[AS
ALWAYS
PLEASE GO TO THE LINK
TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN
FULL: HELP SHAPE
ALGORITHMS (and
conversations) THAT EMPOWER
DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE &
PEACE... and hopefully Palestine] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/17/beware-creative-alternatives.html
It's easy to understand why so many
people are giving up on negotiations and a two-state solution, and
instead are looking for “creative alternatives.” Israeli-Palestinian
talks are at an impasse. The two sides haven't seemed this far apart
since the second intifada. The number of settlers and settlements
continues to baloon relentlessly. Israel's
government appears united behind recalcitrant policies, while the
Palestinians appear hopelessly divided.
But
any purported “creative alternatives” to a negotiated two-state
solution need to be subjected to a simple litmus test before they can be
taken seriously. They have to be plausibly acceptable to all parties
that would need to agree in order for them to be realized. If any such
“alternatives” are by definition unacceptable to any of the parties,
then they're not serious ideas. In most cases, they quickly reveal
themselves to be thinly disguised versions of long-standing maximalist
fantasies.
 |
| A man places a sticker on a car in Jerusalem. (Awad Awad / AFP / Getty Images) |
Take, for instance, the perennial
fantasy on the pro-Israeli right that “Jordan is Palestine” or that
Egypt can somehow be induced to take responsibility for Gaza.
Palestinians, Jordanians and Egyptians all categorically reject any such
idea, so it can't happen.
Similarly,
in pro-Palestinian circles the idea of a South Africa-style “one-state”
solution of a single entity for all Israelis and Palestinians,
including refugees, based on "one-person one-vote," is a total
nonstarter for the overwhelming majority of Israelis. So that, too,
simply won't happen.
Some
of the most dangerous “creative alternatives” are being increasingly
floated on the pro-Israeli right, especially the idea of a greater
Israel including the occupied territories but without full or equal
citizenship, or voting rights, for its Palestinian population. In other
words, formalized, permanent apartheid...READ MORE
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