brilliant man.
You and I must be reading different articles.
I like Burg’s writing very much, and this article is no exception, but I don’t read it as coming out of the colonialism closet and endorsing one democratic state from the river to the sea if Israel fails to take real steps toward two states, which of course, it will not… etc, etc.
I think he is simply reiterating the thrust of what he said in his breakthrough article of 2003 – the one about Zionism collapsing like a cheap Jerusalem wedding hall. If I recall correctly, what he said then was that Zionists want three things – Greater Israel, Jewishness, and democracy – but they can have only two, and they need to make a decision. If they can’t give up Greater Israel, then they can keep Hebron, but cease to be a Jewish-majority state. If their Jewish majority matters most, then evacuate the settlements. Because Zionism can’t have all it wants, due to the fact that other people live there too.
It seems to me he is reiterating the same points here, with practical ideas about what Palestinians can do to force the issue.
What he’s saying is common sense, and it certainly was groundbreaking in 2003 to hear such sentiments coming from the former speaker of the Knesset. But he’s hardly coming out of the closet in making these points now, and I don’t see him endorsing one state here. I see him repeating his call for Zionist Israelis to face reality and make up their minds.
I don’t think it does us any good to proclaim hyperbolic breakthroughs. We can have non-existent victory after non-existent victory, time after time, and the Palestinians will still be no better off.
Edited to add: This is the 2003 article with collapsing wedding hall metaphor – A Failed Israeli Society Collapses While Its Leaders Remain Silent, http://www.forward.com/articles/7994/