This post is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.
When I suggest military intervention to enforce a two state solution to the Israel/Palestine crisis, I’m open to another arrangement – one state – Palestine/Israel.
Or a confederation. Let’s think outside the box.
Unity within diversity is glorious, a marvel really. Just imagine the positive energy waiting to be unleashed.
Once in place, American troops – with our multinational brethren, of course – can hold the fort while Jews and Palestinians weigh in on what happens next. With the intervention in place, cooler “unity” heads might prevail. At certain moments in history, people decide armaments and borders aren’t what they’re cracked up to be.
At any rate, Israel/Palestine is already an armed camp. Why not go prophet Isaiah and turn swords into plowshares?
Israel’s military-industrial complex is lucrative but it depends on warfare until the end of time. Do Jews want armaments to be Israel’s enduring contribution to humanity?
Israel’s security depends on the underdevelopment of the Middle East. Is enforcing its strategic edge Israel’s ticket to a future beyond a militarized ghetto-like existence?
The Palestinian Authority will never be lauded by its own people while dependent on American and Arab donors, ever increasing UN and NGO assistance, foreign security experts and military personnel – plus all the collaboration it can marshal with the Israeli government.
Even Israel’s crackdown on visitors and personnel of NGO’s and churches to the West Bank which began in the 1980s has come full circle. Israel’s decade-old Gaza blockade, with Egypt’s willing assistance, has become a death hold.
If you want to see the future of the West Bank look closely at Gaza – or Syria. Perhaps all of the above, with a pinch of Jordan and Lebanon added for spice.
The “no exit” of the present arrangement was reached decades ago. A definitive change is way past due.
It’s fascinating that American military intervention is off the table. I think of it as an inverse Orientalism, where ancient, hyper-modern Jews, are exempted from being disciplined for bad behavior.
If you think that only Arabs command the gaze of the West, think again. Orientalism has its Jewish variety, even when Jews are armed to the teeth.
At the World Economic Forum in Jordan, John Kerry’s economic plan for the West Bank sounded like a Better Business Bureau proposal for a fairly large town in the Midwest. But, if you listen carefully, discussions about Israel are only a little less patronizing. Israel is always assumed to need our undying support. What would Israel be without it?
Sure, American military intervention might fit this patronizing category. Yet the only hope to end Israel’s dependency is by telling Israel that the world has had enough–and then by doing something about it.
I am well aware that military interventions are risky. The fog of war prevails. But since the American military is already everywhere in the region and every nation in the Middle East is beholden to the United States in one way or another for their survival, is there really another way?
What happens when you declare yourself a Jew of Conscience and then are given a soapbox to preach to the choir? This kind of nonsensical column. Okay, yes. We do need to think outside the box. But no, this is not analysis, this is having too much time on your hand and assigning yourself the task of being so far outside the box that you are relevant only to the choir.
First Marc Ellis sang the praises of the truly toxic column by Joseph Massad. (When a Columbia University historian states lies as history, this is by definition something really wrong and certainly unworthy of praise.)
And now this military occupation of Israel being proposed. Maybe some day it will be appropriate to discuss a military occupation of Israel. One of my first questions to those who pose the one state solution is : Who will control Lydda Airport? So at least Marc Ellis has an answer: the multinational force. But there would have to be some real earthquakes between now and then. So great, now we’ll have a contingency plan ready after those earthquakes. Until then Marc Ellis has nothing to say of any use. Oh, yeah. the choir. They can sing, Amen.
(I suppose if you consider John Kerry to be useless, then useless columns like this make sense. Why be useless like John Kerry when you can be useless like Mark Ellis? But in fact yet another wasted soapbox.)
I’m open to another arrangement – one state – Palestine/Israel. Or a confederation. Let’s think outside the box.
There’s nothing new under the sun . . . The British spent 25 years pursuing the one state solution. Then the UN proposed a partition, while imposing a regional economic union, i.e. a confederation, between the Jewish and Arab states in Palestine. The plan specifically called for mandatory revenue sharing and re-distribution of revenue between the two states in order for the proposed Arab state to remain economically viable and pay for its essential public services.
IMO, two things need to happen:
1. The oppressive, colonialist, expansionist and supremacist “Jewish State” of Israel needs to:
– halt its ON-GOING occupation immediately and completely;
– withdraw to within its / Partition borders;
– enter into sincere negotiations for a just and mutually-beneficial peace; and
– work to transform itself from an oppressive and supremacist “Jewish State” into a secular, democratic and egalitarian Israeli state – a “culturally Jewish” state of and for all of its citizens, equally.
2. The Palestinians need to:
– abandon their desire for full RoR – perhaps limit it to those originally displaced plus one generation descended – and be more open to accepting payment in lieu;
– accept the existence of Israel as a secular, democratic, egalitarian and “culturally Jewish” state; and
– pledge to establish Palestine as a secular, democratic and egalitarian state – a “culturally Palestinian” state of and for all of its citizens, equally.
#1 is highly unlikely to happen. Hateful and immoral Zio-supremacists like hophmeee, miriam6eee and OlegReee; the entire Jewish-Israeli administration; and Zio-supremacist groups like AIPAC and their lickspittles – have made it quite clear that they value Jewish supremacism above all else.
#2 may happen, but it’s not entirely clear (to me, anyway) that that’s the case. I certainly hope it is.
1S1P1V.
I fervently wish the US would “get on board”– Mr. Obama can’t run again– what’s he got to lose?
There is, in reality, much for the US to gain. It is most definitely in our national security interests.
You may find this interesting:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-mexico-military-cooperation-to-crush-zapatistas-liberation-movement/5336250