A remarkably realist/detached Tom Friedman suggests that John Kerry’s mission is a “fantasy.” The Times columnist places chief responsibility for the likely failure on the more powerful party to the talks, Israel, saying that Netanyahu lacks the political ability to forge a new, centrist governing coalition to back up Kerry’s ideas, while the Palestinians lack the ability to mount another intifada to force Israel to withdraw.
(So the intifada is suddenly resistance to occupation. Palestinians said as much a long time ago.)
Friedman holds a candle for two states, but if Kerry fails, the secretary of state must “declare the end of the negotiated two-state solution” and then? Israel will face 3 choices, do nothing and face global isolation, withdraw unilaterally (which would also mean global isolation), or “design a new framework of one-state-for-two-people[s].”
Friedman excerpt:
[H]as Israel become so much more powerful than its neighbors that a symmetrical negotiation is impossible, especially when the Palestinians do not seem willing or able to mount another intifada that might force Israel to withdraw? Has the neighborhood around Israel become so much more unstable that any Israeli withdrawal from anywhere is unthinkable? Has the number of Israeli Jews now living in East Jerusalem and the West Bank become so much larger — more than 540,000 — that they are immovable? And has the Palestinian rhetoric on the right of return become so deeply embedded in Palestinian politics? So when you add them all up, it becomes a fantasy to expect any Israeli or Palestinian leader to have the strength to make the huge concessions needed for a two-state solution?..
If and when [these talks fail], Israel, which controls the land, would have to either implement a unilateral withdrawal, live with the morally corrosive and globally isolating implications of a permanent West Bank occupation or design a new framework of one-state-for-two-people.
So that’s where we are: Israelis and Palestinians need to understand that Kerry’s mission is the last train to a negotiated two-state solution. The next train is the one coming at them.
This column reminds me of Obama’s speech in Jerusalem last March. Here’s the deal, take it or we’re done. Tom Friedman is getting ready to wash his hands of the conflict. I can write that column for him: I was a Zionist when I was a kid, I believed in the miracle. After all, I grew up right outside the town that was declared the capital of US anti-Semitism. Now that miracle has been transformed– it’s apartheid, the corruption of the US government by the Israel lobby, and an albatross on the U.S. national interest. And we’re doing fine in the U.S.; at the last State of the Union speech, most of the Supreme Court Justices in attendance were Jewish. Basta!
Ha’aretz article on Friedman piece above leads with the fact that Friedman says Kerry’s plan includes part of East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. This is a surprise considering most of the leaked reports. I personally do not think Friedman is all that reliable in these kind of reports. In my view he has grown too fat and lazy, and knows few will call him on errors.
What do you think Annie?
he must have retired both the camp david crystal ball and his iraq crystal ball.. round and round we go
The Palestinians once again get off scot-free. The distance to a peace deal can be narrow, and it is in the hands of the Palestinians, not Israel to take the steps required to bridge the gap. And yet Friedman, Weiss and others have zero demands and expectations from the Palestinians. Having such low expectations is actually quite racist if you think about it, as if they, the Palestinians, are either not capable of making life altering decisions for themselves or should not be held responsible for decisions they do make.
This what the Palestinians need to agree to:
1) West Jerusalem and the Old City with some of the neighborhoods around the Old City remain united. Other East Jerusalem neighborhoods fall under Palestinian control.
2) Palestinians recognize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people and recognize the 3,500 year connection Jews have to Jerusalem.
3)The Palestinians setup shop in Abu-Dis, just a short distance from the Old City.
4) Special access (tunnels, underground trains) are build from Abu-Dis giving access near to the Temple Mount, on certain days and times.
5) Palestinian refugees can return to Palestinian controlled areas in Gaza and Judea and Samaria, or be compensated and remain where they are.
6) The major settlement blocks in Judea and Samaria are annexed by Israel.
7) Water sharing arrangements
8) Demilitarized Palestinian controlled areas.
9) Israeli army in strategic positions in the Jordan Valley and areas on the hills overlooking the valley.
10) Palestinians agree end-of-conflict.
11) Special security arrangements in strategic areas, like the airport.
12) Train from Gaza to Palestinian controlled areas in Judea and Samaria.
13) Land swaps
Go through the list and you will soon realize that the ball is in the hands of the Palestinians. They need to know this is no uncertain terms. They are doable. Palestinians need to climb down from their tree. They will not control the Temple Mount. Special access yes. Control, never and this is THE KEY to peace.
If the report about East Jerusalem is correct , which I very much doubt, then Nietanhayu had better get some heavy security and stop meeting with illegal settlers or their friends.
Rabin 2 anyone.
There is also the possibility that this is just a re hash of the Abu Dis scam of some 15 years ago where Israel was claiming they were going to give sovereignty to Palestinians over East Jerusalem.
It turned out they were referring to Abu Dis,(or was that Al Quds) as the new Capital of Palestine.
” And we’re doing fine in the U.S.; at the last State of the Union speech, most of the Supreme Court Justices in attendance were Jewish. ”
I truly cannot understand why you keep repeating this as if Jews never attained positions of power in previous Western societies. I agree; America is great, but Jews have “made it” before.